Today, when I took Little Love's boots off, I noticed that the sole of her front feet is crumbling off at the tip of her hoof (in front of the frog). I scratched it with the hoof pick and it literally just came off in flakes. I suppose this is old and dead sole that is exfoliating and I shouldn't be worried. I'm wondering if the boots are sort of aiding this process, as the feet "brew" in the boots now that the ground is soggy. The smell was definitely interesting, my dog loved it... which says a lot. Yuk. Maybe I should give Little Love a "night off" from the boots to let her hooves dry. Or should I? She is definitely more comfortable with the boots on. and isn't moisture good? Can there be too much moisture? I still soaked the 20 minutes today, regardless.
Little Love was again a bit slower this afternoon, perhaps because of the short canter she did yesterday in the pasture. She has been quite energetic in the past few days, but I'm starting to get used to the "down" days that follow the "up" ones. Today was definitely one of those days and we ended up not walking for very long at all. I have also noticed she hasn't laid down for a few nights now. Another sign that all is not well, I suppose.
She is certainly spending a lot of time on the ground rolling when she is outside; she was so caked in mud today that I couldn't get all of it off, no matter how hard I worked. Little Love actually let me scrub fairly hard, something she usually doesn't enjoy, but now that her hair is coming off she seems to welcome some brushing. She even let me do it while she was standing in the buckets! I don't know why she dislikes brushing so much, perhaps it is too evasive to her sensitive nature, so I do it as little as possible. But on days like today when she feels comfortable with it, I try to take advantage :-)
Showing posts with label soaking hooves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soaking hooves. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Day 40 It's a rollercoaster ride
It seems like this process of heeling Little Love's feet has it's ups and downs. One day I look at her and can't believe how much progress she has made in terms of being able to move more and then the next day it looks like she has taken at least three steps back. This process is definitely not for the impatient.
Tuesday we had rain, which made the pasture much more bearable for Little Love's feet. I went to the barn in the morning (usually I go in the afternoon/evening) and perhaps that is what made the difference, but she walked with me in the arena with a lot of energy. Little Love was actually so animated that I naturally felt hopeful, making plans of progressively increasing the hand walking time each day. Or not. Wednesday, after being in the pasture for six hours, she was tired and sore. Walking was a struggle even with the boots on. Her front legs had also swelled up again on the inside, especially the left, which now seems to be obviously caused by the bad alignment of her hooves and joints. She had this same alignment when she had shoes, but taking the shoes off seems to have made the strain even greater. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until she grows back some hoof before these angles can be even remotely fixed (which will take time). I'm learning patience, slowly.
Today Little Love was really tired and really sore (but swelling on legs was gone, hhmmm), so I decided to skip the walking altogether and instead focus on soaking her feet (which I do every day before I walk). She didn't want to stay in the buckets, so it was a bit of struggle, but we managed to do a little over 20 minutes with the fronts. I felt pretty disheartened by her state, it almost seems like we are back to the pain she was in last week. What the heck? I'm hoping to get those pastern guards in the mail tomorrow so I can keep the boots on her 24/7. Even if I don't get the wraps, I might just leave the boots on and see what happens. Becky is coming back from her trip tonight, which will help as she can keep an eye any sores Little Love is developing and pull the boots off when needed, if I'm not there. When she's gone her non-horse-savvy husband does the evening chores, and asking him to deal with hoof boots might a bit too much, I think he has enough to do with changing Col's blankets LOL.
I'm hoping we have just hit the downward slope on this rollercoaster ride called "going barefoot". Maybe it will be all uphill from here? Trying to stay positive and hopeful.
Tuesday we had rain, which made the pasture much more bearable for Little Love's feet. I went to the barn in the morning (usually I go in the afternoon/evening) and perhaps that is what made the difference, but she walked with me in the arena with a lot of energy. Little Love was actually so animated that I naturally felt hopeful, making plans of progressively increasing the hand walking time each day. Or not. Wednesday, after being in the pasture for six hours, she was tired and sore. Walking was a struggle even with the boots on. Her front legs had also swelled up again on the inside, especially the left, which now seems to be obviously caused by the bad alignment of her hooves and joints. She had this same alignment when she had shoes, but taking the shoes off seems to have made the strain even greater. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until she grows back some hoof before these angles can be even remotely fixed (which will take time). I'm learning patience, slowly.
Today Little Love was really tired and really sore (but swelling on legs was gone, hhmmm), so I decided to skip the walking altogether and instead focus on soaking her feet (which I do every day before I walk). She didn't want to stay in the buckets, so it was a bit of struggle, but we managed to do a little over 20 minutes with the fronts. I felt pretty disheartened by her state, it almost seems like we are back to the pain she was in last week. What the heck? I'm hoping to get those pastern guards in the mail tomorrow so I can keep the boots on her 24/7. Even if I don't get the wraps, I might just leave the boots on and see what happens. Becky is coming back from her trip tonight, which will help as she can keep an eye any sores Little Love is developing and pull the boots off when needed, if I'm not there. When she's gone her non-horse-savvy husband does the evening chores, and asking him to deal with hoof boots might a bit too much, I think he has enough to do with changing Col's blankets LOL.
I'm hoping we have just hit the downward slope on this rollercoaster ride called "going barefoot". Maybe it will be all uphill from here? Trying to stay positive and hopeful.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Day 37
Yesterday and today, with the help of the carpets, I was able to walk Little Love out to the front of the barn to soak her hooves. Getting her to step out of her stall still takes some work, but she definitely is working on coming out in a different manner than before. She WANTS to come out, but she just needs some time to think and to maneuver her feet around.
