Wednesday, December 19, 2012



I'm afraid we're coming down to decision time with Jenny.  This is not all proud flesh as I thought.  Some of it seems to be cartilage.  I don't think cartilage outside the hoof wall is going to work, especially when the coronary band is as fragile as hers is. 

I got on the internet & at first thought it might be lateral cartilage, but that's suppose to be behind the coffin bone.   Of course no more coffin bone than she has left, maybe it has shifted to the front, who knows, I certainly don't.  I do know that it is one messed up foot.  The material isn't bone, I do recognize it as cartilage, like the cartilage at the end of a rack of ribs. 

The vet is suppose to be here next Wednesday to take x-rays.  The last ones taken in October I think, looked about like the ones taken in the spring, no shifting. 

She is still willing, no make that insisting to go out with the other donkeys & roam all over the place, so she has quality of life, but at what cost?  I don't mind taking care of her as long as the ears are up & the eyes are shiny, but I really would like to see something that would help me think there will be better times for her in the future. 

The hoof re-section is just about completely grown out, & if she hadn't popped an abscess above it, she would be on her way to being just one of the gang.  But the abscess started months of getting worse, developing into chronic infection that is probably in the coffin bone again. 




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will the cold or freezing temps make this foot worse? I think having this freeze would be very painful. Ellie

Tish said...

The weather doesn't seem to bother her at all. There is very little feeling in it if any, between the proud flesh which has no feeling & the perceived cartilage doesn't seem to have any feeling either. Trying to remove it is where we run into trouble, because of the vast amount of blood to the proud flesh. It's like cutting into an artery.