Last night I left the wraps off Emmy's hind legs, although I still did poultice it with a gauze sleeve to hold the poultice paper in place. This afternoon it wasn't really any better, but after 20 minutes of ice and a 45 minute walk some of the swelling had gone down a bit. I jogged her again and she is 100% sound. Temp is still normal, no heat in the hoof and no digital pulse. There is however, still heat just under her hock on the inside of the leg. The rest of the leg seems to be cooling a bit, but no swelling has gone down anywhere else. She is eating fine and seems perfectly normal. I'm still not sure what to do...I've had two outside opinions chime "bone bruise" already, but after two days of 2 grams of bute, ice and cold hosing, wouldn't you think that the swelling would go down a little more? The fact that I can't get the heat or swelling out concerns me. I think I'm going to give it one more day and then call the vet if there is no improvement...tomorrow would be the 4th day (including Saturday when I found it) that is has been swollen.
Here is a photo update from today. Again, sorry for the poultice chunks. The area of concern to me is just below the chestnut on the inside of the hock. You can see the swelling there. It is firm swelling with heat. This photo also gives you a nice comparison of how big the leg is compared to her left hind.
In a little brighter news, I took Johnny next door and used the neighbors outdoor ring to school him last night. He was actually quite good despite being in a new place and wanting to watch everything going on outside the ring. I admit that I did ride him in ear puffies yesterday just to help him focus...it didn't help a whole lot lol.
We did however, have much better canters on both leads, including simple changes across the diagonal :)
Of course it has rained all day today, so no more riding for a while again. Omg spring....s
Keep your fingers crossed for Emmy still :(
Peace.Love.Ponies.
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My mare loves her ear puffs! She can still hear everything through them and sometimes her ADD gets the best of her. The real change that I noticed when we first started using them is that they helped her relax. I could literally feel tension melting out of her back. Personality and "reactivity" doesn't change, just her relaxation levels. I've been told, and it makes sense, that they point where ear puffs 'wedge' into the ears is an accupressure point for relaxation much like when a person strokes the base of their ear to cause relaxation.
ReplyDeleteStill jingling for Emmy, glad to hear it's getting slightly better at least.
Johnny likes his too I think! They do exactly that for him...just kind of give him a chance to take a deep breath. I never thought of the fact that they make contact with the ear and the acupressure point, but that makes a lot of sense!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Emmy well wishes...see my latest post for updates.