Makeshift Surgery

Axel may be accident prone but he is really the best patient I could ask for I think. I actually beat the farrier to the barn this time as did two other boarders. Since they already had horses in I messed around getting my saddle and stuff out of the car, put it in the sun to dry more, and hung out for a bit while they had their horses trimmed and shod. I grabbed Axel and brought him over to the tree to hose off his feet. I half thought about giving him a real bath but decided against it. The cut on his foot was looking okay. The flap of skin wasn't completely shriveled up yet and the wound itself was a little meaty looking. He might be getting a bit of scar tissue. I'll have to do some research on how to prevent that from getting too bad. I got him groomed up, scrubbed his back feet with the Norwex cloth, scrubbed in some Chlorhexidine on both his back feet and his wound, and then put some tri-care on the cut while we waited for our turn. He was starting to get a little antsy waiting so we walked around a bit on the gravel beside the arena so he could at least keep his wound clean for a few minutes.

The farrier trimmed him up taking extra care on this right front since that's his sore knee. I guess he had forgotten about that particular issue of Axel's but noticed Axel stiffen up ever so slightly as he picked up that foot and immediately remembered. When he got around to that left front with the cut and flap of skin he asked if I wanted him to nip that off. I told him he could try, I wasn't sure how much of it was still alive or would be painful. Axel stood there with his foot on the stand while the farrier tried to get the flap of skin off with his nippers. Then he tried another nippers. Then he had to resort to his hoof knife because the flap just wasn't coming off. Axel didn't move a muscle the whole time. So either it didn't hurt at all or he's just that awesome. I'm guessing the former. That little flap of skin bled like you would not believe so I grabbed a diaper and some vet wrap that I keep in my little first aid bag and we wrapped up his foot. I left him in a stall for a while but it was apparent he was unhappy with that situation so I put him back out in the pasture. I figured it'll at least stay clean for a little bit while it clots up and I'll just unwrap it in a day or so and see how it's doing. I'll have to remember to restock my first aid bag as well.

Cody was the usual patient boy for his trim. He had some troubles with his front feet on the stand stretched out I might need to do some more leg stretches with him and help him get relaxed in that position. He might have just been stiff from Saturday's ride though he trotted up the yard in front of the barn while I was leading him up to be trimmed.