SharpPoints

Oh Stella!

The bad news keeps coming. Daphne had just been in for surgery on her ear and we were trying to make her feel better. Stella had been licking her ear, trying to help make it heal, I guess. Denise was laying on the floor next to Daphne and Stella was sleeping on Denise's hip.

All of a sudden, Stella rolled off on the floor, onto her back, all of her legs flailing wildly. Denise grabbed her and she calmed down almost instantly. But neither of us had any idea what had just happened. We watched her closely for a couple of days and then noticed that she was breathing rapidly and had become a little listless. Denise made an appointment with her vet and we took her in on a Friday.

They took several x-rays and the vet said she appeared to have cardiomyopathy; her heart was/is enlarged and she was suffering from pulmonary edema (fluid in her lungs.) They prescribed one drug to relax blood vessel walls (reducing the load on her heart) and another diuretic to eliminate the fluid in her lungs. Getting her to take the pills by hand twice a day, was a disaster. Both Denise and our petsitter neighbor were bitten trying to open her mouth.

Monday we took her back in for fresh x-rays.  Much of the fluid was gone and she'd lost half a pound - of fluid, probably. By then, Denise had done enough web research on cardiomyopathy in cats to understand how serious her condition was. It's known as the "silent killer" of cats. It's apparently genetic and as many as one in six cats are predisposed to it. But, the vet said we wouldn't know for sure without an echo cardiogram. So, we scheduled a visit by the veterinary cardiologist on Wednesday.

He brought a portable ($100,000) ultrasound machine and Stella was incredibly calm while he gathered the same types of measurements my cardiologist did on me the day before. When he was done, he confirmed that she has an "unclassified" form of cardiomyopathy. Her heart is dilated and the prognosis is grim.  We can treat the symptoms with drugs, but there is no cure for the disease. He said we should not expect her to survive for more than six months. If she responds well to the drugs, she might live a "couple of years."

Obviously, we're in shock and devastated by the thought of losing her. But, all we can do is keep the stress level down, make her life as comfortable as possible and enjoy her for the time we have left with her. 2011 has not started well.

Doing our best to keep local vets in business...

This box is where I accumulated the bandages, wraps, medications, thermometer, stethoscopes and miscellaneous stuff I needed to treat Baskers. I put it all away in the garage over the weekend thinking I was done with it for at least a little while.

I should have realized that we've been nominated to keep our local vets prosperous and busy this winter.  Before Baskers contracted pigeon fever, Jazzy (Denise's cat) jumped up on the stairwell enclosure, slipped and fell all the way to the cellar, hitting her face on the spiral staircase on the way down. She went in for emergency treatment and tests and has been slowly recovering.

The, last week, Daphne started developing a hematoma in her left ear and separately has been working on a "licking granuloma" on her right leg. Have no idea what triggered the hematoma but neither of them was going away so, yesterday we went back to the vet. A hematoma only gets worse if not treated and becomes "like a brick" as the body forms dense, defensive tissue to wall off the injury. The licking granulomas keep getting bigger because licking them releases endorphins that give the dog a pleasurable feeling. 

They drained the hematoma, inserted drain tubes and stitched completely through her ear so that it binds back to the cartilage as it heals. The tubes stay in for a week, the stitches a month! So, right now she's dripping a little blood and serum - spreading it around when she shakes her head. She's getting antibiotics and wound treatment twice a day. And, I didn't have to buy any new supplies because I've got most of a drug store in that box!

Back Together Again!

Yesterday afternoon, we shut down the electric fence, let Baskers out of jail and watched them play for a while.  It hadn't rained as much as I expected but it was still a little muddy and treacherous.  So, they weren't running around like they do on solid ground, but there was some bucking and chasing going on.

After fifteen minutes of that, Cody decided that all the grass hay that Baskers hadn't been eating (having been spoiled by treats and alfalfa) should be eaten.  So, I had to scramble.  Kicked him out and started spreading diluted bleach on the ground where Baskers had stood to let me flush his chest abscess.  It has been a week or so since it was actually draining and the bacteria is in the soil everywhere.  But, out of precaution, I poured about three gallons of bleach in those areas.

Taking down the fence took a LOT less time than putting it up.  And, by mid-afternoon, the paddock was back to normal.  Then, I went down in the pouring rain last night to give Baskers his last antibiotics.  Now we just wait to see if there's any recurrence.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Gettin' out of jail tomorrow!

