Vet Findings

In short: the vet found nothing conclusive but a new injury in the opposite leg.

can't stay out of trouble to save his life.

It's kind of become a running joke that every time I call Vet out to look at Bobby's RF, he is without fail off in the LF instead. Since his entire RF from his knee down is covered in a flesh eating fungus (definitely not showing you guys pictures until it's further along in healing because right now it looks like he needs a full limb transplant, and I quite literally threw up a little yesterday cleaning it) I at least had undeniable evidence this time around that I know which leg my horse is crippled in.

However, while Vet was down there picking and poking at the RF, she looked over at the left leg and asked if the fungus had spread. Uhhhhh, no, don't even suggest that! Further prodding revealed the scabby patch was just mud over a cut--a large, incredibly swollen, painful to the touch cut he didn't have when I'd turned him out five hours earlier.

She switched legs and started investigating further, finally finishing with, "I'm having trouble telling if that's soft tissue damage along the splint bone I'm feeling."

STOP TOUCHING MY HORSE AND GIVING ME MORE PROBLEMS RIGHT THIS SECOND.

I quickly reminded her that Bobby has old, set splints in all four legs and she agreed that she might be hitting that instead, and since the swelling was so bad it was hard to tell. Three days of Bute twice a day was prescribed for that before we moved back to Fungus Leg. Fortunately, as of this morning, the swelling has finally fully subsided and it looks like nothing more than a plain old cut that's healing up really well.

"i don't care if there are other horses in the barn
that need attention, give me cookies now!"

As far as Fungus Leg, she didn't know what was going on with it. She took a skin scraping (waiting for her to call me back today with those results), and biopsied three different spots to send off to Cornell. I should have those results back by the end of the week. She left me with a tub of Vetosan which is nothing more exciting than ChlorHex lotion since everything else is burning his skin and until we know what exactly we're dealing with we don't want to put anything else on it.

He also went back on SMZs--a larger dose this time--less to stave off whatever is going on with his leg and more to keep cellulitis at bay since she still wants him turned out, but his skin keeps splitting open.

Not an aggressive approach, but it's getting results. BM and Farrier both looked at it today for the first time since last Wednesday (BM was at a multi-day show) and were appalled with how it looks. I was actually pretty happy. It spent the weekend blowing pus everywhere. I peeled off all the hair along his cannon bone and got most off his pastern, but underneath is healthy looking skin already trying to grow some peach fuzz. With the pus gone as of this morning, the swelling is almost completely down as well.

It still looks horrendous. Clearly there's something very not right going on inside the leg. Until results come back so that we know exactly what we can throw at it without making it worse, it's just a waiting game. I'm keeping it clean, keeping him on the antibiotics, and making sure no fever pops up.

Fingers crossed progress moves forward at lightning speed so we won't have to miss another show. I already don't know how much time I have left to compete this horse with how his feet are. I'd hate to have to throw away our last season ever because of skin crud.