Happy Year-iversary, Salem!

It's hard to believe, but today was the official one year anniversary of my boy coming home.

Here's to several more decades together, buddy!

The A-Word

Abscess.

Of course, once I started writing a post about how great Salem's hooves are, the universe decided that it needed to kick me down a couple of notches and throw some salt up in my game. I got one of "those" calls that we all dread--"Hey, Meghann, just wanted to let you know that Salem is off on the right front."

*Cue my stomach flip-flopping seventeen times and settling somewhere around my knees*

Luckily, I was already on my way to the barn, and my fellow boarder said that she had checked Salem's hooves for any possible stones, etc., combed his paddock for sharp objects (she had a little pile of spiky plastic things and shards of PVC fencing set aside outside the fence), and sprayed Salem down with fly spray to get him to stop stomping at flies. She said there was no heat or swelling in any of his legs, but that he was lame even at the walk. Immediately, I thought "Abscess."

After a thorough once-over, I found that Salem was actually off in the left front, but all signs were still pointing to abscess and/or solar bruise. Luckily, I hoard first aid supplies and had a whole stash of anti-abscess weaponry at the ready. The first night, I completely over-reacted--I cold-hosed his legs for 20 minutes, packed both front hooves with Magic Cushion, rubbed him down with liniment, wrapped his front legs in standing wraps, and strapped his Cavallo Simple Boots (very generously donated by Candy a few months before) onto his hooves.

The next day, Salem looked no better, so I decided it was definitely an abscess (my theory was that he would have felt better from the Magic Cushion if it had just been a bruise) and changed my daily game plan to the following:

• Hot water & Epsom salt soak for 20 minutes 
• Animalintex poultice pad (soaked in hot water) on the sole
• Thermacare pad on top of Animalintex pad (with a few layers of Vetrap in between) to keep the poultice warm for 8 hours
• Epsom salt poultice on the coronet
• Vetrap bootie
• Magic Cushion on the right front in order to help the hoof with increased weight-bearing
• Cavallo Boots on both fronts

Someone was not a fan of hoof soaks, but he eventually 

learned to deal with them (baby carrots certainly helped!)

Several people were surprised that I didn't call the vet out right away, but I was 99% sure I was dealing with an abscess. Also, I am not a fan of allowing vets to carve abscesses out, so I figured it would be a waste of money to pay the vet to tell me to keep doing what I was already doing. 

After a few days, Salem developed a very slight poofy-ness in the lower leg, which sent me into a bit of a tailspin. Luckily, about 15 minutes of internet research later, my pulse returned to normal--it's apparently quite normal for a horse with an abscess to develop some swelling in the affected leg. Some horses' legs  even swell so badly that it's first thought they have a broken bone, when in fact it's just an abscess. 

So, after a healthy application of DMSO, it was back into the standing wraps for Salem. 

Nine days into his treatment, Salem's abscess finally blew out of his coronet. I wasn't surprised, as his sole is so cement-tough that there was no way the abscess could get through it. The coronet was the path of least resistance, and I was very glad to see the abscess come out there rather than through the sole, since it's much easier to keep clean.

Soon after it blew

A week later, well on its way to healing

You would think this would be the end of the tale, but unfortunately there's more. There's always more with horses! While Salem was totally sound and comfortable at the walk after the abscess blew, he was still a bit off at the trot. I figured either he had an as-yet-undiscovered bruise that needed to resolve and/or there was still more abscess in the hoof capsule. A few swipes with the rasp revealed some blood at the toe, which Candy confirmed is indeed more abscess working its way out.

Solution? Here.

Oral Arnica Montana to resolve bruising, and Jiaogulan to increase circulation to the hooves and help clear out any remaining abscess material. Total cost, including shipping: $31. 

Luckily, even though Salem is not completely sound (at least not when I try to longe him), he hasn't let it cramp his style in the least. He's been careening around his paddock in his spooky prance-trot and galloping back and forth snorting like a T-Rex, so I'm guessing he doesn't feel all that bad. Actually, as long as I'm not asking him to, you know, work, he looks sound as a dollar. I guess he's just enjoying the life of leisure.

Yep. It's a hard life. ;-)

Not Pathological, But Unique Nonetheless

Lately, I've been posting lots of pics of very pathological hooves. So, today I'm going to flip the script a bit and focus on some more "normal" hooves--Salem's! It's been quite a while since I've taken pics of his hooves, let alone posted them, and I think it's important to periodically document them so I can see what's going on and compare them to older pics.

Luckily, Salem's front hooves are now just about textbook-perfect--they have extremely tight wall connections, big healthy frogs, good concavity, thick sole calluses, incredible balance, and zero fungus.