Baskers' abscess is almost completely healed!  I checked and it has been almost four weeks since we lanced his abscess and it looked so horrible. Today there's a little skin that needs to fill in over the center but, it is not draining any fluids and the tissue underneath has completely filled in. His blanket rubbed the open flesh and probably kept the skin from sealing it completely.

So, tomorrow we'll sanitize the area, turn the electric fence off, take down the isolation fence and let Cody and Rabbask romp around the paddock.  It's supposed to rain, so it might be a splashy reunion!  

Almost there...on multiple fronts

In between trips to the paddocks to flush abscesses I've been working on my first leather project -- a purse for granddaughter Cassidy.  After many tedious hours, the front is almost done and it looks like I'll actually finish before her birthday.

Baskers continues to improve daily.  The opening in his chest is down to smaller than a dime, no swelling in his leg and significantly reduced swelling in his sheath.  We're down to two trips per day, mostly to dispense antibiotics and put blankets on at night; lows at night are in the 30's these days.

Christmas Present(s)...

Though it won't be closed by Christmas (tomorrow), the open abscess on Baskers' chest is closing rapidly. This photo was taken yesterday and today its smaller still.  He's been on antibiotics for four days and the things are better on all fronts.  In addition to the large, chest abscess, the swelling in his sheath has declined and the abscess on his leg is looking MUCH better. The latter is no longer draining blood and the small, hard lump is now just slightly raised above the skin surface. It's also not nearly as sensitive to the touch.

Overall, he's feeling much better. I haven't seen it myself but one of the other boarders said that Baskers and Cody have been running back and forth along the fence occasionally bucking, just before dinner - their normal play time. Today, Denise got Cody out to wash him off and let him eat some of the new grass shoots around the paddocks. Baskers was clearly hoping he could get out, too, and I felt sorry for him. But, until these things are sealed and healed, I don't want to take a chance on spreading the disease around.

Yesterday, the sun was out so I took their blankets off and discovered that the shoulder wrap I put on to hold bandages in place had torn. It worked well for that purpose, but clearly isn't heavy duty enough to use for an extended period of time. I'm going to have to see if I can get it replaced.

The other good news is that the Doxycycline I've been taking since Monday has dramatically reduced the pain and swelling in my index finger! So, both Baskers and I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

WOW!

Scrambled to get my tripod out and try to take some pictures of the full moon eclipse. It's at it's maximum now and I struggled to get my CoolPix to get a couple of shots. At the darkest, I couldn't get anything. But, just as the shadow was beginning to cover the moon, I got this one.

What's truly amazing is that we've been TOTALLY socked in with cloud cover for at least a week. Then, tonight, the clouds parted for the show!

Call Me Paranoid, but...

First, an update on Basker's condition. Apologies for the photo quality, but I took it after dark using a headlamp. Bottom line, the flesh has almost completely filled in the open abscess and the skin is filling in from the edges. It's less than the size of a half dollar now and isn't discharging much serum any more. The shoulder cover that Denise found works great even though I think I ordered it one size too large.

And, the swelling in his sheath seems to be shrinking a little bit with the DMSO treatment. The remaining concern is the original abscess on his left front leg. It is getting bigger again, has been dripping blood for a couple of days and is so painful, he won't let me touch it. In fact, he picks it up when I even bend down to look at it!

So, I called the vet and, $597 later, got two different antibiotics to start him on. One of them (Rifampin) costs about $30 per day and the other (Trimethoprim Sulfat) is less expensive but he gets 14 (!!) at a time, twice a day. The orders are to keep giving them to him until all signs of abscess are gone and then another five days! So, this is going to be expensive but if it does the job, I'm not complaining.

The Paranoia Part
My hands get so dry in the winter out here that, like lots of other people, I get cracks at the edges of my nails; typically on the thumb, index and middle fingers. After a while, the cracks deepen and get very painful. Despite the pain, something in my maleness prevents me from using lotion every day until its too late. They usually get so bad that I end up wearing surgical gloves filled with Neosporin for a couple of days. Stupid, but usually only a painful inconvenience.

But, this winter I've been out in the rain a LOT taking care of Rabbask. Worse yet, I've been irrigating his abscess three times a day and, most of the time, too lazy to put on the surgical gloves all professionals always use. I guess it didn't register the first time I read the online articles about pigeon fever. But, the bacterium (Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis) "is responsible for many different types of diseases in many  species of animals and it can even infect humans."

