Lulu’s Still Limping

It seemed like Lulu’s limping had gotten better, but today it was visibly worse.  So Jon called our farrier.

But Matt is sick so he couldn’t come.

Instead, he asked a lot of questions and thought that Lulu probably has an abscess in her hoof.  Then he said that sometimes if you soak the hoof in water with Epsom salt that will help drain the abscess.  He said if it is an abscess you can feel the heat from it in her hoof.

So I got Lulu and Fanny into the barn (one will not go without the other) gave them hay, brought some grain, and loaded up on treats.  First I felt Lulu’s hoof to see if it had a warm.

It was.  But my hands were cold and all of her hooves felt warm to me. So I cleaned her hoof again to make sure there wasn’t anything stuck in it. When I saw there wasn’t I put a halter on her with a lead rope.   I placed the shallow pan of water and Epsom salt close to her right leg.

She didn’t like the idea of putting her hoof into the pan.  So I held tight to the rope and lifted her leg and placed it in. Trust me I whispered to her as I did.

It took a few tries, then suddenly she left her hoof in the water and I gave her a treat to chew on.

But that didn’t last long and after that, I couldn’t get her to put it back again.  I didn’t want to stress her anymore so I removed the halter and let her and Fanny finish eating their hay in peace.

I called Matt back and he said if it is an abscess it will get worse before it gets better. And eventually, it will burst on its own.  But he also said he would come as soon as he could.

So there’s not much we can do at this point but wait.  Lulu will be uncomfortable for a while, but at least we have an idea of what is going on and know that Lulu will eventually be alright.