Shoes Make the Difference

And Chance Tells All

Scott came on Saturday to shoe Chance with a new angle and pads.

Dr. Parisio had sent him Chance's X-rays for reference and they had talked about shoeing options.

Well it took a long time for Scott to fashion the shoes and pads for the boy. He shortened Chance's toes and wedged him up.  The shoe is a full bar with a really rolled toe.

During the shoeing, Chance was patient and well behaved. He had a little trouble standing on his right hind for his back hoof trim, but he really tried to cooperate.

He was on bute, as I said in my last post, and that may have helped if that right front was indeed in pain. Still, I have to admire his attitude about it all. He is such a good, patient boy.

Well, after he was shod, he looked a whole lot sounder. Still, he was on bute, so we could not judge more than that.

Well, this morning I let him out of his stall to walk around the barn aisle and he looked absolutely fine.  He'd had no bute since Saturday morning.

I took him outside for just a minute or two to see how he was walking and to do just a few strides of trot.

It got a bit scary for a minute when he leaped up to buck. Normally, I wouldn't worry too much but it had rained in the night and the ground was slippery. Fortunately, he settled down and trotted a few strides as I asked--sound.

Amazing, considering how lame he had been last week.

Still, we don't want to take any risks. Dr. Parisio wants me to keep him on bute for ten days--5 days of 2 grams, then 5 days of one gram. This will help settle any inflammation he may have in his soft tissues. Then, another couple weeks of either stall rest or restricted turn out.

I will probably just close in the run-in shed for those two weeks. Toby and Tucker will not be too happy as they really do hang out there, but they will have to sacrifice.  Then we can try regular turn out to see how things go.

Without a very expensive MRI, which I really cannot afford, we can't be 100% sure of what's going on, but at this point, we can only try things out to see how it goes.

All I know right now it that Chance is feeling good on his feet. I know he's not happy being stall bound, but I will be able to take him out to graze every day and I am trying to give him hay to munch on.

I might try one of those slow feeder hay bags if I can find one locally. Other than that, it's just wait and see.