If it had registered, I wouldn't have been messing around in highly contagious bacteria with hands full of small open cracks.  If it had registered, you'd think I'd have been alarmed when I started feeling some swelling, heat and EXCRUCIATING pain in my right index finger about ten days ago. Well, over the weekend I was having trouble sleeping one night and re-read the articles and, this time, it registered.

So, this morning I called a nurse friend who has, coincidentally, also treated a horse with pigeon fever. Robin validated my concern - duh!  So, I called the vet and asked him if I should be concerned. He thought it was extremely rare for humans to be infected but gave me the name and phone number for the veterinary professor at UC Davis who has done more research on the disease than anyone else. I left a message for her and decided to go to the local clinic after lunch. To avoid a long explanation, I printed out a picture of the abscess at it's worst and a copy of the article quoted above.

When I got there, I told the doctor that mine would probably be the most unusual case she would have today. I told her what I've been doing, showed her the picture and the article and told her I was concerned that the infection in my finger might be pigeon fever. Surprisingly, she didn't laugh at me. She looked at my finger (not much to see), read the article and then called the UC Davis vet herself. We were both shocked when they tracked her down and she took the call.

The expert thought it was very unlikely that I would be infected with the same bacteria. The only documented cases were in Australia. About a dozen sheep shearers were, they think, infected as a result of exposure to the sheep version of the disease. Regardless, she agreed that the antibiotic (Doxycycline) my doc had in mind works well against the pigeon fever bacteria and would be the appropriate next step.

I could only hear one end of the conversation, but I think the professor was hoping that there was enough fluid in my finger to do a culture. If it really is Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, I'm sure it would be freakish enough that it would make for an interesting academic paper. But, it isn't that swollen and most of the swelling is under the nail! To my relief, my doc decided to pass on lancing the finger looking for pus.

Bottom line, I started the antibiotic tonight and only need to go back Sunday if it's not looking/feeling considerably better.  Oh, the doc told me as I was leaving that it was her most unusual case this YEAR!

The End of Phase I, or the End?

There hasn't been much to report in the way of change lately, except that Rabbask's open abscess is getting smaller and filling in each day. The skin around the abscess is growing toward the center. What was a gaping hole the diameter of a baseball and maybe an inch deep in the center is now almost flush with the skin around it and about the size of a silver dollar.

Last night it was supposed to be cold (high 30's) and the beginning of a large rain storm so, worried about him getting too cold, I put his blanket on. The top edge of the blanket goes right over this abscess so at first I left the top strap undone thinking then it would not contact the abscess. The open flesh is extremely sensitive and I really didn't want the blanket touching it.

But, when I went back down later last night, it was clear that wasn't working. The velcro was pulling out what little hair he still has below the wound and it was clearly bothering him. So, I put some vaseline on the inside of the blanket where it covers the open flesh and tightened up the straps. But, I tossed and turned all night with visions of the edge of the blanket tearing the skin, rubbing on the open wound and him being absolutely miserable.

I got up early, fixed their supplements and went down to see what really happened. Fortunately, the vaseline seemed to work and the wound actually looked better! But, yesterday, Denise found this stretchy, shoulder cover and I ordered one for delivery today. I'm going to put a bandage over the wound, put this over the bandage and the blanket over all of it.

Even though the wound has been healing really well exposed to the air, we're supposed to get up to 20" of rain at the upper elevations over the next six days! That means probably 3-5" in Carmel Valley so it will be a mess at the paddocks. We're also supposed to get snow at the upper elevations so the overnight lows may get into the high 30's.

To stay warm and dry himself, I know he'll try to roll in the dirt. So, my plan is to cover him until the storm is over. If we're lucky, by the end of this storm the new skin may have completely covered the abscess. Then, all we have to worry about is his swollen sheath.  It remains grotesquely swollen, warm to the touch and painful. The vet had me put DMSO on it to hasten the formation of an abscess if that's what's brewing.  

He hasn't had a fever in almost a week, so cross your fingers; this may be the end. But, the horse next door that was the first case of pigeon fever at our place, just (more than a month after her first abscess) hatched another one on the inside of the same leg. Yesterday, she was back to hobbling painfully like Baskers was two weeks ago.

Feeling better - whew!

