Slight Detour: Thursday This and That and Mr. Vader

Lefty Love is a talented horse.

He can stand in a bucket of Epsom salts and chew hay at the same time. More coordinated than his owner.

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Add doctoring three times a day to the list of "to do's" around here.

When ya have a horse like Lefty as a patient, it's an easy job.

Thanks to some help from my friends, like Tom and John, the farriers; and Jenni, the vet; AND Google, yesterday we figured out, after six days, what was making Lefty SO lame, that he almost fell to the ground sometimes while trying to walk.

It's called an abscess.

I thought at first, last Thursday, when he came from pasture very lame, that I had left him on grass too long that day and the day before.

Lefty is a prime candidate for laminitis/foundering which can lead to a permanent disability. So, I'm usually very careful regulating his diet.

Last week, however, we did some recreational activities which meant coming back to the Lovestead much past Lefty's exit-from-the-pasture time.

When the severe lameness came, I wanted to kick myself for not being more careful.

I kept him off from pasture, gave him an anti-inflammatory and observed him for a couple of days, finally deciding to contact Tom Selberg, my sisters' farrier who is available through social media, unlike my farrier John.

Tom told me that Lefty's lameness probably wasn't laminitis, maybe an abscess and recommended that I ask John to come over and use hoof testers on Lefty.

When John came on Monday, he found nothing.

And, during all that time Lefty showed no visible signs of why he was so lame. John figured, like many of us humans do, that Lefty had tweaked himself and would probably get over the lameness.

On Tuesday, I rubbed linament on Lefty's left leg three times.

Yesterday, when I went to the barnyard, Lefty's leg was suddenly swollen and warm, so I called for a vet.

During my initial phone conversation with Dr. Jenni Grimmett, who would be coming in the afternoon, the word "abscess" came up again. I remembered John saying that sometimes the abscess can be hard to detect with the testers.

So, I came to the computer, googled "symptoms for equine abscesses," and sure enough, Lefty had shown the classic signs with his leg suddenly swelling up.

Soak the hoof in epsom salts, the guidelines read.

So, that's what I did. Within five minutes of soaking, I detected a spot on the back of Lefty's hoof (the bulb) which was very tender to touch. The bulb on the other side brought no response.

Talk about excitement---to find something that might be causing all this distress gave me great hope.

Three hours later, just before Jenni arrived, I picked up Lefty's hoof and the most beautiful PUSS ever was coming from the tender bulb.

Lefty's abscess had burst, and even then, he was getting some relief.

Then, Jenni drove into the driveway. Yup, sure enough, Lefty would be on the mend. Jenni told me the abscess was located in such a place that hoof detectors would not have found it.

She also gave me some poultice, vet wrap and betadine to go with epsom salts for soaking.

He'll get two soakings today and a poultice wrap, all of which will draw out the infection.

We'll follow this regimen until all the swelling leaves his leg and he's walking without a limp.

I've already seen a dramatic improvement, and I'm thrilled to have such an easy-going, cooperative patient.

Thanks to all who helped Lefty and me through this emotional and painful time.

I think Lefty would echo that appreciation, especially because, even before Jenni's departure, he got to go to the pasture with his buddies for the first time in almost a week.

How many times have I said there's never a dull moment around this place! Whenever there is NOT a dull moment, I start worrying.

Happy Thursday.

Enjoy the photos, most of which were taken on an early evening drive to Lightning Creek last night where Bill was fishing.

We never touched bases because he told me this morning that he was in a place where he couldn't hear my calls on the two-way radio.

Still, it was a nice and pretty drive.