Fat Feet Shoes

I swear, if I was a draft horse farrier that's what I'd call my business.  Fat Feet Shoes.  I'd have a big horse trailer full of shoeing stuff.  And a random dog getting into my stuff.

I would also have a Chief Horse Holder.

I would probably not be able to make shoes like this though because I'd end up hammering my hand.

See how glowing hot they are?  I wish the red would have shown up better in the photos.  This was my first experience with hot shoeing.  I was way impressed.  Tommy's shoe started out as a big metal bar.

Mark turned them into this:

Notice the size?  That's not my 10 year old son holding the shoe.  Yea, those fit big big boys!

Here's Tommy wearing his custom shoe.  Sorry for the off center picture.  I was holding his hoof and taking photos at the same time.  You can see the packing in the hole on the left.  It's blending in to the hoof, so a bit difficult to see.

Then he put on the hospital plate.  It's a big piece of aluminum.

Four bolts hold it in place.  I unbolt three of them, and the fourth acts as a hinge.

Here's the finished shoe, minus the hospital plate.  You can see the opening between the bar and the hoof in these photos.  Previously his leather pad was between the hoof and the shoe, so there were no gaps.

In this photo you can see the last remnant of the original hole.  It's behind the last nail almost to the rear corner of his hoof.  So if anyone is paying attention to the timeframe that was a growth period of 7 1/2 months.  I hope that I'm able to successfully manage this canker site with the hospital plate on; because if I'm not then Dr. A is going to drill through the top of the hoof so I can medicate down instead of up.  That means all things being equal I'll have another 7 1/2 months before that hole is fully grown out.

Then it was time to inject the copper silicone into the space between the hoof and the plate.  I may be calling that by the incorrect name.  I know it was blue because it had copper in it.  This will help keep any thrush from infecting the frog area, and will keep out mud and dirt.

Then he used a big torch to heat up the plate to help the silicone set up quicker. 

Once it firmed up, he opened up the plate to remove the packing from the hole.  The blue is now soft, but firmly in place.  The packing was there to keep the silicone from filling in the hole.

Here's the finished product!  

Here's hoping that this works.  I'm committed to giving it a try.  I'd like to be able to keep Tommy at home this winter and save on the boarding bills, and I know Tommy would like to be able to be outside in the mud where he's happiest.

It's not an Abscess....

Hello Handsome.  

You look a little worried.  What's behind you?

Hmmmm.  What is that green thing?

Is that steam rising out of it?  It IS!  It's liquid nitrogen my dear, and your hoof is about to be very, very, verrry cold!

Here comes Dr. A with a little injection.  Oh, who am I kidding.  It's a BIG injection; and you get one on both sides of your leg.

Now that you're all numbed up it's time to start cutting out the Canker.

I'm jealous.

I wish I had a vet tech at home to hold the light for me.

See how handy it is?  The Canker is all cleared out now.

Time to put the medicine in the hole.  It's a mixture of two things, whose names are escaping me at the moment.  I know the little white pills were the same things we smashed up and mixed up for the abscess back in the spring.  I hope it works this time too.

All done!  See, that wasn't so bad.

And don't we have a great vet and farrier?  Dr. A and Mark never whine about having their pictures taken, or roll their eyes, or make little snide comments.  And they hold the hoof and pose when needed.  Thanks guys; you're the best!

It's X-Ray Tuesday!

It was X-Ray Tuesday this week.  Tommy's getting to be an old pro at this.  He does such a good job.  He steps right on the blocks.  First one foot...

Then the other...

Easy peasy!  He's got one shoe off and one shoe on.  Then it was time to set up the machine:

Then we did five xrays: front, back, sides, and underneath.

I don't have copies of these x-rays, but guess what they showed?  Ringbone, sidebone, and arthritis?  Good guess!  Guess what they didn't show??  Bone infection!   YEAH!  Go team Tommy!

16 Months Forward and 10 Months Back

In order to bring everyone up to speed lets recap and condense:

We've been working on the abscess from hell since July 2010.  I went to look at a trail horse, but ended up taking Tommy home on trial.  He had an abscess, but I went ahead and bought him anyways because I'd only had NORMAL abscess experiences prior to this.  We pulled shoes and found a major abscess:

We ended up having to resection the hoof.  By "we"  I mean Dr. Alexander at East River Equine Hospital.

You can't see it from the above photo, but the interior was open to the coffin bone.  Xrays revealed ring bone and side bone in both front legs, and a puncture wound in the coffin bone.  Long story short, he did not appear to be rideable.  I am a stubborn cuss though, and I had it in my head he was fixable.  So I ignored the worst parts and focused on what I could fix.

