'The diary of Poncho, a trip to lameness and beyond'

The diary of Poncho, a trip to lameness and beyond

By Kelly at 09/14/07 14:01

My horse, Poncho, who is a beautiful paint gelding is going through a really tough time. Last Friday, I had a new farrier trim and reshoe my two horses. Unfortunately, he drove a nail right into the quick of his hoof and now Poncho cannot even walk on his left front hoof.

I am picking up the story here on Friday (one week from the injury). It was actually Wednesday when it was discovered that Poncho had a problem because he is in an outer paddock and I had not ridden him or seen him since the day after he got the new shoes.

I got a call from the owner of the boarding stables informing me that Poncho was completely lame in the front end. I made my way over there immediately and we pulled the shoe off. The blood was just running out of his foot, which was amazing since it could have easily have turned into a big abcess.

After pulling the shoe, I let his foot soak in a bucket of Epsom salts and then applied some antiseptic and a bandage to keep his foot dry since it was pretty muddy outside still because of some rain. Poor guy, he can't even walk normally on that foot. I really wish I had not made the decision to try an unknown farrier.

Thursday, I went on two different trips to the barn to soak the foot for 20-25 minutes. After that, I let the foot air dry on a clean paper towel for a bit and then put some poultice on it, and put two maxi-pads (yes you read it right) on the bottom of the foot. I put a couple of strips of duct tape over that to hold it in place for a minute then placed HALF a bath sponge about two inches thick on the bottom of the foot. I vet wrapped thw whole thing in place and then covered the whole thing with duct tape to keep the moisture out. I made sure the tape wasn't too tight around the coronet band so it didn't restrict his curculation. The padding really helped since then he had to walk clear out to the paddock again. He limped a lot less going out than coming in.

Now it's Friday and I have already made one trip out to the barn to soak and rewrap the foot. He is really making progress, but I am still agonizing over finding a farrier to work on him again, since he is still without one shoe.

I guess I shouldn't put the shoe before the horse, since he can't even walk right yet, let alone be ridden.

More on Poncho's progress later.

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