Wolfie the Wonder Horse!

Wolfie the Wonder Horse!
Wolfie, 24/02/08

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Not as sound as a brass bell












Wolfie is lame.  He got cast in his stable last Tuesday, there was no-one else at the stables at the time, but I managed to get him back over but as he was standing up he slipped and his off right hind leg went right under him and hit the floor.  I give Wolfie a massive bed as the floor in his stable is like an ice rink, but obviously he's still able to reach the floor and this is what happens.  I've now invested in rubber matting (something I should have done ages ago), so hopefully it will be here before the weekend.  There was nothing to see on his leg and he walked out alright so I turned him out for the night.  Wednesday he seemed ok, but on Thursday I popped him on the lunge and within 2 strides of trot it was clear that he was unlevel behind.  I couldn't tell exactly which leg it was, but given the events of Tuesday I thought it was probably his right hind.  I kept him in on Thursday night and the vet came out on Friday.  I was totally dreading the vet coming.  After his virus last year, Wolfie has been horrendous with the vet and he's never had a full lameness work up before with the vet picking up his feet etc.  I was imagining all sorts of scenarios involving Wolfie and the vet in an open space and me clinging onto the leadrope.  Surprisingly, Wolfie was an absolute star.  He seemed to thoroughly enjoy trotting up and down and wasn't overly concerned about the vet picking his feet up.  I suppose it makes a nice change from having needles jabbed in you.  A flexion test confirmed it was the right hind.  He also reacted in his foot to the hoof testers on that leg, but nothing really significant.  To be honest I think he was just wanting to put his foot down, but the vet removed his shoe anyway, just to check.  There was nothing to see.  Given what had happened, the vet thinks it's likely that it's some sort of soft tissue injury higher up the leg.  He was to be box rested until today when he got his shoe back on.  This was mainly due to how water logged and boggy the fields have been with the torrential rain.  So he's been in, I poulticed his foot for a couple of days seeing as the shoe was off, but nothing showed.  He's on a course of Danilon for 10 days.  He got his shoe back on today and he was to get turned out.  He's been very good being box rested, but by today he had evidently had more than enough and was getting dangerous leading him out and he had started manically box walking and trying to climb the door.  I would have liked to have turned him out in a small fenced off area so he couldn't mess around, but there was nowhere else for him to go.  I made sure he was really hungry before I turned him out and let him across the field over to the other horses, I held onto him while he grazed and then tried to take his headcollar off hoping that he wouldn't notice and would just continue grazing.  Famous last words as he whizzed past me like a rocket.  Actually for Wolfie it wasn't too bad, I've seen him a lot worse and that's when he hasn't been on box rest.  I like how the other horses just completely ignore him as if it's just not happening.  I'm glad though as if they'd joined in that might have set him right off.  He quickly got his head down to eat.  He was out for a few hours today and he's back in the stable overnight. He'll go out around lunch time tomorrow and I'll just build his turn out up again till I try him out overnight. Just need to see how it goes, but hopefully he's just given himself a twist and it will settle itself with time and a bit of rest.  Horses eh.

3 comments:

Suzie said...

I expect he's just strained it when he slipped. But bless him - that is one happy horse being turned out there! I love how the others ignore him, even when he tries to nip one on the bum to get it to play with him!
And I am totally in love with the background scenery and very very jealous. Although not of water-logged fields - we have sandy soil round here so it doesn't ever get boggy. But we have to do without beautiful mountain scenery!

clairesgarden said...

3275"bucking and farting"
"airs above the ground"
"mud"

I love him. lol!!!!

clairesgarden said...

i dont know what the numbers are that came up in that coment.... pc glitch??