At the schooling show a few weeks ago, I noticed Cholula had a small abrasion, just above her front left hoof. I figured she stepped on herself while loading or in the trailer or whatever, and made a note to clean it up when we got home.
Fast forward to a week later, and it still was looking about the same. Which was weird, because a skin abrasion like that shouldn’t still be oozing, right? So I decided to wash it with some viodine, put more ointment on, and reassess at a later date. Except as I was feeling around her pasterns, I noticed lots of little scabs.
Can you believe that in all of the wet Springs and Falls Cholula has lived outside through, she has never had scratches? But she gets them in Texas?
Ugh. So we are dealing with that. They were better after a week and now I feel like they are the same, but at least no worse.
As it turns out, however, scratches are the least of my worries. That small abrasion? After a few weeks of it continuing to weep and bleed and me going “Shouldn’t this be a scab by now?!” it suddenly looked…absolutely disgusting. And huge. It’s grown to about 2-3x the size of the original abrasion, and looks like raw meat.
I didn’t really know what to do at that point. Of course from Tuesday-Saturday it exploded, and I didn’t want to overreact but it looked really gross. Not infected, at least. I took a picture and asked facebook. I got everything from rain rot to an abscess to flies eating it, and then…summer sore. One of the vets called me back and left a message around this time, confirming that it sounded like a summer sore.
And this is why I do not recommend living in a state without winter because NOTHING DIES.
The vet came out yesterday and told me to make it my “new religion” to keep flies off of it or it will never heal. Basically, some flies picked up some nasty larvae from somewhere (presumably manure, but seeing as her deworming is on schedule I’m not convinced they are living in her belly) and then decided her foot was dinner, and while they were at it deposited some of this disgusting larvae in the wound. She is apparently allergic to this business, which is why her body has reacted the way it has.
So, steroid cream with swat over it, some gauze, and a vet wrap bandage that CROSS YOUR FINGERS STAYS PUT. And then all of that doused in fly spray. I put the first bandage on yesterday and will be changing it this evening – not ideal, but hopefully it will be fine. I am going to add some wonderdust tonight to assist in making a crust/scab that will stay on it better, but I’ll be out every night to change the bandage. She has also been dewormed with Ivermectin and I will deworm her again in a week. I ordered fly boots that drop down over the top of the hoof and hope that will help assist if bandages come off. I will also be adding duct tape to at least secure it on the hoof.
On a positive note, she’s completely sound and we’ve been having a lot of fun in our rides. So…that’s something I guess. Also, she has taken to grooming me. This started the other day, when she was acting like she had a fly or an itch on her chest but was cross tied and couldn’t reach it. So I went over to look, saw nothing, and she started grooming my back. Yesterday she was grooming my head and arms. She is kind of adorable. And weird.
Oh, Cholula 