Bright Yellow Casts!

9October 2013
just editing to add that it's been 7days & Sonny is doing really well in his casts which now are the same colour as the dam.....grey brown! lol There is soil caught under one foot, can't remember which....I think the RF. Only problem he is finding is that the casts have rounded off the edges of his feet removing his grip on the dry slopes covered in slippery dead grass. So he is reluctant to cavort or even trot beside me. The first time he did it he almost slipped over & that was enough for him.... no more trotting or cavorting!


3Oct2013
Yesterday was the day. I have worked towards it for several weeks. The weather had to be right, the trim had to be right & the medical condition of the feet had to be right.

It all came together yesterday. If the casts stay on, all should be good for a few weeks. After tidying the soles & frogs, I applied Thrushbuster in all the crevices then coated the soles in a copper wax tea tree oil mix prior to wrapping the casting tape on.

Then it will be time to trim again & reapply the casts if they worked well enough.

Today I rode Sonny for a few minutes on one occasion as a demo during a lesson I was giving. He didn't seem sore although he was not interested in trotting or moving fast. After he got the casts on we were playing in the back paddock which is a bit steep & covered in short slippery lawn grass & Sonny soon found his new feet slipped & slid all over the place which seemed off putting for him.

Tonight he is still slow but not lame or limping. He is walking freely even across the gravel driveway.  

While I was doing the casts I took some video which I haven't processed yet but here are a few before & after photos.
 
 
I'm really excited to see the new heel bud. I thought that phase might have passed but there it is so once it gets near the ground I will rasp to it & bring the toe back the same distance.

 

 

It concerns me that this bit of weak hoof is not repairing well enough so I cut away at least half the height of wall & dug out a lot of black stuff until Sonny was flinching a bit. I put several drops of thrushbuster in plus packed it out with copper wax.

I was advised to keep the cast low at the heels. I hope this is low enough.  I pressed around quite firmly & he is not sore in the bulbs tonight but I'll keep a good eye on that part.

 

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