we have an abscess (and we're happy about it)

About two weeks ago Salina made a mad gallop in the front field with the boys, and my daughter pointed out to me that she was just a bit off behind that evening. We gave her some Bute and kept an eye on her. She had a series of off again, on again days in which we kept her in the barnyard with her donkeys to give things a chance to get right.

By then it was seeming to me that it was her right front that was off. That knee is the most severely affected by arthritis. It got a little worse, it got a little better.

Throughout all this her appetite was the usual Hanoverian "give me my food NOW."

I used two homeopathic remedies. One was arnica and it seemed to help. I did another course of Bute, which didn't seem to help.

Yesterday things seemed worse. I called my husband home from work and prepared to call the vet, knowing that we might need to be ready to make a bigger decision. And then for some reason I went back out to Salina, who had positioned herself in the back door of her stall, half in and half out, right front hoof extended out onto the ramp of shavings that leads to the grass paddock. She was pushing the hoof down onto the shavings, and using her nose to push at the coronet band.

Now I had looked at her all over, every day for the past two weeks. No sign of anything. No swelling. When I first went out yesterday morning I'd noted that she had rolled during the night, and some part of me wondered how that could be if her knee was so bad. And I had the thought that maybe she had fallen but managed to get up. But the stunning thing was how GOOD she looks right now. Her weight is good, and her coat is shiny and dappled. It just didn't make sense to me that she could look so good and yet things seemed so bad with her knee.

As usual with Salina, when the humans around her seem hopelessly confused, she comes through with a big fat clue.

That right front foot.

She had positioned herself so that when I came back through the gate to the barn, I couldn't miss it. It was literally sticking out at me. And if that weren't enough, she was touching it with her nose.

So I took the hint and made another inspection.

There was a small bulging softness right at the coronet band. When I pushed on it, she bobbed her head. And there were the flies, who seem to be attracted to infection when it's just ready to surface.

Hallelujah! An abscess!

I immediately dashed back in and prepared a warm vinegar rinse, applied it to her hoof, and gave her a dose of homeopathic hepar sulph.

By the time my husband got home, she was already more chipper. She spent her day moving slowly, but using that hoof with a new intent. She knew it was time for that thing to blow.

She got another dose of hepar sulph before bedtime last night and this morning the abscess had blown. She's so much better.

In hindsight, I wonder if adding an antioxidant mix to her feed a few weeks ago has triggered this. Maybe there was something small inside the hoof capsule that needed to find its way out. In some weird way, I wonder if it's connected to the knee, and maybe this abscess blowing will clear things up some for her entire leg.

(those who read here regularly may recall that she has one abscess a year in the LEFT front hoof, and for whatever reason, that process has gotten a month or two later each year, and easier each time)

In any case, while hoof abscesses used to terrify me, when you have a 26-year old mare with arthritic knees and it turns out to be an abscess, it's a huge relief.

In this case, cause for celebration. I'm thinking of it as a clearing process. Blowing out all the yucky bad stuff before winter sets in.