God is Laughing At Me

This is the kind of thing that really makes me wonder if there is such a thing as fate, destiny, or karma.  Luck perhaps?  Although that doesn't seem to quite cover the sublime irony of it all.

Maybe it's that greasy little guy in the orange Naugahyde Easy-Chair who is always peering down at us just waiting for the perfect moment to let loose with the cosmic fly swatter?

Yeah, him.  I bet he's laughing his ass off right now.

***

As anyone who knows me or has read this blog for any amount of time would guess, one of the first things I did with Ben when he got here a couple of weeks ago was carefully inspect his feet.  I had looked at them, of course, and they are mostly in decent shape.  They were in need of a trim and one of them had what appeared to be deep sulcus thrush in the frog.  This can be painful and cause a lot of problems if left untreated, but it is nothing I haven't dealt with before.  It needs to be taken seriously, but it can be fixed and I am not intimidated by it.

I got out my preferred cure and my hoof knife and set to work.  And that is when I heard the first tiny whisper of doubt in the back of my mind.  Being a typical human, I am as good as the next guy at callously ignoring clear evidence that points to an unwanted truth.  We only believe what we want to believe.

When I injected the thrush treatment into the sulcus area, I was met with a nasty, grey ooze creeping back out of the crevice, which is not good and not normal.  It had an odd smell and looked entirely unwholesome.  The whisper got a little louder, but I didn't want to hear it so I stuffed it in a box with a tight lid and shoved it into a dark, unused corner of my mind.  I got out the big guns and packed the foot with my magical Magic Cushion and wrapped it well with an elastikon bandage.

Secure in my denial and faith in Magic Cushion, which has not let me down yet, I left the foot to heal in its medicated wrap.  Last Sunday, I took the wrap off and inspected the results.  The Magic Cushion had worked a little bit of it's magic and the nasty grey ooze was gone, as was the weird smell.  However, what was revealed was the true culprit:  a soft, white, fleshy mound growing where no such thing should be.  It bled profusely with the tiniest scratch and was surrounded by unhealthy, grey tissue.

That mean little whisper I had been working so very hard to ignore, burst out of its box, full grown, loud and screaming at me, "You see?!  I TOLD YOU SO!  Now you're in for it. You should have listened to me."

I knew what I was looking at, even though I never thought to actually see it in real life, and could no longer deny the plain truth of it.  I still find myself shaking my head in stunned disbelief though.  I already have a donkey with a weird, rare hoof problem, how could I end up with another?

And besides that, this is one of those bizarre, odd, rare diseases you read about in a magazine with a combination of horrified fascination and secret gratitude that it won't ever actually happen to you.  It couldn't possibly.  Surely not.  And surely not to someone who already has a donkey with a foot problem.  That shit just doesn't happen right?

Wrong.

It does happen and it's been confirmed by the farrier at Cornell and by my vet, who probably thought I was kidding when I called her and told her I thought Ben has Canker.

But he does.

God is so laughing at me.

A Semblance of Normality

I am still recovering from a very bad case of bronchitis and a sinus infection, which has been especially annoying as this is my favorite time of year and the weather has been unusually wonderful.  I have to admit, I have been feeling just a bit sorry for myself.  Still, I am getting a bit better and it is Spring, so things are looking up.

It has also been unusually dry (worrisomely dry in fact), which is providing a very rare window of opportunity to get some things done that normally aren't possible this time of year.  I have had several loads of firewood delivered (which is just a bit bittersweet as it is great to have so early, but I am soooo sick of firewood at the moment), there are two truckloads of stone headed my way tomorrow to help deal with the major mud problems I had around the barn this winter and....well, the list is long, long, long.

With all of this going on, I have decided to take some time off from work and from the computer.  Blog posting the rest of the week could be a bit erratic.  With that said, I wanted to show you these pictures of Ramsey's foot that I took this afternoon, I find this fascinating and encouraging....

If you look close at this foot, you will see that the bottom third is smaller than the top with the heel pinched in.  I drew more lines on this photo to show what I mean...

