The hair problem I mentioned in my previous post is in a stage of stagnation, which I suppose is a good thing. At least the bald spots on Little Love are not getting bigger nor are there any new ones. I am hopeful this is just part of her body coping with the stress of the feet instead of some awful (semi-permanent) skin condition. I did take precaution though and washed her again with the anti-fungal shampoo.
On the feet front things weren't looking too good this afternoon. Becky had failed to put on Little Love's boots this morning due to the worry she had about the extremely muddy pasture; she was afraid the boots didn't have enough traction, which is perhaps a legitimate concern. When she doesn't have the boots though, the mud packs to the bottom of Little Love's feet and she gets quite sore. I could immediately see that Lilo was fairly uncomfortable even just standing still. When we asked the horses to come in, Little Love walked very, very slowly on the hard ground. Without the boots she is quite crippled.
After soaking I put the boots on and there wasn't much improvement in her condition until we made our way slooooooowly to the indoor arena where the footing is soft. Little Love had zero motivation to walk and I felt like a slave driver asking her to walk for almost a half an hour. I tried to explain to her for the umpteenth time that walking really did make the feet better. And it was true. After walking even for just five minutes, she wasn't half as "crippled" as she was in the beginning. I also think she is so bored just walking around and around in the small arena, I certainly am. It didn't help that Becky and Col took off for a trail ride while we were at this arduous task of spinning in the arena. I don't know which one of us wanted to join them on the ride more, Little Love or me. She kept calling after him long after he was gone. Can't wait for her feet to feel strong enough for us to venture back to the outside (and unfortunately hard concrete) world.
I wrote a comment the other other day, but blogger ate it, so here goes again. I swear by M.T.G. for hair loss and all manner of skin abnormalities, rain rot, scratches, scurf, etc. It smells like bacon and sulphur, but boy, does it work. You just massage it in and leave it there. A few days later, stand back and marvel.
ReplyDeleteYou know, you could give Little Love bute on these days when she seems to regress. I always worry about them not understanding why they hurt. But maybe giving them pain meds is a way of giving ourselves pain meds too.