Day 33 From better to worse

Two steps forward, one step back... Little Love seemed to be worse again yesterday and today.  I still had her on a low level of pain med at night until Tuesday, but then stopped giving the meds to her, just to see what the situation was.  I was quite hopeful, as I felt there had been a lot of improvement in her feet and how she walked on the soft ground. 

The next morning she didn't want to come out of her stall and once she did, it was slow and painful.  Especially on the hard ground she would sort of stretch herself out really far on her fronts, before moving her back feet.  Something she didn't do before.  I didn't really know what to think about that.  Also, the left front that was swollen over a week ago, flared up again.  It's not as big as it was the first time, just a bit thick under the fetlock join on the inside, but, it's obviously sore, as she doesn't want to put a lot of weight on the foot. It's of course hard to be sure the soreness is only because of the swollen leg, since her hooves are not exactly in pristine condition yet...  but I do suspect that it has a lot to do with it.  It is pretty obvious in the pasture, since that's where it's soft.  She is definitely lame on the left front.  In any case, there isn't much I can do for that leg at the moment, except apply some cold water, rub it with arnica and/or clay and wrap it up.  Sigh.  At least she is eating and drinking, but she did seem really, really tired today. 

Becky is coming back tomorrow and hopefully she has Little Love's new boots.  I can't wait! If all goes well with the boots (and it better, I need to have something positive happen for a change), we could walk to the arena and back.  Maybe with the boots her feet won't hurt so much and I can also see how big of a problem the swollen left front really is. 

The good news is that the weather continues to be absolutely fantastic.  So, at least the ground is nowhere near to being frozen, although at some point it would be nice to get some rain, it's getting pretty dry out there (and then I wouldn't have to soak...).  But hey, won't complain about the sunshine!