I made my own soaking boot!

Sorry for my lack of posts this week. I have been going crazy the past 7 days. I want to rip my hair out!!

Hormonal Mare and I had finally fallen into a routine and were doing quite well until she decided to turn herself into a lame, three legged wonder. That's right! The previous Thursday went well. We had a small spook, but it was more than easy to handle. In fact, she never spooked again, even in the same corner. She must have some intelligence in order to have figured that one out. On Saturday, we saddled up and started out a little rocky. I noticed Hormonal Mare was acting according to her name ... hormonal. She was swishing her tail, pinning her ears, and other typical mare type behaviors. She also felt a tad tender on her right front. I assumed she would work out of it, but 5 minutes later she was hopping lame. I checked the pusle on her pastern and was thumping.

To those of you who don't know this, you should NOT be able to feel a pulse on the pastern. If you do, it means there is pain in the hoof. The pusle can be found near the large vein that runs vertically along the side of the pastern. If you cannot for the life of you feel it, then the pain is caused by something else other than the hoof.

It is either a bruise or an abscess. Heaven only knows which. I am okay with this, though. Being the annoying, antagonizing worrier, I imagined all sorts of horrible outcomes that it could have been. A broken coffin bone, Navicular, Laminitis, and other such cruelties that horses are subject to. Luckily, it is something easier to deal with than those others. However, if any of you have dealt with a sore hoof before you must be able to physically feel my pain right now. It HURTS. My head is going to explode out of my temples.

Being me, hahahahahahahahahahaha, I created a make shift soaking boot. Rather than spend $40 and have to wait a week, I wanted one NOW (as in, right this minute it better poof and magically appear in front of my eyeballs). As it turns out, a velcro bell boot, duck tape, and card board does the trick rather well. Hormonal Mare is actually very good about wearing it for the 15 minutes it takes to soak. She doesn't move much with it on, thank the good Lord in heaven. For her leave on spa treatment, I am using baby diapers and duck tape to make a pasture boot that will hold in the sugar/iodine solution that will help draw out the abscess.

Now it is a waiting game. At the moment, she is comfortable on bute and is not lame. If I take away the bute, she goes 3-legged lame again. I really cannot figure out if this is a bruise or an abscess. It is driving me nuts! The farrier will be out on Tuesday and maybe he can help me do something with this bum hoof.