Sonny in the wars again.

Clarissa · Sonny in the wars again.

He’s been a bit lame for a few weeks now & I put it down to the fresh green grass caused by early spring rains. So Friday morning I put them in the rougher front paddock again to let the short grass in back paddock grow a bit & loose some sugars. Couldn’t think of anything else it could be. No horse had hot feet but shifted them anyway to be sure.

So Friday afternoon late at feed time he was chasing Cassie a lot & cavorting so I figured I’d done the right thing & he was feeling better already. After my dinner about 7pm I walked along my verandah to check things because we have had exceptionally strong winds & some old sheds have blown down here along with tree branches down etc. Sonny let out a loud plaintiff whinny of the sound I know means he is in trouble & needs my help. I figured he was dirty because I had locked them in front paddock so I ignored him.

Next morning I saw he was still in top corner nearest the house while Jude & Cassie were away down the hill near the dam. That meant only one thing. Sonny had a problem. Then I saw him try to step forward & noted his right hind held off the ground.

Oh bugga!! Just what I don’t need just now is vets bills. My nose is slipping below water half of every month now as it is. My head is no longer always above water! I have been trying to sell stuff with mixed success.

Anyway it is really bad. No way I could afford to call the vet on the weekend. Actually I can’t afford a vet fullstop unless I sell more stuff. So I took a bute sandwich with me for him & a bucket of water & a bit of feed. While he ate I palpated all the right back leg top to bottom with little pain response, foot not hot so it’s not laminitis or founder, no bones appear broken, hip & SI not sore, hock not sore, a bit of localized swelling above fetlock joint & a bit of enlarged hardness below hock at back of cannon bone on that ligament.

He was trying to walk by gingerly setting the foot well forward under him & then jumping the other back foot up to the sore one. Like as though he couldn't move the joints inside the pastern & hoof. He was able to stand on both hinds equally for a short time if he stood very correctly with hips horizontal & feet apart a bit & under his pelvis. But he couldn’t rock forward or backwards on that foot. Rather he had to lift it & put it down way forward. I suspected the deep digital flexor that runs over the navicular bone.

My reasons for thinking that is later in the afternoon I took another bute sanger for Sonny & again palpated his leg top to bottom. It was certainly a lot worse, he wasn’t putting it on the ground at all. He was holding it well up under his belly & tucking the hoof exxtremely. He was also trying not to let his R hip drop down which made me think the problem might be up there somewhere. So I paid a good bit of attention to that area without getting any pain response at all. Then I went back to his foot & pressed quite firmly well into the hollow at back of his heel above the back of his frog which is where the flexor ligament & navicular bone are. I certainly got a BIG pain response there which went on for some time making him snort.

He certainly doesnot have any navicular problem because he is not & has never tried to walk with his toe tip. He certainly isn’t foundered. I suspect he has chased Cassie on the slippery downhill ground of the front paddock & rolled his hoof & strained or sprained his deep flexor tendon.

This morning he is worse still. He only moved a few meters during the night. He ate his bute sanger, some pellets & sprout & a small drink of water. I wanted him to start heading towards the playpen because if this takes quite a while to resolve he needs to be separated from the others so he can have adlib hay & easy access to water so I don’t have to carry it. I myself am not well right now & carrying anything is out of the question.

So I made him another bute sanger to bomb him up to make the effort to walk the 200m uphill to the playpen. He was reluctant & wanted treats for making the effort. So I went to the garden to pick some carrots & when I got back he had let gravity take over & got himself right to the bottom of the paddock/hill just as far away from the playpen/top of the paddock as it was possible to get.

Why is it they have to do these things??

As I looked at him he was almost falling over with the pain of walking down there to where the others were grazing. He was standing legs splayed & head down with RH tucked right up under his belly. That’s the problem with feeding more bute! The bloody horse will run around & hurt itself even more.

So I threw the carrots down in

& went upstairs. I am in enough pain myself with kidney stones moving & no access to suitable health care. If these people don't tuen up today to buy my big plants I am selling there will be no vets visit.

Also recently I have had to face up to the fact that I am failing at keeping all the balls in the air & something has to give. There simply isn't the funds to carry on. So as usual I have plans A to Z. If I can or am forced to get a vet to Sonny & the news is not good, ie that he will never recover enough to be riden, then I will have him PTS but not only him but also Jude & Cassie. I can only afford the one vets visit & only one hole dug. It is already the case that both J&C are not ridable anymore so if Sonny joins their ranks then all will be PTS because I can no longer afford to keep them. It is the simple facts that life has dealt me the hardest blow recently. I have never been in such a reduced capacity to care for myself & my animals. I am thoroughly embarrased even though it was not my fault that my supper company fell over. However now I am feeling the effects of that event.

