June 20 - Gunner worries me.

Gunner has been lame for a couple weeks.

At first I thought it was bruising because the pen he was in had gravel way down and with his pacing he brought it up and got some rocks in his feet. So I did some soaking and moved him to a new pen and he seemed okay.

Then he got sore again so I had the farrier out to re-trim as I thought it was too much sole just at the toe. She said "nope...thrush". That was last Friday...so on Monday (after getting some meds from the vet) we started treatment for that.

Last night, he was so sore that he refused to lift one of his front feet (oh...only sore on the fronts). So by this time, I am scared that I have missed something...so we were off to the vet this afternoon.

After watching him walk and trot, and then doing the pressure test with the foreceps looking thing, the vet said "well, it isn't thrush, I can't see any bruises or abcesses coming...but boy is he sore. His entire right foot is showing sore and the toe on the left. Let's go do some x-rays."

So off we went into the x-ray room where he took a lateral of the left foot and then a bunch of the right.

He found one teeny gas pocket in one foot but said "that isn't it". No navicular, coffin bones were good.

I had told him that I thought it was the trim job...way too much sole left on the toes compared to everywhere else and it seemed like he wasn't walking level on the entire foot. He concurred with me and said for me to get the farrier out to take the sole on the toe down a little bit. He also suggested I buy some "Magic Cushion" and pack his right foot for a few days to give him some relief. When I was leaving, he told me to relax and start enjoying the horses again...and to trust in my judgement on what could be wrong as he knows that I know what I am doing. (He was Hyde's vet).

I am so happy that it isn't something major...and something I had missed in trying to doctor him myself. So relieved that I didn't even flinch at the vet bill. LOL

(I am not knocking the trim job of my current farrier as we are correcting things with Gunner's front feet as we go along but things are just not right with his feet right now with how they were trimmed and what we are going for. It will take a while to fix everything).