His Leg Hasn't Fallen Off Yet

I was a bit worried that Cisco's leg may indeed have fallen off as I couldn't get out to the barn on Tuesday due to a snowstorm that made driving rather treacherous. I counted seven collisions/cars in the ditch on my way home from work - and that was on a city freeway. I wasn't going to try the county highways.

I made sure I dashed out on Wednesday morning before my doctor's appointment and work. The leg was still fat, with some fill moving into his lower leg. But it didn't seem to be any fatter than it had been on Monday. I hand walked him for about 10 minutes, then squirted a couple of syringes of Betadine water into the hole. It was -20 outside, so I had to use minimal water because I didn't have time to let it dry.

Wednesday legs that I almost forgot to take a picture of. You can see a bit of fill around the knee.

I had more time to spend on him on Thursday, with the main goal being more exercise to see if I could get the swelling in his leg to come down. After a few minutes of hand walking I popped him on the lunge line.

He started off pretty poky at the trot. I figured that maybe he needed a chance to stretch that leg a bit so I let him jog for a few laps. Eventually he started trotting more forward. To the left he looked pretty good - this is the side that he seemed to look worse on last week when he was lame before he got poked.

To the right - I think the main problem is the leg with the hole in it. There was a slight head bob at the beginning. but it went away once he loosened up. I asked him to canter to the right and tried but didn't want to get the right lead (left lead looked great). So I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to stretch that leg forward too much.

Thursday after cleaning.

He was a bit of a turd about cleaning it - he did not want me to touch it. It's in an awkward place on the inside of a leg, so it's easier to see what I'm doing if I stand on the other side. But then he gets pissy and takes a step and pushes my hand that is reaching across his other leg away from the cut. So I had to work on the same side and go in blind.

Because he doesn't really know how to be really bad, he lifted that leg up to paw, which allowed me to hook my arm under it and easily slide the syringe into the hole for a flush. We did that three times in a row. I appreciated the easy access he unintentionally gave me.

Overall, I think the wound looks pretty good. It's clean, not oozing anything odd coloured, and the hole is staying open easily. The swelling did seem to go down after his exercise. I'm not concerned about infection at this point. I need to pick up some Dermagel though and see if I can get it to start scabbing over.

She was sleeping when I went out to give her the Ventipulmin. Thus brunch in bed.

And then Phantom got a quick ride, with a quick canter each way, which she wanted to get silly about but managed not to. And then I dashed home through yet another snowstorm to get changed and headed out to see Dear Even Hansen (which was fantastic and I totally recommend).