Well the buzzer just went off to tell me the loaf of bread is ready. I used the last of my bread flour to make bread for Sonny's bute sangers. It will last a few days then no more flour for 4wks.

thelmanelle

Clarissa,
My heart goes out to you. I am going to pray for you.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Clarissa, I fell much the same way whenever something happens to one of mine. I've thought of changing my name to Jonah.

Bien did this same injury two years ago and it was doing much the same thing, kicking up her heels when she was feeling good, even after a 20 minute warm up, pop! she comes up lame.

I don't think you need to call a vet to diagnose or treat it. I did an internet search and printed out instructions. This may be it, or not:

http://www.athletic-animals.com/tendon.htm

Stall rest, bute, cold therapy 3-4 times a day and compression. Do this until he is showing signs of relief. It takes something like 3 months to heal, so he needs stall rest until he's out of pain and taper off the bute, then controlled exercise, but no playing. I did ultrasound about 6 months later to check for scar tissue. Now I wrap it for exercise and then do cold therapy immediately afterwards. She is doing OK but will never be 100% again.

Good luck with him. Get him comfortable and off it.

becdubie

It's hard to know what to say Clarissa. Just know that we are all here for you, and whatever your decisions they are the right ones for you and your situation.
I've often though about what I would do if I could no longer take care of my horses.... I have plans a-z....and PTS is on the list.

Hertha

Hi Clarissa,

Sometimes we just have to let go because there are no more choices. Thinking of you.

Clarissa

Carol thanks for that website link. I didn’t find that one but another similar & yes it appeared it was treatable back to being able to ride again. Thanks also to those who are thinking of me (& my horses) it certainly is a comfort, because my family chide me relentlessly about having horses.

Late yesterday after giving Sonny his bute I fed J&C up in the playpen in the hope Sonny would make his way there which he did. So I locked him in & took the other’s hay outside. I left S in playpen paddock with fresh water & double hay to last all night. He screamed his tits off for a couple hours then went quiet so I decided he was resigned to being alone for the night.

This morning I discovered he had escaped by pushing on the elec tape gate until the insulators failed.

He’s a terror when he wants to be. After intently watching me survey the damage he sheepishly made his way back into the pen under my glare & stood pensively with head down. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth! Lol He was walking a bit better so I forgave him!

I fed him then let him into the houseyard. Once the bute clicked in he was walking tentatively being very careful to place his foot just so. There was frost on the grass so that was good for cold therapy. I noted he was trying to place his foot on some slightly higher ground to take each step so I wondered if he would fare better wearing a boot with double thickness pads in it. Once I applied it he seemed to be most uncomfortable, snorting with each attempted step. He was holding that foot way up again & looking at it a lot then at me.

So I sat & watched, wondering why it was so & as I did I noted a small oily patch form in the hair of the coronet band above his outside quarter & a little trickle of fluid traced down his hoof into the boot. AN ABSCESS!!!

That’s obviously why I got such a clear pain response when pressing into the back of that heel on Saturday. Why then none or very little heat??? Why also very little pain response when I tested under his hoof? Not even this morning when I felt all over his leg & hoof. With that much obvious pain you’d think the hoof would be very hot. The extra slight pressure of the boot bearing on the side of his hoof was obviously enough to cause it to pop.

He was immediately relived but I decided to remove the boot anyway. When I did I could feel bones creaking inside his pastern. That pastern & fetlock joint have always creaked a lot for many years but I don’t remember so much movement in that area. So I will keep a good eye on both fetlocks & compare them during the coming days to be sure it is only the usual amount of wear & tear. There may yet be more going on in there.

This afternoon I discovered him laying down in deep soft grass on a slightly sloping shady nook of the house yard. Most unusually for him, he allowed me to sit at arms length from him which is not a good sign. The only other time I have got near him whilst he was laying down was earlier this year when I tacked shoes onto his front feet & he had given up on life at that time. I had to apply strong encouragement to make him stand up so he could feel the relief the shoes afforded him. So today while sitting near his head watching him sleep on & off, I was wondering what else he has up his sleeve for me. I sat for an hour until he finally got up & went back to sleep standing.

He seems ok tonight, still quite lame but able to walk & I didn’t give bute. That way I can have a better idea of what’s going on with him in the morning. Hopefully he is just still recovering from the infection of the abscess. Maybe now that he’s getting older (14yo) he’s mellowing somewhat! Lol The people never came to buy my big plants so it being an abscess is just as well. That’s providing it’s only an abscess & nothing worse yet to manifest.

