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am feeding in the early a.m…cold..still dark..black sky..few stars still out..
in the darkness notice Jade the beautiful jet black appy cross standing way back from the herd..
can barely make her out..that’s odd..
she’s always by her herd mates at feeding time..
throwing hay to the rest to keep them from milling around and possibly moving her if she’s injured..
then walking to where she’s standing it’s clear something’s not right..
she just looks at me..
not moving to hay in the morning..not good..
it’s getting lighter now and can get a better look at her..
no swelling..no cuts..no nothing..
slowly she offers to move..slowly a hobble sort of walk..
had her shots the day before..could it be a reaction?..
seems to be hind right leg..
would think a shot reaction would be systemic..all over..no it’s the leg..
she toe hobbles over to her hay pile.. got kicked?..
stepped wrong?..kicked something?..but she’s not usually a kicker..
will stay with her and see what she says..
during the day it appears to get more painful..
she’s eating..drinking..moving around then laying down..getting the weight off..
had called the vet earlier..waiting to hear..it’s thanksgiving week..
busy busy schedules..
not an emergency but definitely needs attention..
while waiting for the call a ranch friend drops by..
had been chatting earlier about the hay they got and had mentioned Jade’s predicament..
”how’s the mare?..ok to have a looksee?”..sure..he looks..we look..
she looks at us looking..
“i’d place my money on graveled..she’s graveled”..
“graveled some people call it..graveling others say..
hoof abcess most common name ..
infection inside the hoof wall or under the sole when bacteria gets in sensitive parts of the foot..
bacterium enters the hoof wall by a crack or opening..
abscess forms from infection..like a boil in a person..like walking on a boil..
extremely uncomfortable till it passes..
well there’s the bet..he’s seen hundreds of horses many hundreds..
that was my guess too but have only seen a dozen or so..
and we don’t know but we guess..passing the wait for the vet call back time..
and here’s horses..
while vet waiting Jade’s horse buddy decides to graze out of sight a few feet away behind a bush..
she calls to him..hobble walks quickly wanting to go with him..
in the few seconds it takes to bring him back she puts pressure on the sore foot.. half hobble trots two steps..
the pressure apparently bursts what we guessed was there..the abcess..
and it was at the coronary band..where the hoof meets the hair..
had it been on the bottom..on the sole it wouldn’t have been noticeable..
and as luck would have it ..as it’s draining..pics being taken..the vet office calls..
now we really have details to give them..they say hose it off..don’t get kicked..
Jade is immediately better.. offering to walk..pressure appears to be gone..
pain appears to be almost totally gone..
she asks to go with her buddies..we let her go..she walks off..
barely a sign of the can barely can walk mare from before..
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annegreenstories 