Right Front

Left Front

His rear hooves also have a whole lot going for them; but, while they're healthy and strong, they're a bit more...*ahem* unique. Particularly his right hind.

Right Hind

Yes, that hoof is a bit cattywompus--the frog is off-center, the medial side looks a bit squished, for lack of a better word, and the medial heel bulb is much smaller and less developed than the lateral heel bulb.

But, in all honesty, I'm not worried. Because Salem's whole back-end is a bit funky, and *this* is the hoof that works for him. There isn't a "cookie-cutter" trim that each hoof must fit into; in fact, the only measurements and mark-ups that Candy does are for a 30-degree hairline and a heel that is 1 1/8" from the coronet. That's it. The bars are kept trimmed and the walls rounded, and basically the rest is up to Salem. Keep in mind, too, that his right hind is where his mystery lameness/stiffness is, and hooves are a reflection of what's going on in the horse's body. That's the great thing about having a barefoot horse--everything will show up in the hooves, so it's a great barometer for the health of the rest of the horse's body. So, while this hoof looks less than perfect, it's functional and it works well for Salem.

Left Hind

The left hind is certainly more "normal"-looking than the right hind, but it too is less well-balanced than the fronts. You can see that the frog is, again, slightly off-center. And the medial heel bulb is smaller and less robust than the lateral. (But check out that amazing concavity!!) I do think he either weights the lateral walls of his hinds more, or just wears them more because of the way he moves, because the medial walls are always a bit longer.

Yep, as with all things, Salem definitely has to be unique.

Will Yawn for Food

An intelligent horse can be a blessing and a curse -- they pick things up quickly, but sometimes you don't even realize that you have (accidentally) taught them something by rewarding a certain behavior. Fortunately, most of the things Salem has taught himself/me have been either harmless or helpful; for example, he taught himself to halt on the longe line when I square up to him. He taught himself to turn his head away from me in order to get a treat.

And he taught himself that yawning = meal.



Ever since he came down here last April, I've been doing a bit of liberty work with Salem. Nothing fancy, just some basic w/t/c, halt, reverse, etc. at liberty in the arena. Unfortunately, I usually get to the barn when it's dark out these days, so our liberty sessions have suffered quite a bit; but the liberty work we do every day involves Salem standing patiently while I bring his grain out, and standing still until I give him the signal that he can walk to his feed tub and eat. And somewhere along the line, Salem must have yawned while he was standing there, and I inadvertently rewarded that behavior and gave him the "release" signal. So now he stands there letting out these dramatic, eye-rolling, tongue-wagging yawns while he waits for his food. You might have also noticed him turning his head away from me (his "this-is-what-I-do-to-get-a-treat" trick) and then going back to yawning -- you can almost see his little brain working, saying, "OK, which trick does she want me to do? I will run through them until I get it right."

Such a goofball. ;-) I love it.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Hey! This is MY blog!

Yes, it has been a shockingly long time since my poor steed has been featured on his own blog. He reminds me frequently that his public requests, nay (neigh?) demands an update on His Royal Highness. Unfortunately, not much is going on in the world of Salem right now--his days are full of eating, wandering around his paddock, eating some more, harassing the horses in the neighboring paddocks, grooming, hand walks around the neighborhood, and occasionally *gasp* a bit of longeing or liberty work. It's a hard knock life.

Occasionally, his afternoon nap is interrupted by a visit from Candy. By now, she has transformed Salem's hooves back into the gorgeous, balanced, tough-as-cement super hooves that he had back in April of 2010. It took a lot of time and effort, but it has made a huge difference in his soundness. 

I swear Salem is not part-Clydesdale. Candy is just a tiny little

Polly Pocket of a hoof trimmer (and Salem is a very naughty

little trimmer's-butt-nibbler)

So, here is the one interesting thing that has happened to us lately: Back in January, one of my fellow borders had her trainer Heath come down from Kentucky to judge a horse show, and she had him stay an extra day to ride a few horses and teach some lessons at our barn. I had hoped that I would have Salem sound as a whistle and back in work so we could have a lesson with him, but unfortunately I have yet to find a money tree. But I figured, hey, why not at least get a good groundwork session in.

I think Heath might have gotten the impression we were a bit more "special" remedial than we are, but I do think our lesson was very productive; I got some good insight and pointers. Heath worked on Salem's tendency to travel inverted, with his head to the outside and his body bent in completely the wrong direction. (I'm not sure why he does this, as it only showed up after he came down here from Chicago--??) He noted that Salem is just very weak and needs to work properly in order to develop his muscles and balance. 