Though in the photo it may be hard to tell, this wound definitely is filling in from the inside.  The dead skin fell off yesterday, so the whole thing is exposed now, but that just makes it easier to flush.  (Made the photo smaller here to be less shocking.)

The other thing I noticed yesterday, first in the morning but more dramatically in the afternoon, is that Baskers is feeling better.  He had walked around more (evidenced by the manure piles) during the night than he has in more than a week and he was not dragging his left leg along the ground to move it.  He was also MUCH more affectionate and that made it harder to do what I needed to under his chest.  He kept trying to nibble my hat, my shirt, anything he could reach.

I did notice that the area between his front legs wasn't so sensitive, so I got in there with warm, soapy water to clean the area as thoroughly as I could.  I found patches of bare skin where the fur was coming out in small tufts.  That particular area (toward the back of his left front leg) was tender (duh!) but he did let me clean the area and put saline solution on it.  The reduced sensitivity down there may account for his sudden change in behavior.

Despite the improvements in his chest abscess and the swollen area between his legs, the swelling in his sheath hasn't diminished at all and may have increased.  It's still not sensitive to the touch but we'll have to see what happens now that he's moving around more.  I attributed this swelling and that in his legs to the lack of movement.  His legs are definitely less swollen, but not his sheath.

So, we'll see how he is this morning.

One day at a time...

No new graphic photos because not much has changed in the last couple of days.  I've been going down three times a day to flush the wound out with warm saline solution, clean off the area under it, take his temperature (pretty normal for the last couple of days) and give him supplements.  

He's getting 'bute for the pain and something called Transfer Factor that is supposed to boost his immune system.  I could get him to take the bute in powder form by slicing up some apples and mixing the bute in with it.  But, the volume of powdered Transfer Factor he's supposed to get was causing him to reject the treats.  So, last night I tried the usual (apples, carrots, bute and Glanzen) and added Equine Senior to the Transfer Factor. He loves that combination and licked the bowl clean.

The swelling between his front legs is still very painful, though doesn't seem to be growing.  There's a hard swollen bump over the initial abscess site, but it's not draining any more.  His sheath has accumulated a lot of fluid (it looks like he was never gelded) but the swelling isn't painful - yet.  The open abscess is filling in slowly.  I trimmed a little of the dead skin hanging down so that it doesn't function as a fly attractant and because it was looking pretty gross.

Ugly, but getting a little better

I took this tonight after flushing the abscess for the second time today with saline solution.  I used warm water and he was very concerned the first time we did it.  But, by the afternoon he tolerated it pretty well.

The cavity is definitely, noticeably filling in from the inside.  The skin tissue that used to cover the abscess is separating and will probably drop off by the end of the week.  At this rate, I'm guessing (hoping?) that the cavity will be filled and we can stop flushing within two weeks; i.e. just before Christmas.

His temperature was normal and the swelling spot inside his left leg on his lower chest seems a little less sensitive today, though still warm and painful to the touch.  I think this is the one that makes him almost immobile, too.  When he moves, he shuffles around, barely lifting, frequently dragging his left leg forward only a few inches.  It's painful to watch, too, and makes me sad.

I wasn't expecting this...

I went to the paddocks this morning expecting Baskers to be moving around at least a little better. I put a blanket on him last night because it was supposed to rain and be cold.  But, the front of the blanket goes right over the top of the abscess and, when I got there, I didn't notice what happened overnight until I took the blanket off.

This freaked me out so I called the vet right away. She told me on the phone that what I described was probably the normal progression of the disease, but she came out to show me what to do.

Apparently, the tissue over an abscess like this becomes necrotic as the abscess matures.  If we hadn't lanced it on Friday, it would have ruptured on it's own through a hole like this.  The tissue hanging loose may die but the wound will heal from the inside out - and, she claimed, fairly quickly unless there are more pockets of pus that haven't worked their way to the surface yet.

She injected a pint or two of diluted Betadyne solution into the cavity and, for the most part, he tolerated it without a sedative.  I think he would have done better if we'd had warm water to use.  She also looked at the other spots (the original abscess on his leg, the spots between his front legs and his sheath) showing signs of swelling.  Nothing stood out as a problem this morning, so she showed me how to flush the wound once or twice a day.

After she left, I ran out to get the supplies I'm going to need over the next week.  I knew it was supposed to rain some more, but by the time I got back, it was pouring again.  Baskers was on the far side of his little paddock and when I tried to get him to walk over to the fence, he refused.  When I forced him to move, he would barely lift his left leg.  As I was cleaning him up, I discovered that the swelling in his left "arm pit" was EXTREMELY painful when I touched it and it's getting hot to the touch.

