Say “Yes!” to the Abscess

Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in the health and well-being of Knight, my new-ish OTTB.

After spending about a half hour with the assistant trainer as my assistant hoofsoaker/duct tape wrapper (which basically means she got Knight out of his stall, warmed the water and held him throughout the procedure) I was able to wrap Knight’s hoof again yesterday. The whole scenario was part Three Stooges, part I Love Lucy.

Knight stood pretty well in the water, but when I was about to pack the poultice into the supposed abscess crevice, I realized that I had forgotten to pick his hoof and there were bits of stall bedding packed into the foot. So did the Epsom salts water even make it up to the abscess area?

The plastic chair that I turned into a supply table which had the gauze, the water heater, my cell phone, the duct tape, the Mag-60 Paste, the Epsom salts, the bandage scissors, and paper towel roll did not have a hoof pick on it either. That would have been too easy!

I couldn’t bear the thought of letting his wet foot touch the sawdusty, gravelly ground for a split second, and so I turned the unused, opposite end of the tongue depressor that already had the green goo on it and madly scraped the cavity of his hoof.

Let me insert a tangential thought here: I know many readers in the colder parts of the country wish they had the 80 degree weather like we did yesterday. Well, those same people yearning for warmer climes most likely have barns with aisles that have cross ties and cement or some other clean flooring and wash racks with hot, cold, and warm water. Yes, the weather here is nice, but don’t overlook the perks of your environment (even if it’s super cold and snowy). 🙂

I then reached–really reached because I put the chair a little too far away from Knight’s hind end for me to reach the items easily–for a paper towel to dry off the bottom of his hoof, and then slapped the duct tape square onto his still damp foot. Apparently I did not use enough paper towel or paper towel is a sorry stand-in for a real towel because, the silvery tape was not adhering very well

I knew this foot soaking/wrapping session was on the verge of full-blown fiasco. But I commented to the assistant trainer that surely applying several other pieces of tape onto the foot would make it stick, right? She agreed it probably would.

When I completed my world’s-ugliest wrapped hoof project, the assistant trainer said, “Why don’t you lead him to the stall so I won’t feel guilty if it comes off while I’m leading him,” (or something to that effect).

I led him home to his hay pile, the tape stayed on.

As I walked back to pick up my supplies, the assistant trainer said, “Did you see the video of me lunging Knight yesterday? He looked pretty good.”

I hadn’t seen the video. We paused to watch it on her iPhone. On the small screen I saw my bay horse trot to the left and trot to the right. No head bob. He looked perfectly normal. Hallelujah!

And so, as you might imagine, I felt pretty foolish for going through all the steps to wrap his foot again. The End.

Epilogue: Knight will get his shoe replaced on Wednesday and I couldn’t be happier!

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