A month ago I could never ever have imagined putting Little Love's foot in a bucket and expected her to stand there for several minutes and now she can do that with both her fronts at the same time - no problem. She stands like a statue for exactly 20 minutes, after which she is done (seriously, you would think she is the one with the watch!). She seems to know that soaking is good for her and welcomes it as part of her daily routine now. I sit next to her on the ground and keep her company, while she eats hay. Periodically she will lift her head and breathe into my hair or face. Those moments I have a strong sense that she understands I'm trying to help her.
I would like to soak the back feet as well, but they are still a bit of an issue. I had a go at soaking one of the back hooves yesterday. Little Love expressed her opinion about that pretty clearly and managed to crack the bottom off the little silver tub within 30 seconds. I tried a bigger bucket a few days ago, but she sent that flying in her stall. Maybe we'll just wait for the rains to make the pasture wet...
Here's a picture of her feet in the little tubs.
Hand walking Little Love in the arena yesterday was a tad challenging because Becky had washed Col and was walking him back and forth in the parking lot in the sun. As long as he was out of sight, Little Love managed to focus on the walking, but as soon as Col showed up from behind the corner, she became stressed out and started calling out to him (he, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less, which made Little Love more frantic). She also seemed to forget that she had sore feet and jogged next to me a few times. We only walked 15 minutes, but she actually broke into a bit of a sweat; more from stress than the work - no doubt.
All this excitement had backfired on her by today, she was quite slow coming in from the pasture. I soaked her hooves and handwalked her, nevertheless, but she was definitely feeling her feet more than before, even in the boots. After ten minutes of walking I let her loose in the arena so she could roll and decide for herself how much she wanted to move. My husband John (who has been quite understanding of my need to own a certain black horse and spend lots of my free time with the said horse) came out to the barn yesterday to rig up some posts and a makeshift fence that I can set up when I want to spend time with Little Love in the arena in "liberty". The arena doesn't have a fence around it, but conventiently is surrounded by a dense bush on three sides leaving only the one short side open (with a low "dressage fence"). Becky doesn't want anything permanent there, but we agreed on two posts on the corners. I have a good 20 yards/meters of white tape (used for electric fencing) that I roll out and attach to the said posts, creating a temporary enclosure. This works great (thank you John :-)!
Letting Lilo loose in the arena made me think of the "old times" when we spent hours in the indoor arena just hanging out and getting to know each other. Those times were not so long ago, but they seem to have taken place in another lifetime. I think Little Love thought of that, too, as she got really excited when I took her halter off like she used to do before. She sort of leapt into the air and as she was performing something that was meant to be a buck, she remembered her feet and landed back on the ground with this look on her face that said: "Ouch, that hurt". Poor girl, she really wanted to kick those heels up, but just could not. But, hopefully soon she will be able to do that again!
A month ago I could never ever have imagined putting Little Love's foot in a bucket and expected her to stand there for several minutes and now she can do that with both her fronts at the same time - no problem. She stands like a statue for exactly 20 minutes, after which she is done (seriously, you would think she is the one with the watch!). She seems to know that soaking is good for her and welcomes it as part of her daily routine now. I sit next to her on the ground and keep her company, while she eats hay. Periodically she will lift her head and breathe into my hair or face. Those moments I have a strong sense that she understands I'm trying to help her.
I would like to soak the back feet as well, but they are still a bit of an issue. I had a go at soaking one of the back hooves yesterday. Little Love expressed her opinion about that pretty clearly and managed to crack the bottom off the little silver tub within 30 seconds. I tried a bigger bucket a few days ago, but she sent that flying in her stall. Maybe we'll just wait for the rains to make the pasture wet...
Here's a picture of her feet in the little tubs.
Hand walking Little Love in the arena yesterday was a tad challenging because Becky had washed Col and was walking him back and forth in the parking lot in the sun. As long as he was out of sight, Little Love managed to focus on the walking, but as soon as Col showed up from behind the corner, she became stressed out and started calling out to him (he, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less, which made Little Love more frantic). She also seemed to forget that she had sore feet and jogged next to me a few times. We only walked 15 minutes, but she actually broke into a bit of a sweat; more from stress than the work - no doubt.
All this excitement had backfired on her by today, she was quite slow coming in from the pasture. I soaked her hooves and handwalked her, nevertheless, but she was definitely feeling her feet more than before, even in the boots. After ten minutes of walking I let her loose in the arena so she could roll and decide for herself how much she wanted to move. My husband John (who has been quite understanding of my need to own a certain black horse and spend lots of my free time with the said horse) came out to the barn yesterday to rig up some posts and a makeshift fence that I can set up when I want to spend time with Little Love in the arena in "liberty". The arena doesn't have a fence around it, but conventiently is surrounded by a dense bush on three sides leaving only the one short side open (with a low "dressage fence"). Becky doesn't want anything permanent there, but we agreed on two posts on the corners. I have a good 20 yards/meters of white tape (used for electric fencing) that I roll out and attach to the said posts, creating a temporary enclosure. This works great (thank you John :-)!
Letting Lilo loose in the arena made me think of the "old times" when we spent hours in the indoor arena just hanging out and getting to know each other. Those times were not so long ago, but they seem to have taken place in another lifetime. I think Little Love thought of that, too, as she got really excited when I took her halter off like she used to do before. She sort of leapt into the air and as she was performing something that was meant to be a buck, she remembered her feet and landed back on the ground with this look on her face that said: "Ouch, that hurt". Poor girl, she really wanted to kick those heels up, but just could not. But, hopefully soon she will be able to do that again!
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