So, it looks like he's brewing another abscess right there - an incredibly bad spot for one from the standpoint of pain and for us to get access.  When I left, he was standing in the rain (I can't put a blanket on him to keep him warm and dry), not moving and looking very dejected.  Am going back down in a few minutes to check his temperature, give him some pain meds and put some petroleum jelly below the opening to keep the discharge from "scalding" his skin.

Finally!

When I got to the paddock this morning I immediately noticed that the abscess had formed a "head" and was oozing blood along about an inch and a half long line toward the bottom.  You can see a drop of blood hanging down in this photo. Although this isn't what the vet told me to look for, I knew intuitively it was close to rupturing.  

Baskers stood in one place, hardly even shifting his weight.  He hadn't eaten much of his food, had a slight fever and was in significant pain.  I called the vet before doing anything.  It took a few calls but when I made it clear I needed him this afternoon, they booked him for his last appointment before leaving town for an east coast veterinary conference.

When I knew he was on his way, I put down some plastic ground cover (discharge is so contagious I wanted to make sure none got on the ground) and put his rope halter on.  When I asked him to follow me, he took tiny (3") shuffling steps.  Once out of the gate, he stopped and I had to force him to move the final 10-15'.  When the vet arrived, he got out his portable ultrasound and looked inside the abscess to find pooled fluid and the best spot to lance.

He didn't find a large single pool of fluid and it began to sound like he wasn't sure it was "mature" enough to lance.  I started to get worried but he decided to proceed and "get as much out as possible."  He was assuming that some of the fluid was trapped in pockets and might have to work its way out later.

They prepped the spot where the blood was oozing out and (before I could get the camera started in movie mode) lanced it creating about hole about a half inch across.  Pus and a little blood shot out into a bucket lined with a plastic bag.  It flowed on it's own for on the order of 30 - 45 seconds; I'm guessing ejecting 8 - 12 oz of fluid.  Then he manipulated the surface (pressing in) and forced a lot more very thick pus and blood out of the crater under the lanced opening.  Finally, he filled a large syringe and injected it into the empty cavity ten to twenty times.  This still image is taken from the movie I was finally able to shoot as the flushing process began.  In all, he flushed the cavity with at least a quart of diluted Betadyne!  I'll post the movie when I get a chance but, beware, it's pretty graphic.

The whole process took about an hour and, when the sedative wore off, I walked Baskers back to his little paddock.  He walked slowly and unsteadily because of the drugs, but obviously already moving with less pain.  When he got back to his feed bin, he immediately started eating. From this photo you can see how much of the swelling was relieved.  It's still oozing a little blood and pus and will for a couple of days.  But, the vet said that, once it gets to this stage, the improvement is dramatic and (unless he develops another abscess) rapid.  It should seal itself when the remaining fluid is expelled and the swelling around it and down his leg should dissipate fairly quickly with movement.  Once it's over, they are unlikely to ever get it again.

As he was eating and drinking, I poured bleach in the areas where fluids may have dripped on the ground.  The idea is to sanitize the area as thoroughly as possible so that, tomorrow, the flies aren't going to pick it up and spread it to the neighboring horses.  I'm anxious to see how he's doing tomorrow but INCREDIBLY relieved that we're nearing the end of this saga!

Waiting...

I went down a couple of mornings ago and Rabbask's abscess had almost doubled in size overnight.  This was what it looked like (I've circled the actual size of it) before the vet shaved more of his fur.  The reddish/orange coloring on his coat is DMSO.  I've been applying it per the vet's instructions to accelerate the development of the abscess.

He's a VERY uncomfortable guy these days.  He barely moves, has been running fevers - though the peak temperatures seem to be declining and his appetite seems to be dwindling.  But, honestly, if I had an abscess that large relative to my body mass, I'd be insufferable.  Horses are truly amazing animals.

This afternoon, the center of the abscess appears to be protruding and it feels like there is fluid under the surface.  I'm guessing that this is what happens just before the surface thins out and it prepares to rupture.  At the rate it's changing, it might be ready to lance in 3-5 days.  I sure hope so because it has to be painful to eat out of the feeder - see above!