The lower part of the foot is what was grown months ago and used to be above the surgical site.  It is still somewhat deformed and contracted.  However, I am very encouraged by the new foot that is growing in above it.  Donkey feet grow faster then horse feet do and Ramsey is already well on the way to growing in a good foot.  I don't know what exactly caused the lower portion of the foot to be so much smaller then what the new foot clearly indicates it should be, but I strongly suspect that it was from nearly four months of constant bandaging, lack of weight bearing and lack of exercise.  I also find it very interesting that the hair just above the foot is still growing in wavy instead of smooth as it is on his other foot.  That is also the result of the bandaging.  

Looking at the foot from the bottom, it is finally starting to take on a semblance of normality.  There is a little bit of concavity and the heels are much less contracted.  The frog is still badly prolapsed downwards, but the cleft at the back of the foot is beginning to open a bit, which is the first sign of healthy growth I have seen. 

For all of it's trials, this foot is beginning to look like a healthy foot.  Most importantly, it is functional.

I still find trimming this to be very tricky.  I have actually been trimming it almost weekly in tiny amounts rather then trying to make larger corrections less frequently.  I know I have made some mistakes and doing very small trims helps prevent me messing up too badly.  Mistakes do tend to show up fairly quickly so I can correct them before they cause too much trouble.

The one thing that still has me concerned is that the wall at to toe is still not growing in well.  It may be that it is because of the missing coffin bone and it will never grow in correctly, but I think I am battling some ongoing fungal or bacterial trouble as well and I have been treating it.  I think all this dry weather will help.

If you look close at the lower left part of the sole, you can see some pink areas.  That is inflammation that occurred weeks or months ago and is just now growing out.  When I first started trimming him after his last trip to Cornell, nearly the whole bottom of his foot was pink and bloody looking like that.  Then it was both sides and it is just now getting to the point where it only shows a bit in the left side.  There was a whole lot of inflammation in this tiny foot.

I have to say, this is one of the things that really takes a lot of courage to trim through.  That bruising shows up and you would swear that I was cutting into live tissue.  I know I let myself get scared off by this several times and I probably didn't trim as much as I should have at first.  I had to give myself some pretty stern lectures and get my courage up to keep at it, but I think we are getting it figured out finally.  I can understand why it takes a certain kind of bravery to be a surgeon and I can doubly understand why surgeons should never have to operate on anyone they love.  This would be so,SO much easier to do on an animal I did not have a connection with.

We are getting there though.  Compare this...

to where we were a few months ago...

We're not that far off form looking like his good foot.  Speaking of...there was quite a while that I could not trim his good foot well because it was too hard for Ramsey to stand on his bad foot.  This foot shows almost the exact opposite of his other foot, the lower third is larger than the top of the foot because it was bearing so much more of his weight for so long.  That extra weight and lack of trimming showed up as a somewhat larger hoof capsule and a slightly underrun heel.

When both feet look like the top potion of this foot, we will be in good shape. 

We've come a long way baby!:)

A Foot Update

It feels like progress has slowed a bit with Ramsey's foot.  The hoof wall is still growing fast, but the sole has a long way to go yet.  I think there is still a lot of dead tissue that needs out grow out before we get healthier hoof.  The back of the hoof wall keeps curving in toward the frog more and more as well.  I don't know if that is caused by the internal damage to the foot or the constant bandaging.  Since it has not happened on the other side of the hoof, I suspect the former with the latter possibly being a contributing factor.  I will share these photos with the vet, see what he says.

Right after I took these photos, I massaged some of my ointment into the foot and all of that scaly stuff on the side finally came off.

To me, it looks like the coronet band has become oddly stretched and elongated.  I have not ever seen anything like this before.  I really think it is the result of 3 months of constant bandaging and I have been trying to think of different ways to wrap the foot that would allow more air circulation, but I haven't come up with anything yet.  It has to be foolproof so I haven't dared experiment much.

In spite of how odd everything looks, Ramsey seems very sound on the foot.  He moves easily and freely with no limp and no sign of pain so I am not terribly worried.  I have been trimming the foot just a little bit each week, hoping to maintain it in tiny steps rather than trim it all at once weeks from now.  I think we will see much healthier growth once he can go without a bandage.

