For the last 4 or 5 days Filly has been much much better. She can now walk on concrete with only a little lameness. Where she used to dip her nose almost to the ground when her left front foot touched the ground she is now much more even. I can only assume that the equithane pads we had tried in her shoes had put too much pressure on the sole and had bruised it. Once the pad was removed it took a while for the bruising to heal.
Despite the improvement I have taken the descision to leave her on box rest. There are two reasons for this
1) We cannot afford for her to run around the field and pull a shoe off. To go barefoot at Rockley farm they want her brought there with at least 4 weeks of good hoof growth
2) When she had the tildrum and hrydro cortisone injection the vet was keen that she had at least 2 weeks box rest to give the injections a chance to work
So the problem has been to manage her on box rest. To be honest she has been much calmer than in the past and pretty easy to deal with. I've groomed her twice a day partly to get the dust off her and partly to give her main muscle groups a good massage. She started not liking being groomed at all, but now actually seems to enjoy it. This enforced rest has actually been very good for her. She's had a lot of attention and has become much calmer being handled. Possibly because I have been on leave from work and able to give her a very consistent way of being handled.
I played with her a little today. Just getting her to back up over a pole one foot at a time, then come forward one foot at a time. And by one foot at a time I mean pausing for at least 30 seconds between moving each foot. This is to prepare her for getting on and off the trailer. If you remember her big problem is getting her feet over the lip of the trailer onto the ramp, particularly the back ones. So this acts as preparation for that.
Despite the improvement I have taken the descision to leave her on box rest. There are two reasons for this
1) We cannot afford for her to run around the field and pull a shoe off. To go barefoot at Rockley farm they want her brought there with at least 4 weeks of good hoof growth
2) When she had the tildrum and hrydro cortisone injection the vet was keen that she had at least 2 weeks box rest to give the injections a chance to work
So the problem has been to manage her on box rest. To be honest she has been much calmer than in the past and pretty easy to deal with. I've groomed her twice a day partly to get the dust off her and partly to give her main muscle groups a good massage. She started not liking being groomed at all, but now actually seems to enjoy it. This enforced rest has actually been very good for her. She's had a lot of attention and has become much calmer being handled. Possibly because I have been on leave from work and able to give her a very consistent way of being handled.
I played with her a little today. Just getting her to back up over a pole one foot at a time, then come forward one foot at a time. And by one foot at a time I mean pausing for at least 30 seconds between moving each foot. This is to prepare her for getting on and off the trailer. If you remember her big problem is getting her feet over the lip of the trailer onto the ramp, particularly the back ones. So this acts as preparation for that.
1 comment:
That is a great exercise for trailer prep! I'll have to remember to try that with Lady :)
Post a Comment