Jenny will be staying up at the clinic for a few days. They took x-rays & she has a bone infection that has eaten away about 1/2 of her coffin bone. SIGH! The x-rays in November looked like the coffin bone was intact, there was a channel in the tissue beside the coffin bone going up to the coronet, where the infection was moving around. At that time the vet said it looked like a garden variety abscess nothing earth shattering.
They will do surgery tomorrow morning to do a hoof resection. This is what I didn't want to have to do, because we have no clean, dirt free place to keep her. Dr. Voss seemed to think that if we keep her confined for a few weeks & keep it covered with a diaper that further infection shouldn't be a problem.......if they can get it cleaned out.
So it looks like she will be staying in 1/2 of the hay barn, 12'x40'. She'll be out of the weather, if we have any & the ground is soft & covered with old hay. John said he would rake it all up, but I think it will give her something to do, prowling around looking for tidbits. She isn't going to be the least bit happy to not be going out, I'm sure of that.........!!!! So having something to occupy her would probably be a good idea.
I asked Dr. Voss what he thought might cause her to have both front feet do this 5 years ago, & now this. He said he thinks some animals have lousy feet & lousy hooves. All it takes is a break in the enclosed structure for bacteria, germs or whatever to get in & gain a foothold.
In hindsight I guess we should have taken her in sooner. I've been soaking her foot every day & we tried antibiotics, but he said it was probably too deep for anything to make difference. It's been a roller coaster, it would dry up, she would walk sound & I'd think we were on the right track. Then it would ooze & she would be lame for a couple of days, I'd about decide to call the vet, & she'd go sound again.
She'll probably be up there until sometime next week. That way they can do all the initial doctoring.
1 comment:
Tish...keeping fingers crossed & positive thoughts for Jenny.
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