Monday, bloody Monday!

ARGH!!!

Today was one of those days that just needs a cocktail, a sleeping pill, and to be completely forgotten! Just so you know how strongly I feel about this...I have never had a sleeping pill in my life. Okay, perhaps I'm slightly over reacting, as when it comes to horse injuries I certainly have nothing on Denali's Mom, but it was one extremely stressful day for me. At 8:30am I got a call from the BM and my day started with this:

yea, cold hosing

60 seconds prior to the BM's call I had just sat down next to my dog in a lawn chair, coffee in hand, and was processing some vitamin D and thinking about how nice it will be to enjoy the warm sunshine for the day, perhaps even ride in the outdoor arena for the first time. Well that was certainly not how it panned out! 20 minutes later I arrived at the barn to find Rose in her paddock favoring a swollen left hind pastern. To explain my anguish and stress, I feel like the last two and a half weeks have just been injury after injury. It's like the universe is playing some cruel joke on me where the clock was turned back a year and no one told me. The powers that be are just sitting around somewhere watching me from above, chuckling and pointing at the stupid girl with her injury prone horse all while they eat pomegranates and sip absinthe!

After some investigation, I thought that perhaps Rose was simply having a bad bout of thrush, as she had a good sized frog and heel crack going on. In theory I figured the swelling could be coming up her pastern from the thrush. However, aside from the crack, there are no other signs of thrush. One of the regular farriers was going to be at the barn in the afternoon, so I decided to wait and see what he thought. After a few hours the farrier arrived, took a look, and said to call the vet as the swelling had moved further up her leg, all the way up her cannon bone, and he thought it might be a tendon issue.

CRAP! 

Every scenario was running through my head and I was feeling like a complete fool for having jumped her on Saturday. Seriously though, how could she have messed up a tendon going over a 18" cross rail, with open front jumping boots on? Regardless I did a really good job of beating myself up mentally while I waited. An hour and a half later, the vet arrived. He did some investigation and determined that she is in the process of blowing an abscess out the back of her heel bulb (HUGE RELIEF...NOT A TENDON!) and that the swelling is due to that and possibly also from her injury to the inside of her leg two weeks ago.

Prescription:
My vet did a new poultice wrap that he learned yesterday in Kentucky. Apparently he'd just got off the plane, went to his clinic, and then our barn called. I guess while he was in Kentucky there was some race horse that is running in the derby this weekend started to abscess. The Kentucky vet's secret weapon for all the fancy race horses he cares for is what is currently on Rose's leg. It is supposed to draw the abscess out faster than the regular poultices. The poultice is a combination of bran-mash with hot water, Betadine, and Epsom salt. I guess the bran-mash is in its own right very good at drawing out abscesses. This poultice is applied to the sole and heel of the foot and secured to the hoof in a doubled plastic bag. Then that is all secured with good old duct tape. Rose's cannon bone and pastern, which are swollen with pitting edema, are wrapped in cotton and vet wrap and she is on bute and an antibiotic to take down the inflammation. Hopefully by tomorrow the abscess will blow out her heel and she will be sound again. Fingers crossed I suppose. For now, I'm having a G&T and probably going to bed very early to forget all about bloody Monday!

Happy trails and swooshing tails!