Wednesday 5 September 2012

03/09/12 Wellow Trekking Centre, nr Bath

Cognac and I are currently at Wellow Trekking Centre, 7 miles south of Bath. We are held up here as Cognac is trotting up lame on his off fore. He is fine in walk (with shoes on) and has been striding out as usual, although he has been a bit touchy on stony ground.

I had the vet out to see him on Sunday and he has had his front shoes off to allow the vet to hoof test him and to par away some foot to look for any infection. He only found a bit of bruising, but thought that there was a chance that there was infection brewing, but not yet visible. I was therefore advised to apply a hot, wet poultice to the foot 2-3 times a day to draw out any infection. Dara, the vet was very reassuring and said that he hoped to get us back on the road by mid week. He also had a look at Cognac's general condition and put my mind to rest about his weight. He said that his condition was good and that he looked healthy and well and very fit. He compared him to a racehorse and said that although he wasn't holding any excess weight, he had just walked 1000 miles, so it was all relative. Dara's only words of warning was to watch that he didn't tie up in the next few days, as he wouldn't be working.

The poulticing failed to produce anything so we saw a colleague of Dara's on Wednesday, Tamara. Tamara watched Cognac trot up and hoof tested him again, noting that it was the bulb of his heel that was particularly sore and looked slightly swollen. I asked if it could be anything higher up the leg and she said that as there was no swelling or heat on his legs that she was 99.9% certain that the lameness was coming from his foot and not higher up. The advice now is to stop poulticing the foot as there is nothing coming out and this is leading to his hoof tissue softening and the potential of thrush. Cognac is on a course of Penicillin to clear up any infection that may be present, a sachet of Danillon a day for pain relief and he is to have his shoes put back on on Thursday, in the presence of the vet, so we can work to get him comfortable.

I also took a trip down the road to Totally Tack Ltd, in Frome, to look at the possibility of hoof boots for his front feet. The lady in charge said that she kept her horses a few miles up the road from Wellow and one of her horses has the same size feet as Cognac, so kindly offered to bring them over after she finishes work to try them on Cognac and see how they felt.

While we are stationary I hope to take the opportunity to update the missing days on my blog.

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