Tom was on stall rest for months.  He had daily soakings and medications for months, and then we finally got to the point where we could cover the sole with a pad and secure it with a shoe.  Then I only had every other day treatments!

It was a long, long road with lots of money in several vets, horse hospitals, farriers, antibiotics, pain killers, medications, vetwrap, diapers, and supplements.  

In August we were almost home free.  The hoof was almost entirely grown out.  The hole was mostly filled in, but it was smooshy - like a big soft marshmallow.  The next shoeing would see if complete. 

These pictures make me happy.  They say P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S.

I was like a baseball player who'd just rounded third, heading for home and already celebrating my home run.

Then in mid October Tommy came up dead lame. Dr. A came out the very next day. The abscess had come out the top of the heel, so he had another dose of antibiotics and was poulticed and buted and I treated it as a normal abscess. Tommy was walking better within a week.

Our farrier appointment had gotten pushed back a few weeks due to a scheduling conflict, but yesterday was the big day. When he pulled the shoe we saw that the original abscess site had been infected as well. Quite a bit of the new tissue was eaten up by the infection.

I know you can't really judge the depth, but the hole is 1/2 - 1" deep, and in addition to that it now has a channel eaten out from the hole through to the frog. That piece of hoof between the hole and the frog is hollow underneath.

Luckily for me my awesome new-ish farrier was meeting with Dr. A today and Tommy was going to be one of the topics. I did a Clean Trax soak today and booted up with Easy Boot RX again. I wish I'd bought more Clean Trax at QH Congress while it was on sale for $10 each! I'll be doing another soak or two in the next week.

My plan for Monday morning is to give Dr. A at East River Equine Hospital a call and see if he can get Tommy in this week. Maybe I'm gun shy after dealing with it so long, but this looks really bad. If we have to do another resection I don't want to wait on it. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if I came out one day and his leg had just plain fallen off.

Fingers crossed and curb chain jingles for Tommy.

Counting down to Friday

I'm always counting down to the weekend, but this is an extra important Friday.  Tommy is having his shoes pulled again so we can see what his left hoof is looking like.  The last farrier appointment showed more growth, but the bottom of the hoof where the hole is was like pushing on a marshmallow.  Strange in a freaky that's not supposed to happen sort of way.  Fingers crossed for Friday.  I can't wait!

The last few weeks have been filled with these happy images:

And of course the treats.  Tommy hearts his treats.  He's not the biggest fan of apples.  I spoiled them for him by shoving pills into them for so long.  He loves peppermints, whinny whickers, carrots, and those carrot flavored treats from TSC.

I don't understand why these photos are all sideways.  Anyone else on blogger that can tell me how to fix this?

2 Hooves forward and 1 Hoof back

It's Baaaaack!

His hoof looks a bit deformed here, but that's just the wrapping and the pad underneath.

Dr. A was able to get out the same day I called him (Tuesday) while I was at work training class in Columbus Ohio.  He got him all fixed up and wrapped up, with a pain shot for good measure.  He's been on bute since then.  Today the poultice came off and the Numotizine went on.  My hand stinks and tingles like crazy.  I'll never put on Numotizine without gloves again!

It's time to review A Few of My Favorite Things and brush up on my mad skillz.

American Competitive Trail Horse Association - Our Newest Challenge!

The Saddle Up for the Cure ride is successfully behind us, and I am looking for something else to do.  I love having a goal.  I love that I feel like I can have a goal.  I'm keeping it real.  We're not going to go ride the Tevis Cup next year;

But look what I found:  American Competitive Trail Horse Assoc.  You know who could do this?

There is a ride on October 22nd and 23rd at Wallace Horse Farm in Martinsville Indiana which is about an hour and a half from me.  It looks like it's a 6 or 7 mile trail with the about the same number of obstacles, with a ride length of about 2 hours.

I'm intrigued.

I checked out the list of possible obstacles - there are quite a few of them!

Some things we couldn't do (jumping, cantering circles, etc.) but I think we could do a lot of them with some practice.  I'm not sure how easily I'd be able to pick something up from him.  Tommy's so tall I may need a grabber:

Best of all my little co-pilot could come along!

I sent an email to the ride organizer last week to see if we'd have to ride both days (No) and if we'd be able to haul in the morning of the ride instead of camping (Yes).  Because I'm not a camper.  At least I'm not camping in a tent in October in Ohio.  I might be a camper if I had this:

Nothing says I'm not roughing it quite like a trailer with living quarters.  That looks big enough for Tom and I!

I'm excited about this possibility!  The only possible conflict could be the boys soccer tournaments.  Would I be a bad Mom if I hope they don't win the first round???