Speaking of bandages, I had been trying to stretch out the bandage changes to every 3-4 days, but I think I am going to have to go back to doing it every other day.  The back of his heels get so dry that the bandage rubs and chafes, making it sore.  I am still using my beeswax salve on it, which has really helped, but it needs to be reapplied more often.  I don't want him to get sore and I certainly don't want it to get infected again.  His heels were looking really good, but we seem to be losing ground so, back to every other day.  Not only is this time consuming, but between bandage materials and medicine, it costs about $10 every time I change it.  Oh well.  I have been trying to make the bandage lighter, but....

When I did this bandage change, I noticed that Ramsey now has a tiny white spot.  I don't think it is genetic though, it certainly wasn't there before.  It looks to me like a tiny scar, which often grow back in white.  It makes me wonder if this could have been the original injury that caused all of this.  I always assumed that it was a stone bruise that started everything, but it is possible that a puncture wound in the leg could have been the route in for bacteria. 

Both of the donkeys love to scrounge and nibble in whatever brush they can find, Ramsey could easily have punctured his leg on a twig or thorn.  Given how tiny this spot is and how thick and dark Ramsey's fur is, I doubt I would ever have seen it.  The actual scar under that white fur is about the size of a sesame seed.  

Ah well, now Ramsey can boast of a light point after all.

Still Here

Well, the Big Storm seems to have leap-frogged right over the top of us and we are unscathed.  The power did not even go out which I am surprised by, but grateful for.  The winds moved up about a thousand feet off the ground and sailed by overhead.  It was a little eerie actually, about 11:30 last light the wind and rain just stopped and everything felt very still and quiet.  However, looking up, the clouds were swirling and flying and listening carefully, I could hear the far off roar of the wind.  I hate to think what it would have been like if it had come back down to earth. 

The wind and rain did come back, but nothing to complain about.  It is soggy cold and dreary, but that is not unusual.  I think most people around here feel as I do, extremely grateful to have been spared from this horrible storm and saddened by the havoc and devastation in the areas that weren't. 

As for Ramsey....the meds are doing their job.  His temperature was back down to 102 this morning, which is the high end of normal for a donkey his age.  His foot is still terribly sore, but he is remarkably cheerful about it all.  He is in pain, but he just hobbles about on three legs and goes about his business.  Granted, he wants to just stay on the barn, but with the weather, who can blame him?

I soaked his foot in a solution of CleanTrax, which is a relatively new product.  It supposedly treats abscesses, but I have never used it this way before so the verdict is still out as far as I am concerned.  It can be kind of a lengthy procedure as the foot is supposed to soak in the solution for 45 minutes and then spend an additional 45 minutes wrapped in plastic so that the gas it produces can continue to work. 

I finally devised a very easy and effective soaking boot which was quite simple.  I used a bread-bag (folded in half lengthwise because his feet are so tiny) and reinforced it with duct tape.  I put the bag over his foot and taped it on at the fetlock then poured the CleanTrax solution in.  (Here is where donkeys are much easier to deal with than horses, I would have spent considerable time making sure that the horse didn't freak out about the bag on his foot.  With Ramsey, I put the bag on, he gave it the hairy eyeball, I scratched his neck and told him all was well, he believed me and stopped worrying about it.)

Once the bag was in place, I filled it with the CleanTrax and went about cleaning the barn.  The stuff stays active for 90 minutes and I didn't have any other feet to soak so I just left it.  When the time came, I just poked a little hole in the bag to drain it and left the contraption on for another hour. 

I can see where the abscess is draining some out of the bottom of the foot, but there is a spot on the coronet band where it is clearly about to break open.  Once that finally happens, everything will start to heal.  As long as I can keep junk out of that darned hole anyways.

Last Friday, before Ramsey came up lame, I had spoken with the vet and made an appointment for Nov. 9th to have Ramsey gelded.  I hope this whole foot thing does not delay that.  He is just old enough to geld and we want to do it before the cold weather sets in.  It is too dangerous to do the procedure in real cold and waiting for Spring is not an option.  By then, he will be old enough to be making babies of his own and THAT is not gonna happen.  Recently, he has been showing signs of imminent testosterone poisoning as well.  The sooner we get this little procedure done, the happier everybody (including Ramsey) will be.

