dancing horses

dancing horses

Monday, March 6, 2023

Quaid Update

 Hi guys, I am not feeling creative enough right now (too tired) for a catchy title, so I just settled for saying what it was about. 

I had a call on Sunday from the resident. It seemed that once Quaid had his Easy Ride boots taken off he became decidedly lame. They decided to go in and found a huge abscess that they drained. There was, to quote the resident, 'lots of pus'. 

I headed home on Sunday and went to work Monday morning. When I arrived my work laptop was acting up. Then I had an email from the college saying that they were trying to reach me. I tried to call on my cell but had a message that I didn't have a plan. Like what the actual fuck? I used my work phone and spoke to the surgeon who just wanted to let me know her plan. 

I then spent an hour sorting out the cell phone thing. There was an error with them registering my auto payment. It was affecting a few users. And of course it was mine. Honestly, with luck like this I should be buying lotto tickets. 

Later in the afternoon the resident called me. They have carved open his foot and derided his coffin bone to get rid of all the infection. They believe they got it all. They also perfused antibiotics into the joint. He'll be one some strong (and expensive) antibiotics to make sure. Wednesday they will x-ray again to make sure.

 If all looks good they will have a farrier put on a medical plate. This will protect the hoof while it heals. I wrote everything down and also double checked because I was sure he said that the shoe would only be on for 3 weeks and then it can come off and he'll be fine. I asked about that because his hole did not heal. He said that it was because there was an infection and that was impeding the healing. 

My farrier and I talked as well and I'm going to try to find out out who the farrier is they use so that he can call him. I am so not fucking up this recovery. 

I asked and the resident said that his prognosis was good to  have a good career. I told him that that was not my concern. My concern was that he be pain free and reasonably sound. The rest I could deal with. He seemed surprised by that. 'look' I said 'I have learned with horses that plans and things that happen are two different things. I love this horse and want him to have a happy life. The rest we'll figure out.' 


That's all I know for now. If anyone has experience with a medical plate I'd love to hear about it. I'll share updates as I get them. 

Old photo from before. Not gonna lie- I'm not going 
to miss the wrapping. 


22 comments:

  1. Quaid is lucky to have you <3

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  2. My friend had one on her horses foot for ~8 weeks after he had surgery for a keratoma. I watched her remove it and clean it and pack a few times. It seemed pretty straightforward, but I wasn't doing it myself. He was a recently OTTB that had developed the keratoma post abscess. He did great, she used acupuncture and trazodone to help with his stall rest.

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  3. Poor you and poor Quaid but I'm glad things are still looking good. Hopefully this is just a blip in a very long, healthy, sound and happy life with you.

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    1. I really hope so. He's been through enough in his life.

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  4. I sure hope they got to the root of the problem and now he can just heal up and go back to being that happy horse. And you can go back to your happy place too!

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  5. So, a medical plate is a shoe with a (usually metal) plate that can be removed via screws for doctoring. Thankfully even though it looks super fancy, it's really not and your farrier will be able to help you with it. My husband is a farrier and has done them before. Basically, it just creates a space that's easier to keep clean so that the foot can heal. They'll probably pack it with iodine infused gauze or some other such thing to keep it as antiseptic as possible. You got this!

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  6. Been there, done that. The medical plate was very helpful to keep everything clean--and it was very easy to remove. My horse, Mingo, had the same kind of operation when he had an abscess that just wouldn't heal. I did have one complication with the healing process--he sprouted proud flesh that grew out of the hole. It looked like he had a mushroom. I think it took about a month before it went away.

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    1. Thanks for this. Hoping for zero mushrooms. 😁

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  7. Cowboy had a plate. The farrier came out and measured his foot and gave the template to the vet, and the vet designed something from cutting metal plates and boring out screw holes. The farrier came back out and put on the bottom plate and the farrier screwed on the top plate after packing it with sugar-dine. (Iodine and sugar). After that, I changed it twice a day, taking the plate on and off. Why did Cowboy have that plate? That is another, long story.

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    1. Thanks. I’m relieved hearing all the positive stories.

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    2. It does make it easier, and it stabilizes the hoof, too. That might decrease his pain.

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  8. Tristan has a plate right now! They're packing his in such a way that I won't have to remove it, but the farrier said they're pretty simple to deal with and they make a big difference in healing. You've got this!

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    1. How's he doing? did you need a cover over top of it to keep moisture out?

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  9. I'm really hoping that life gets real boring for you this spring! I'm sure it's a relief that the surgery is over and Quaid is on the mend. How long will he be in the hospital for?

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    1. Boring is good. I hope he comes home this weekend

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  10. Honestly sounds pretty good all things considered! I’ve heard good things about medical plates so hopefully it works great for Quaid!!

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  11. I'm so glad all went well! I hope this is going to be in your rear view mirror very soon.
    We had discussed a medical plate for Rio at one point. He had some proud flesh oozing out of his foot that we needed to keep up off the ground. But they were able to craft up a z bar shoe instead so I could keep treating it rather than covering it up. So I guess I'm not actually helpful here.... sorry.
    Regardless, I hope the recovery goes smoothly from here on out!

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