Monday, May 28, 2012

The mare...is falling apart...

Seriously, there is so much going on with her right now!

Not only does she have a weird fungus/bacterial infection on her skin, not sure which at this point, the hives are still there in small places and to top it all of, she had a big fat swollen leg today. The left hind, of COURSE.

I had gone out to bathe her and apply some solution for the skin problems.

Skin problems are these tiny little scabby places of skin that are just peeling off, hair and scab and all. I don't think it's rain rot. But it makes it look like she has hives, due to the little scabs festering up and the little tufts of hair poking out.

The swollen leg...le sigh. I cold hosed it and put on some liniment. I decided to keep her stalled overnight. While I'd prefer her not to be standing around with a fat leg, I suspect it may have happened in the pasture fussing with the other horses, and it's muddy out there. So I don't want to risk her sliding around fussing with the fat leg.

I didn't find any puncture wounds. It's from just below the hock all the way down, slightly worse just above the fetlock. Alissa said she was fine yesterday, so I'm pretty confident now that it was not due to her going back to "normal" work.

I will digress a moment to let you know how that went.

I decided to lunge her for about 5 minutes lightly just to loosen her up, and also so I could see her. She was very well behaved...except in her supposed "good" direction (or should be good, based on which leg is the worst). She decided to buck and fart a bit. And the proceeded to gallop around me a moment. Sometimes...you just have to humor your horse. I got her back to business with some sharp transtions. I rode her maybe 15-20 minutes in the indoor, mostly walk trot. Cantered once around in both directions - this thing is the size of a small dressage arena, mind you.

Then I went for a trail ride. We cantered half-way down the long side of the back pasture, at which point you have to stop for a limb in the way and some low branches, and then we did a slow gallop the rest of the way. Back pasture horses following along behind. We walked the rest of the way back home. Amber was just lovely for all of it. And very happy that she could finally do something other than walk/trot.

We got back. I cold hosed her, as well as those legs (which I had been careful to wrap). She was a happy camper and ate her dinner and went out. Perfect day.

At first I was really worried that our short little gallop might have screwed her legs. But considering I was encouraged to start hill work, I didn't feel that a very brief and slow gallop was more strenuous than that. Not as beneficial, of course. But being that was Saturday and she was okay yesterday...I can't imagine it was that. I had checked on her this morning early, to see how her fungus was doing, and I didn't particularly look at her legs, but I don't think she had the big swollen leg yet. Not positive though, I was in a hurry because I was on my break at work.

Anyway. If the leg is still poofed up tomorrow, Dr. Smith is going to come check it out. If so, perhaps she can clue me in on what's up with the fungus too. Still, mareface continues to be happy as a clam. Fat leg, fungus, hives and all.

1 comment:

  1. My PJ used to break out in little bumps from the rain sometimes. Used to use a fungicide that worked a treat, but it's no longer on the market.

    There are anti-fungal shampoos which help a lot. Micro tek or Tea Tree Oil. Micro Tek also makes a spray on anti fungal.

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