I can't help but think the abscess, even though it was very small & without heat, must have been brewing for a few weeks at least. I trimmed him a few weeks ago but it was a very mild trim mostly to maintain shape while the longer toe grew out. If he hurt his tendons or ligaments while cavorting last week it would take a lot longer than 2 days for an abscess to form. mmmm dontknow

So once again he (& we all) have escaped by the skin of our teeth. Each day is a bonus now hopefully.

becdubie

There is hope in your post Clarissa.
Best Wishes to you.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Well, with his hoof history, an abscess would probably be the most obvious cause of severe lameness. My Trooper, who looks a lot like Sonny, gets abscesses frequently. He has really soft feet and stone bruises each spring on the frozen uneven ground, and we find abscesses often, though they rarely make him lame.

Glad Sonny is going to be OK. I am like you, when these things happen I always assume the worst. Glad you were wrong...an abscess is definitely easier to fix.

thelmanelle

Yes, an abscess is much easier.

Chablis

Glad to hear he is okay.

learningthedance

Awww Clarrisa. Sounds like you were on an emotional roller-coaster. Don't you just LOVE how much they can make us worry?? LOL

Glad he is on the mend. Glad that you can breath again too.

Clarissa

As feared Sonny did have something else up his sleeve. This morning I noted he was very lame again & on closer inspection the small abscess hole had expanded to encompass 20% of the circumference of his coronet band. There was foul smelling puss coming out of it with each step.

Luckily I have some AB left over from last vet incident (I can’t remember what it was now) so he got 20ml of once daily AB & I sprayed some Ilium followed by purple spray. He kept wanting to bite at it with his teeth. I figure it is itchy which is a really good sign because it means healing is happening already. But his mouth is covered in the dried puss & he stinks! While I was looking at the hoof pus ran onto my hands which also stink to high hell now too

. It is a very pervasive smell, that of puss clearing dead debris out of deoxygenated places. There is still no discernable heat in that hoof. It is quite amazing.

I have added a few photos to the other thread in the Farrier section because this has obviously become yet another hoof problem I have to work through with him. I had thought his back feet had come through the last year’s problems well enough. Obviously not quite as well as I had hoped.

Clarissa

Marty told me Sonny said he had drunk from a chemical container. So I thought about that a while to see if any scenarios came to mind. I decided to walk aimlessly & follow my nose. I have had a vague intermittent chemical smell in my nostrils since I first smelt the pus from Sonny’s hoof. Well not so much in my nostrils but in my mind behind my nostrils. It’s like when you just can’t put your finger on it so the saying goes.

I’ve just walked around all the parts of my back paddocks I can get to. It’s getting pretty wild out there now because the horses have hardly been allowed into the back paddocks all this year due to all the health issues. The grass is head high in many parts & so thick it would be foolish even for me to walk through it without risking snake bite. I followed the main horse tracks such as they are. I checked along the creek thinking there could have been chemical drums washed downstream in the floods as has been a problem in other parts of eastern Australia. Then I headed to where the powerline guys have cleared regrowth away & there are several small stumps that seem very clean.

Yesterday while checking the electric fence I discovered a stump that seemed very clean. I don’t remember it being that clean before. It’s from a young tree the powerline guys cut & poisoned while here 2mths ago. They cut the tree at ground level then paint poison onto the flat stump.

So I’m wondering if Sonny has been licking those stumps. They are numerous. There was rain not long after they were cut. The company advises owners to keep livestock off the paddocks for 10days to avoid poisoning but my horses haven’t had access to the back paddocks much at all so I haven’t been counting. Suffice it to say it’s been lots longer than 10days since the men were here. However Sonny does have a predisposition towards chemical tastes. I think it's the salt in them.

So that’s as best I have discovered so far. This afternoon I let him out with the other 2 into the back paddock behind the house. They can’t go far or eat too much because they’ve only got 2hrs before feedtime.

My plan is to do that most afternoons from now on if there’s no rain until the wet season clicks in again. Which is not far off really since it’s already half way through September.

Today was his last AB injection & the abscess wound is pretty long but not weeping much now. He is walking on it now. However the smell is awfull & pervasive on my hands. If Sonny is sore or worse tomorrow & wound is weeping I might ring vet tomorrow & see if I can just get another bottle of AB rather than have to trundle Sonny down there.

Chablis

Copious_Amour