Abscesses, Hurricanes & Other Assorted Maladies

Ramsey's abscess broke open this afternoon to everybody's relief.  I wish it had broken out of the top of his foot rather than the bottom as there is now a hole in the bottom of his foot.  Keeping debris and bacteria out of those holes is impossible and often leads to reinfection, but it is what it is.  At least he is in less pain and for that I am very grateful.   I gave him a little bit of Banamine yesterday and today to help ease the pain and I soaked his foot (or tried to rather, I am not sure which one of us wound up with wetter feet).  I wrapped the foot afterward hoping to keep junk out of it.  I usually use duct tape for such jobs, but Ramsey's feet are so tiny, I had to use electrical tape instead... 

Abscesses are a unending problem around here.  Our soil is 80% clay mixed with 20% sharp rock.  Every Spring and Fall during mud season, someone ends up with an abscess.  Ironically, it is usually the horses who have the hardest, toughest feet.  I think it is because when a soft foot is bruised by a hard landing on a sharp stone, the foot can expand a little and provide relief for the resulting inflammation.  When the same thing happens to a hard foot, there is nowhere for the swelling to go.  As a result, the inner structures of the foot are damaged and lead to an abscess.

I have learned the hard way over the years, that the best treatment for an abscess is to not treat it.  Generally, an abscess ruptures on its own in 2-3 days.  Cutting the foot to drain the abscess can provide some immediate relief, but, having dealt with dozens of abscess, I have never yet seen it NOT cause problems later on.  Instead of healing within a week, cutting the foot can lead to years of severe trouble.  Ask me how I know...

Soaking the foot in warm water and spreading Ichthammol on the coronet band may help by softening the tissue and making it easier for the abscess to erupt.  However, with every new abscess I see, the more I believe that these things do more for me than the abscess.  On the other hand, it can't hurt, it might help and for someone like Ramsey, it makes him feel better to be fussed over and attended to.  That alone makes it worth doing.


For those of you who have wanted to hear what Ramsey's bray sounds like, I shot this by accident yesterday.  Go figure, I have been trying to get his bray on video for weeks with no luck, then I drop the camera and turn it on to see if it still works and here he is.  Unfortunately, this is the bray of a very unhappy, lame donkey baby.

Here in NY, we are all bracing for Sandy and wondering what it is going to bring.  This area suffered severe flooding in 2006 and catastrophic flooding last year from Irene and Lee.   Folks are more than a little frightened of Sandy and with good reason.  Some of these communities have never recovered, another bad flood will be the end of them.  So far, the weather forecast is saying we are going to be getting more wind than rain this time, but that is what they said about Irene as well.  There is no knowing.

I at least, am safe from flooding.  If I ever have to worry about that, we are all lost.  The wind is another matter.  Still, I am as prepared as I can be (I hope).  My main concern at the moment is if we have a prolonged power outage.  In that case, I have no running water and the contents of the freezer are at risk.  I do have a small generator and I think I can keep the freezer going a couple hours a day anyway.  I have a gas stove and wood heat.

As for water....

I've filled all of the water vessels that I have.  The equines are consuming about twenty gallons a day right now and there is about 100 gallons here.   There is a public spring with good water about a mile from here where I can get more if I need it.  I really hope I won't need any of this, but......

If you don't hear from me for a while you'll know why.  Stay safe out there folks.

Hoof Thoughts

I know I haven't posted much this week, it's because I have been watching hoof trimming videos.  I can only handle so much time in front of the computer each day and that time (and my thoughts) has been sucked into in-depth hoof studies.  I will tell you more about it once my brain has done some digesting.  In the meantime, I would highly recommend these videos for anyone who has donkeys or plans to... 

Donkey Hooves: Inside and Out by Pete Ramey.  http://hoofrehab.com/DonkeyHoof.htm

As an added bonus, they are on sale right now, $30 bucks off the regular price.


Even if you have a good farrier or are a good farrier or never intend to trim a hoof on your own, there is information here that every donkey owner needs.

"Hey, psst, Baby...you best watch out, Ma's got her hairy little eyeballs on our feet again.  I bet she's got ideas about your little toes as well.  No ones safe when she gets that big nail file out...