The Great Escape

What Next?

I thought I heard a kind of "thunk" sometime during the night.  When will I ever learn that it's a wise idea to check out anything suspicious in the vicinity of the barn?

This time when I went out for morning feed, Tucker was out in the paddock again.  The side of the door frame where his stall door latches was knocked off the barn and his door was hanging open. 

When he saw me, he squealed, bucked and cantered off across the paddock, quite full of himself.  I started to nail the frame back in place only to discover the nails were all bent.  I think it's going to take a more serious fix.  I went to Home Depot on the way home tonight and bought some long screws. When I have the time and energy, I will drill some holes and screw the frame back in place so it will stand a better chance of staying in place the next time some rambuctious horse decides to kick the door open.  *sigh*

I transferred Tucker into Toby's stall for the day, put the tamper proof baling twine on the latch and settled him in.  He was still there when I got home from school.

I called Scott to tell him Tucker was much improved and he told me he was planning on coming out Friday to see about putting the shoe back on.  He also said he'd emailed my vet to assure her that the slight drop in Tucker's coffin bone was his normal conformation, mostly because of his tendancy to be clubfooted.  While the right front was the club foot he'd had the surgery for as a foal, his left foot is also a little steep.  When his toe gets a little long, it does get a bit out of line.  He agreed that the last time we'd had the X-ray on that foot he and my other vet had discussed just that. 

He is concerned about the bit of infection in Tucker's toe, and does worry that it might be causing an issue since it was one of the only places Tucker reacted to the hoof testers. 

Tonight, I let Tucker out on the lawn for a while, then rebandaged and poulticed his hoof for the night.  This time, I used poultice instead of the Icthamol.  It's another option for drawing out any possible infection. 

Tucker is getting a little impatient with his confinement and really didn't want to come back in after his graze.  He balked at the barn door and took some persuasion to finally come in.  If he gets his shoe back on Friday, then he can get some turnout with the other Boys.  In the meantime, he is just going to have to play the shut-in.  I feel sorry for him, but I certainly don't want to aggravate his hoof problem.