"The Old Soft Shoe"

Here is Pookey Bear and his good buddy Joe, standing outside La Mesa Equine, where Joe and Dr. W hit upon the magic solution that has given Pookey a new lease on life (at least for today!)

Joe is holding in his hand the device that Pookey now has glued to his formerly painful right front foot. It is, of all things, a rubber shoe.

I realize that seems like kind of a 'duh' thing to non-horse people. After all, we wear rubber shoes when we have foot pain, right?

But rubber shoes are not that typical in the horse world.

In fact, in my half century or so of living, I have never seen another horse wearing a rubber shoe!

Anyway, on Wednesday Pookey got a great trim and a shoe that looks just like this:

And for the first time in many weeks, he is virtually pain-free!

In fact, he was trying to do a bit of 'the old soft shoe' on today's walk.

Next project: try to keep Pookey from dancing around in his stall...

Oh, and bake some cookies for Joe and Dr. W!

Whassup?

Whassup with Pookey Bear walking again?

Stay tuned for more info!

Homemade soaking boot

For those of you unlucky enough to be soaking a horse's foot, I have an innovative design for a homemade soaking boot I would like to share.

Pookey's veterinary team suggested using the sleeves that IV bags come in, but when I reached for the IV bag sleeves at my house, I realized they were cat IV bags, not horse IV bags.

Big difference!

So I have improvised.

I use a heavy duty two-gallon ZipLock bag that I have reinforced with duct tape, inside and out, bottom only. I simply slip this on the horse's hoof, set it down on something soft (usually a towel) and pour in the soaking solution. I then zip it partway shut, wrap the top lightly around his cannon bone, and slap on my big, puffy, easy-fasten TB track bandage over top.

Voila!

The best part is that with the toe being see-through, I can monitor his progress rather easily.

Well, what I hope is progress.

Warning: graphic photo alert!

Here is a photo of the tip of his toe, and a little area where I think we are starting to get some drainage...

Everyone who thinks this is drainage, raise your hand.

Everyone who thinks this is not drainage, raise your hand.

Hey, you, in the back there...

If it's not drainage, then what is it?!?!?

The Goal

Someday, Pookey's right front hoof is going to look like this again.

And when it does, I am going to do a casting of it, and fill it with molten bronze, and erect a hoof statue in front of the barn. There it will stand, as a reminder to me that hard work eventually pays off, right? And that things don't happen overnight, and that anything worth having is worth working for, and so on and so forth (feel free to fill in the platitude of your choice...)

Until that time, I am once again soaking, soaking, soaking, and massaging, and wrapping, and doping, and so on and so forth...

Pookey, thank goodness, is maintaining his cheerful attitude. His lameness today on our brief two-minute walk started out at a four on a five scale, but he picked up a lot of steam toward the end of his walk and improved to a three out of five.

We will see what tomorrow brings!

Doing Chores at Ice Station Zebra

Can you guess what these three tubs are doing in this photo?

Time's up!

I'll tell you. They are holding water, water that we ran into them three days ago before the arctic weather moved in.

Water that would supply our horses, when the faucets all froze.

So far our supply is holding up pretty well. I drag out the axe and chop on a tub first thing in the morning, dip enough for the five horses, then repeat the process twice more each day.

I am also spreading manure by hand, and hauling hay and feed in the wheelbarrow since the Ranger battery decided it didn't like the cold.

This morning I hefted all of our trash into the pickup before I checked to see if it would start.

It didn't, so I had to yank it all back out again and pile it into the wheelbarrow, a little bit at a time, for the journey down the road.

It took me five trips to get it all.

By the time I finished, my feet and hands were so numb that I didn't even realize I had cut my thumb.

When I finally noticed it, while parceling out feed, I grabbed a bottle of Pookey's povidone and splashed some on, liberally.

Pookey Bear continues to persevere, despite a lot of discomfort in his right front. I am massaging his pastern and coronary band several times a day, which he enjoys greatly.

Perhaps the cold will eventually numb the pain!

Tex, again...while Pookey rests...

Pookey Bear is still under the weather, dealing with pain in his RF from either abscesses or compression/bruising or something...

He continues to have a good appetite and is only moderately depressed, spending most of his time listening to the radio and watching his friend Zippy--who is feeling better!--dance around his stall.

Tex, meanwhile, continues to frolic in the snow every time we go out to feed!

It's cold outside!

The winter storm has moved in, and with it, snow.

Pookey is locked up in his cozy barn, feeling a tiny bit better with two days' worth of Equioxx in his system, but still not moving around very much.

I have also wrapped both of his legs from forearm to foot, hoping to keep them toasty warm to help improve his circulation.

Tex, meanwhile, is reveling in the snow! Like Pookey Bear, he got a new coat this Christmas. And, like Pookey, he needed an XL :-)

Gimme a cookie instead...

In an effort to provide some additional enrichment for Mr. Wonderful, I recently purchased this Himalayan salt to place in his snack apple.

Prior to becoming IR, he was used to being treated with the apple or carrot Likits, which are now strictly verboten.

He loved them.

But like his owner, who prefers Mrs. Field's cookies to potato chips, he is not so drawn to the Himalayan salt.

Must not have much Przewalski's horse in his background...

New Year's Resolution--a clean barn!

Here is Pookey, standing in his clean barn.

That is because his primary caregiver added the following to her voluminous list of New Year's Resolutions: keep the barn clean!

Missing from this photo are the usual rakes, shovels, buckets, brooms, hay bales, shavings bags, empty feed sacks, soak basins, rolls of Vet Rap, polos, quilts, Soft Rides, shipping boots, supplement tubs, trash cans and more that usually clutter up Pookey's alleyway.

He is hoping that with the new space we have created, he can get a large screen tv.

Being frugal, he doesn't mind if we get one off Craigslist.

He still does not feel much like walking since his last trim on Monday. So--without those twice daily walks we have been enjoying--he is looking for ways to pass the time doing something besides eating.

Any suggestions?