Adventures In Follywoods

All Was Not Quiet

Trouble for me started when Tucker came in lame on a hind leg. When the leg filled up, hock to pastern, I decided I needed to call the vet for at least a consult. I've dealt with swollen legs before, but something was bothering me about this one. Tucker had pulled his front shoe, with rather dramatic damage to his hoof, so I thought maybe he'd injured his hind leg in the process.

My vet was suspicious enough to decide a visit was worth his time.

Sure enough, after a flexing and feeling exam, he decided Tucker had developed cellulitis, probably from some small scratches in the pastern area.

Antibiotics, bute, anti-inflammatories, and a nasty leg sweat became the remedies along with leg wraps. I soon ordered a Back on Track hock wrap with one day delivery from Amazon--a remarkable shipping guarantee.  In the meantime, I bandaged up the boy with the sweat and hoped for the best.

Bute and other meds end up in a syringe with applesauce while the antibiotic is in its own syringe.

Fortunately, aside from being too tall when I approach him with the syringe--head goes up, and he's 17 h.--Tucker is an unhappy but well-behaved patient.

Scott came to shoe on Saturday, the day after the cellulitis discovery, and did manage to get two front shoes on Tucker, but he left his hind feet alone. Once again, Tuck was a really good boy for the shoeing. So sad.

Meanwhile, not to be ignored, Chance and Toby had their own attention-getting action. When I went out to feed late night snack at midnight on Friday, one, then two horses streaked by me on the back lawn. Toby was actually trying to get into the paddock through the locked gate. Chance was not far away.

I got Toby in, and Chance a bit later after I'd at least checked the front paddock area fence line by flashlight. All the fence was intact so I locked the stray Boys in their stalls and headed out to the pasture.

Soon I found two sections of slipboard fencing rails totally demolished. The rails were not knocked down, they were shattered. From the looks of it, once horse may have tried to jump, cleared the middle rail and smashed the top rail while the other horse had just crashed through all three rails.

What the heck? Smashing through the fence is not normal behavior.

The Boys had gone through the fence, then through my neighbor's yard and run back home.

Their frantic behavior back in my yard suggested something had panicked them really badly.

But what?

Investigation the following morning in the light of day offered no real clues. Coyote? There were no tracks I could find. Bear? Rumor of one in town, but on the other side of town over 10 miles away--a possibility still. Something else?

My friend jokingly suggested the Jersey Devil. http://weirdnj.com/stories/jersey-devil/

I walked the pumpkin field adjacent to the pasture today, and all I found were deer prints. Cloven hoofs, nothing more.

One must wonder.