The Riding/Training - Elvis Has an Abscess

Elvis Has and Abscess

So, Elvis was acting like a turkey a couple of Saturdays ago.  My husband had been complaining about the fact that he would stand perfectly still until he got the halter about halfway on and then he would spin around and run away with his tail in the air.  If he could have said,  "Nanny, nanny, boo, boo!", he would have.  I hadn't done outdoor chores for several days.  It was a warm Saturday morning and I offered to do the feeding.   I went down to the barn and put Prima in the little corral, took her gazing muzzle off and gave her some hay.  There could be no confusion on anyone's part about what I was doing.  I was feeding.  I put Gus in his little eating area.  When it was Elvis's turn, I got his halter about halfway on and he spun around and took off.  I was ready.  I had closed the corral gate before I attempted to catch him.  

I used the lead rope, twizzling at my side, to drive him around and around the corral.  The rationale was that if he wouldn't stand still for me, then he would have to run around for me.  It was a dominance / submission issue.  He would have to run around until he was ready to stamnd still.  He was feeling pretty stubborn, so this went on for a few minutes.  PJ, the only other horse in the corral, came into the center with me and watched with big eyes for a while.  Then, thinking it looked like fun, she started biting and kicking and driving poor Elvis around and around with me.  This is what tipped the scale in Elvis's brain in my favor.  He decided that submitting to me was preferable to being beaten up by a little girl.   He stood quietly and I haltered him and led him out to the hitching post where he always got his grain.  I had watched carefully as I ran him around, because it was muddy and I did not want him to get hurt.  He did not fall or even stumble.  He was sound as could be as he went around.  And sound when I led him out for his grain.  I put hay out in the big corral for

everyone but Prima, let them all loose in there and went about feeding the poultry and getting my own breakfast.  

After breakfast I was having a second cup of tea and looking out over the front pasture when I noticed that Elvis wasn't eating.  This was very uncharacteristic for him.  There was something in his attitude that didn't look quite right.  Then I noticed he was standing on three legs and he wasn't moving at all.  I ran down to the corral, put on his halter and tried to lead him.  He wouldn't budge.  When I finally got him to move forward, it was terrible to see.  He hopped painfully without putting any weight whatsoever on the left hind.  I was horrified.  I thought, for sure, I had really broken him.

I hosed the leg and foot.  I could find no sign of an injury.  There was no heat, no swelling.  But he would not put any weight on it.  Something hurt.  I put him in a stall, with Gus across the aisle for company, and called my neighbor/trainer.  I put a call in to the vet.  My neighbor came over, took a look at him, but could find nothing.  I told her my whole guilty story.  She said that she thought it had to be an abscess because it was so acute and came on so suddenly.  I was sure it was something I had done.  We started him on bute and cimetidine for ulcers.  Sensitive Elvis always gets ulcer-y when he has to stay in a stall.  I waited to talk to the vet.  

When the vet called me back he said it was probably an abscess.  I was sure it wasn't.  I was sure I had caused it somehow.  He said he would be down the next morning.    When he arrived poor Elvis was no better.  He was obviously in excruciating pain.  He checked him over carefully and said it was an abscess, probably right under the frog and that I should start soaking in Epsom salts and wrap it up to keep it clean.  Elvis was in so much pain that he actually shook while we were soaking his foot that first day.  I carefully applied a poultice and wrapped the whole foot in vet wrap and duct tape.  

The next morning Elvis was almost totally sound.  He walked and happily pivoted on the foot.   I unwrapped it and sure enough: it had drained profusely into the bandage.  I soaked and re-wrapped it.  This was repeated daily for three more days.  Then there were four more days of stall rest, and out he
went into the snow with his buddies.  When a horse pulls up acutely lame you hope that it is an abscess.  It presents as terrible but it is relatively easy to treat and recovery is usually total.  I had never had a horse with an abscess until last winter.  Between them, Prima and Elvis had four.  My farrier thinks it is because we live on n old farm and in the winter and spring all sorts of old junk percolates to the top of the mud just waiting to puncture or bruise their feet.  I guess it is the price you pay for the charm of an older place. 

Four days later he pulled the shoe off of that foot.  Now we are waiting on the Farrier.