Life On and Off an Acreage

In-sights into moving from an Acreage back to Town, plus a few things I find of interest.

Two things that horses are scared about:


1. Things that move
2. Things that don't move




Old enough to be eccentric, but not rich enough

July 10, 2012

Update on Tucker

Underneath this is a BIG hole in the sole, and a DEEP hole. We had to get the vet back out as Tucker  reverted to a three legged horse once again. I tried to clean it out by myself, but she would not let me near it. The vet tried with the same result. After all, she is an 1100 pound horse.

So more sedative and another heavy dose of penicillin!  Once the sedative kicked in, he tried again, and again had difficulty. I grabbed an ear and twitched it hard to get her mind off the foot. Take your thumb and forefinger and grab an ear as hard as you can squeeze at the same time twisting the ear. This reminds you of your old school days, right?  It worked and he cleaned out the abscess again, and opened it up more. 

I will spare you pictures for two reasons. 1: It was a bloody mess with gobs of black stuff. 2: I couldn't hold the camera with one hand and twitch the ear with the other at the same time as dodging the odd hoof heading my way.

Under the duct tape is the hole packed with blue stone ( copper sulphate) and a one foot square of old denim to keep the chemical in and the dirt out.

When the vet was done, I soaked the hoof well with a solution of Epsom salts and water.

This morning she came running to greet me as if nothing was wrong. Due to the waterproof pack I put her back into the field with the other two horses. That's where she wanted to be. Once in with them, she stopped pacing and settled down.

I guess this is another use for duct tape that Red Green hasn't figured out!

12 comments:

  1. gosh, i hope this round does it! i hate to see animals suffer (and i know you do too!) and thank you for sparing us... i've had one horse abscess once, and that was enough.

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  2. I hope her foot will heal, sounds serious.

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  3. LOL I wish I had thought of that ear trick when we were trying to get a splinter out of a kid's foot! The duct tape was a great idea. Hope it heals well.

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  4. Hmmm, homemade easy boot, another use for duct tape. Hope it heals this time.

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  5. Poor girl I hope she mends fast. Richard

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  6. Gotta love that duct tape. I once read that the home handyman only needs two things, duct tape for things that move which should't, and WD40 for things that don't move which should.

    Hope the horse is feeling okay.

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  7. Oh my! I do hope the hoof heals well. Yet another fantastic use for duct tape.

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  8. Here's hoping this will work! I remember seeing that duct tape episode with Red Green. Hilarious!

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  9. We had the same thing happen to one of our horses. The fellow who put shoes on our horses cleaned it out very well, packed it with pine tar, put a piece of leather nailed on by the shoe and then stuffed it as full as he could get with ropey looking stuff that used to be used on old toilet installations - can't think of the name of it and and leather had a flap that tied around the foot. Worked very well. That was about the third time that had happened to her. But the last!

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  10. Yikes, poor thing, round 2. Hope that it heals fast and stays healed.

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  11. Good grief... dealing with hooves can be a real handful. I hope this time there is much improvement. I have some colored duct tape I could send! Pink and purple so not sure if that works :) Get well wishes to Tucker!

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  12. Sending healing thoughts to Tucker. I don't like to see any animal suffer, especially horses.

    I have a feeling that if Red Green had a horse, he'd find lots of ways to utilize duct tape! :-D

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