November is Not Our Friend

I feel like we dodged a bullet today and it wasn't from a crazy hunter.  With the coming of the cold, wet, miserable weather Ramsey has been somewhat lame on his bad leg.  It wasn't the hoof, but the arthritis he has developed in the fetlock joint.   At least, that is what it was until a few days ago when he came up VERY lame and I opened an abscess in his bad foot.

I have to admit, it's been a rough few days.  This foot is far more vulnerable to another bone or joint infection then normal and another such infection would be the end.  I was on the phone with two of Ramsey's vets last night listening to a discussion about doing regional limb perfusion again and....well, it was a rough night.

Fortunately, Ramsey is still a very good patient and this morning, he was significantly better and still no hint of fever.  I think, knock-on-wood, that all is well, something to be very thankful for this week.

I am going to continue treating the foot well past the point of my extreme paranoia and will probably put a cast on it for a couple of weeks to protect the sole and prevent any possibility of  reinfection. 

Speaking of treatment, I have been using a product called Magic Cushion made by Absorbine as a sole packing underneath a bandage and I truly believe that this stuff helped avert disaster.  It will be in my emergency kit and hoof care arsenal from now on and I would highly recommend it, especially for treating any kind of sole pain and for removing false sole.  It is sticky and messy and you will probably have to swear at it a lot, but it works.  It is a thick, black, tar like substance that has an oddly pleasant herbal smell to it.

Wear gloves.  It does not wash off well.

The stuff may seem a bit pricey, but a little bit goes a very long way and I think it is the best abscess treatment I have ever found.  It's worth it.  I especially like the way it draws out infection while simultaneously sealing out and killing bacteria.  It is a topical anti-inflammatory and analgesic as well.  I was skeptical about all of its claims at first, but I have used it for several different applications now and have been pleased every time.  It's earned a place on my shelf.

Aside from this darned abscess, I had been cautiously pleased with Ramsey's feet and had been planning on writing an update soon.  I think there has been some improvement in the lateral distortion I have been concerned about.  I decided to sort of throw out the instructions I had been given about his foot and try to let it tell me what it needs.  I have been "trimming" very minutely every two weeks, trying to encourage healthy growth and mimic his natural wear pattern.  Taking only what I think might wear off naturally if he were walking on more abrasive ground.  I am mostly just trying to let his foot do whatever it needs to while keeping it from overgrowing and distorting. 

Aside from the nasty stone bruise that abscessed, I think it is working.  The feedback I got from the Donkey Sanctuary when I sent them photos a while ago was basically, "You're doing a great job trimming feet.  Try not to over-analyze too much:)."  

Thank you to the great folks at the DS, I certainly appreciate all the input.  And as for that last bit....let's just say you aren't the only ones to tell me that I think too much:)  I'll try.

I actually have a bunch of very interesting feet pictures to share along with some equally interesting nutrition stuff.  The two are very much related.  Hopefully I will get to them soon.  With all the snow, high winds and below zero temps that have descended on us, maybe tomorrow.  I'm sure not gonna want to go out and actually deal with it.  In fact, I'm off to go hide under the covers.

Movies

I took these on Friday, which turned out to be the last day of Fall, Winter is here (and no, I still haven't figured out how to clean the inner workings of my camera.  It looks complicated so it's just going to have to stay dusty for now - just like my house.  The barn is clean, but....we just won't talk about the house:). 

Ramsey's leg has straightened out more since this was taken and it looks good.  However, another abscess broke out of the back of his foot on Saturday.  I have been on the phone with one vet or another every day this past weekend.  We aren't sure what to make of this development.  It may be the original abscess still finding it's own way out rather then using the great, huge, gaping hole in the side of his foot where he had surgery. 

He is not terribly lame at this point, which makes us think it is not the joint involved (that would be bad).  I think it is possible that the original abscess has walled itself off and solidified so completely that it is now acting as a foreign body, causing irritation.  If that is the case, it will have to come out somehow before the foot can heal properly.  If this does not resolve by tomorrow, I will have it x-rayed again.  I am watching it very closely. 

On a lighter note...Emma doing some dancing practice (with Ramsey thumping and bumping me and the camera, you might need some Dramamine towards the end:)...

A Very Sick Donkey

Ramsey's foot abscess has invaded his whole body and he is very sick.  His temperature is all over the place and he is very miserable now.   I spoke with the vet yesterday morning and she agreed that if he wasn't better by the end of the day, she would come out.

Right up until I left for work yesterday afternoon, he was still bright-eyed, cheerful and eating well.  I was concerned though, because his temp was still high and I wound up coming home early as I was worried about him.  By the time I got home, his temp had dropped to 97.8 (which is almost too low) and he was depressed and not eating or nursing. 

The weather is not helping as it is truly miserable with temps in the low forties and constant rain.  Snow or sleet is expected overnight.  Thank goodness I bought Ramsey a blanket, he really needs it right now. 

Since he quit eating and drinking, I am very worried about dehydration and weakness.  The vet finally made it out this afternoon and we gave him IV fluids, which I will continue for the next three days.  He has a an IV catheter under the green vetwrap. 

He seems to be having some trouble laying down on his own and this afternoon, when the vet was here, he lost his balance when she was looking at his foot.  He clearly wanted to lay down so I just eased him down rather then prop him up.  I sat with him and held his head in my lap and he wound up sleeping through the entire catheterization process.  It made him a perfect patient, but it scared me to death.  

He is on antibiotics, a higher dose of Banamine and IV fluids.  The abscess did rupture out of the top of his foot this afternoon in three places.

This is the worst abscess I have ever seen.  I have only ever seen one abscess that went systemic before and it was never this bad, it responded to antibiotics almost immediately.  On the other hand, that was in a very robust, four year old draft cross who weighed 1300 pounds.  Ramsey is too young for this nonsense, I'll be sure to give him a stern lecture about it just as soon as he gets better. 

I sure hope this is not typical of donkeys.  If Ramsey does not show some real improvement by tomorrow afternoon, I may have to try to get him to Cornell. 

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.