Of particular interest to me was his comment that Salem is extremely weak in his right hind--he didn't say "off," just "weak." That got me thinking: Is Salem over his original injury, whatever that injury might be? Were all those months of hoof rehab and hand-walking and Tincture of Time and anti-inflammatory supplements really all he needed? Do I now just need to build his strength back up? It would be *amazing* but with my luck I am not going to get my hopes up. It seems too good to be true.

Luckily, one of my fellow boarders caught a few minutes of our lesson on video:

Anyone notice that Salem is a horse of a different color? His left side is an orange-y, bleached-out, dull brown and his right side is a slick, dark chocolate-y brown.Why? Well, apparently there is something of great interest in the nursery next door. Because 98% of the time, Salem stands facing west, staring at the invisible Something Interesting that resides in the nursery. His left side catches the southern rays, while his right side remains in the shade. Result--multicolor pony.

So, there you have it, Salem fans. My boy is still fat as a tick and living like a prince. It might not make for exciting blog posts, but I do think he's content with his current life of leisure.

One Month

Lucy's de-clogging and first trim with Candy was on 12/15/11; and on 1/15/12, I brought Lucy out to the paddock, took her halter off...and she bucked and trotted away from me. I grabbed my phone as fast as I could and managed to catch her trotting back.

In one month, she went from possibly being put down at eight years old to cavorting in the paddock like a normal horse. Major props to you, Candy. :-)

Frankenstein Feet

Lucy might not have bolts in her head, but she most certainly had many, many bolts in her hooves. On Thursday December 15th,  Lucy's hooves were finally placed into the care of Candy's capable hands. On the phone, I had told her, "You might want to bring a power drill with you because I'm pretty sure those clogs are screwed into her hooves." And, unfortunately, I wasn't kidding.

Our first challenge was removing the fiberglass casts that covered the clogs. We started off wetting them with the hose, and then Candy hacked away at them with a hoof knife. We were getting nowhere. So, while I frantically Googled "How to Remove Hoof Casts" on my phone and waded through pages of completely useless information, Candy and Judy discussed our options. Call the farrier and ask him to come out and remove them? Only if we wanted to wait around for, oh, a good six weeks. Call the vet? Since he was present when the clogs were put on, we figured he was a pretty safe bet. His assistant told us to use a handsaw (?!), so I went poking around for tools and came up with a small set of pruning shears. Luckily, the vet called back within five minutes and said to use hoof nippers. At that point, Candy was having some luck with the pruning shears, but she grabbed her mini hoof nippers and went to work.

It was like unwrapping a really horrible, upsetting, disturbing gift. Not quite last-scene-of-the-movie-Seven bad, but bad nonetheless. Because by then, we knew what was underneath. The vet had told us to use a Phillip's head screwdriver to remove the screws from Lucy's hooves in order to get the clogs off.

After searching high and low for a Phillips' head screwdriver, Candy remembered that she had one in a previously unopened toolkit in her car (thank goodness!), and she quickly got to work unscrewing Lucy's hooves.

Finally, it was time to remove the clogs once and for all.

And, surprisingly, her hooves didn't look nearly as bad as we thought they would (especially considering the state of Tiffany's hooves--Lucy had the same farrier). Yes, there was a ton of bruising and the trademark ridiculous square toe. But, luckily, Candy was put on the case before too much damage was done. Lucy foundered back in September, whereas Tiffany foundered somewhere around 9-12 months ago; so, the farrier didn't have nearly as much opportunity to morph Lucy's hooves into odd and previously never-before-seen shapes.

However. I assume most of you have heard of a "hot nail," right? That's the term for a nail that has been driven into the live, sensitive tissues of the hoof. Well, Lucy was hot-screwed, and not in the good way. She had multiple screws that had been drilled directly into her live tissues. And then people wondered why she was crippled to the point of not eating for several days. It's a mystery.

Here, you can see the dental impression material that was between the clogs and Lucy's hooves.

I had always thought that it would be soft and cushy, and was surprised to find that it's actually

quite rigid--not comfy-feeling at all

As soon as Lucy was trimmed and booted up, we videotaped her walking off. But to show you the difference in her movement, I'm also going to post the video I took approximately one week before (a few days after her final farrier appointment).

And that's in hoof boots that are ridiculously large. If you think she looks good there, wait until you see the latest videos of her. This mare endured what most people have commented to be "torture devices" for several months, but she has bounced back from it like a rubber ball. I only hope that people can watch her progress and realize that wood screws and giant clogs are not the answer to laminitis. There is a better way. It doesn't involve power tools or nuts and bolts. In fact, it doesn't involve anything you can purchase at Home Depot. It involves knowledge, skill, patience, and time. A little arnica helps, as well. Let's hope Frankenstein feet will quickly become a thing of the past.