Still wrestling with scratches

Last Monday I got to the barn and the area just above Dude's back left fetlock, the heel that has the scratches, was swollen. I called the vet and they said they could come out the next day and suggested I give him a dose of smz tablets that I had on hand. That night I scrubbed the area again with Betadine, and asked someone to wrap him to help with the swelling.

When I arrived for the vet appointment the next day, the swelling had really gone down - the miracle of smz's! The vet checked him over, including a little mystery spot that I had noticed on his back RIGHT coronary band, which turned out to be an abscess popping through. It had basically popped through overnight, because when I noticed it the night before, it was sort of like a tiny bubble. Sigh. I guess it was good that it came through, because she said that I just needed to soak it for a couple days to get it cleaned out, and dab it with ichthammol afterwards, and that he could continue to go outside (yay!). That spot seems to have healed up nicely.

Back to the scratches. She wanted him off the smz's and the bute until the abscess healed, unless the swelling got bad again. So I took him off both, and kept wrapping him (actually - having other people wrap him - more on that) at night. The swelling pretty much stayed down until this weekend, when the horses had to stay in because of the weather, but it hasn't been too bad, and he wasn't lame when I trotted him tonight. The scratches seem to be healing, but it is a s-l-o-w process. Basically the irritation is right in the crease that occurs when he rests his back left foot. I think that even though I've been working the Desitin into the whole area, it sort of oozes/squeezes off that particular area when he bends the foot. The vet was pretty dismissive of the Corona's effectiveness, so I quit using that.

Upon the recommendation of someone in the barn, last night I started trying a new concoction, a mixture of equal parts of Desitin, antibiotic cream (a Neosporin generic) and a hydrocortisone cream (a Cortaid generic). It seemed to be a mix that made sense. I thought his heel looked better today, but that darn crease is still fairly red. Scrubbed him again and lathered the mix on. I'm starting to feel like I always have the aroma of Desitin wafting about me.

Back to the wrapping. I never learned to wrap; the kids always did it. And our horses really were never wrapped for much except for traveling, and in recent years I've used shipping boots. And for some reason I was really paranoid about doing it "wrong." I guess I've heard all these horror stories about bad wrapping jobs that stuck in my mind for some reason. But truly, it was getting a bit ridiculous always asking people to wrap for me so I took the plunge this week. I've done it three nights now and have had more expert wrappers in the barn double check me to make sure the job is done right. So far so good. I'm horribly, painstakingly slow and poor Dude definitely gets the award for patience. Tonight I thought I detected a sigh from him as I clipped him into the crossties in preparation for wrapping. :)