Bacardi has been doing so well lately, I should have seen this coming.
It's happening to everyone in the blogosphere.
So I don't know why I'm surprised.
It's like, the horses know when we want to do stuff and things with them and they manage to lame themselves somehow.
For my pretty horsebeast, this occurred Saturday, when I was supposed to be jumping with Amy at her house.
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| Super awesome at giraffing |
He loaded right up, I tacked up, I got on and we were just walking around when I felt something.
I might have noticed something was off if he didn't always have issues stepping off the trailer. if there was any time to refuse trailering, this qualified. But no, he got on. And only took a little bit to step off. Taking 12 minutes was a little not normal as of recently, but in the past it's taken longer.
No red flags.
So noticed an off-ness in his steps. It was so slight though. So so slight.
We were even joking how he had danced around a little when I put his back boots on. He's such a silly bitch about boots, I didn't even think twice about the possibility of him ACTUALLY trying to tell me something. I also didn't notice in the pic I had taken earlier, he wasn't standing in that leg. But that's normal for him.
No red flags had been raised.
I looked over at Amy and asked if she saw anything.
And then I asked him to trot.
He literally almost fell over lame.
Not even kidding.
It's like his hind end just wasn't working. At all.
Of course this raised alarm for me like "hello this is not normal what doing" but almost didn't register in my brain. It couldn't be. Bacardi hasn't been lame a step in over a year.
God dammit.
Denial.
So I hopped off and palpated EVERYWHERE. No reaction. None.
I asked him to trot again. Same thing. He was essentially falling sideways and looked like he was literally dying.
OK noted.
So I untacked and left him in the barn while Amy and her daughter rode and then we videoed trotting him out.
Due to an unfortunate mishap, I accidentally deleted every video I've ever taken and the epic lameness video was one.
I wish yall could've seen it.
Minus missing a leg I personally have never seen a horse that off in his life at the trot and look perfectly fine at the walk.
It was then I noticed he still wouldn't rest on that leg.
Wow duh.
I felt horrible. How did I not notice? I made him trailer all the way there and now would have to take him home and didn't notice.
WORST MOM EVER.
no but really no one would have noticed, knowing B and how he normally stands, unless you saw him trot off. And he was so good about trailering, none was needed.
Still felt bad though.
I presumed it was an abcess. No joint pain, heat anywhere or muscle aches when I palpated. Zero.
Had to be.
So I soaked the foot. Poulticed his whole leg and foot and let him chill for the night
I also texted my farrier videos and asked for advice. He was coming in a few days for the shoe reset, thankfully, so we decided to wait until then.
I for one am NOT the owner to call the vet unless there gaping wounds or colic. Generally problems sort themselves out. And vets are expensive. Call the horse police on me for it.
Obviously if his temp skyrocketed I would call the vet at the drop of a hat...but I was pretty confident this was an abcess.
It killed me to see the love in obvious pain, but I kept soaking and wrapping to help alleviate the pain.
I can't imagine how bad that feels.
Sure enough, two days later, farrier comes out and busts this baby wide open
Nasty, annoying fucker.
I knew it though.
So now we begin recovery.
Fucking horses man.
***Sidenote I have battled with blogger enough today....REALLY having issues with the format. Fuck it.