The fluids that were accumulating between his legs (below the abscess) seem to be slowly dissipating.  The original abscess on his leg has stopped oozing blood and pus and, after reviewing it with the vet yesterday, I left it open to the air hopefully allowing it to heal faster.  We'll see.

Poor Baskers suffers on...

 If you've ever been around him, you know that he's generally pretty animated and mobile.  But, I shot this the other day to show how slow and deliberate his movements are now due to the pain from the abscess.  At about 8 seconds into the video you can see the large abscess on the left side of his chest.  It's about six inches in diameter now and hard.  We're waiting for it to develop a soft spot in the center that can be lanced and drained.

He has been running a fever for the last few days.  Normal for a horse is 98 or 99 degrees and he has been as high as 103.7 degrees.  Fortunately, the rain has stopped for a while but it is quite cold at night.  This morning there was so much frost on the neighbor's roof that it looked like it had snowed.  I'm not complaining (having grown up in Michigan) but it is unusually cold this year.

Pigeon Fever, Part #2

Besides being very wet, it has been cold here (by Central California standards) for the last two days. Frost on the ground, temps in the low 30's overnight.  This was taken Monday after I built an isolation "paddock within a paddock" using electric fencing.  It was pouring and he looked so dejected it broke my heart.

Both horses have been blanketed and the neck opening on Rabbask's blanket rests right on top of the large abscess on his chest.  I'm sure that bothers him because he's very uncomfortable when you touch it.  He barely walks these days because moving his shoulders moves his chest and hurts.

The vet was out yesterday to give him another immune system booster shot.  He left me the meds and needle and showed me how to do it a couple of days ago.  But, I wasn't comfortable giving it to him (intra-muscular in his neck) because he gets amped up when he knows he's going to get a shot.  It stems from an adverse reaction he had to the anesthetic he got when he was gelded years ago.  Horses remember stuff like that for a LONG time.

The vet inspected the site of the ruptured abscess on his leg I've been bandaging and pronounced it much better.  He palpated the large obvious abscess on his chest and thought that it was developing a soft spot and might be ready to lance today (Thanksgiving) or tomorrow.  He also said that the culture of the discharge from his leg abscess is almost complete and the lab is 95% certain it's pigeon fever. Should know for sure today.  

There's another site lower on his chest (right between his legs) where there was originally a LOT of fluid just below the surface.  It has morphed a little and, I think, is forming another abscess inside his right front leg.  I'll know more later this morning when I go down to give him pain meds and change his bandage.  We cancelled our Thanksgiving trip to Santa Rosa because Denise is sick (!!), I'm coming down with something myself and obviously Baskers needs attention.

Regardless, I need to be prepared for a protracted infection.  The vet's assistant has a horse who contracted pigeon fever a while ago.  She spent three months dealing with a succession of abscesses like this.

If it's not one thing...

it's another!  Last week Sasha had just gotten her "cast" off and was starting to get around without a limp.  I was holding off posting about it because I didn't want to jinx her.

But, then, a horse (Zooey) in the paddock next to Rabbask and Cody came down with a highly contagious, ugly and potentially dangerous disease called "pigeon fever."  She had an open abscess on her leg (unusual place for it to be) and, when it was cultured, verified to be pigeon fever.  Apparently it's in the soil everywhere out here and occasionally a horse will come down with it.  Then, the flies are attracted to the discharge (pus) and spread it to other horses by biting them.

As soon as we found out about the diagnosis, we went on an aggressive fly control campaign.  Even though it's getting pretty cold at night, the flies are still a serious problem during the day.  And, I've noticed fly bites (even a small blood trail) on Rabbask's legs before.  So, I wasn't surprised when I noticed a bite mark on his left front leg on Thursday.  I called the vet right away because of the pigeon fever over the fence.

The vet came out, shaved the spot and said he would be surprised if it turned into pigeon fever.  The next morning, Baskers' upper leg was even more swollen, he had a pocket of fluid the size of an avocado on his chest and a smaller, hard spot above that.  So, I called the vet again.  I talked to another vet who told me over the phone that it definitely sounded like pigeon fever.  But, there's nothing to do until the abscesses rupture (photo above) or are ready to rupture.

I've learned a lot about this disease since last week.  It's bacterial and forms large (sometimes football sized) abscesses in the lymph channels.  Typically, they form on the horse's center line from the chest all the way back to the scrotum.  One neighbor had a horse that developed 13 (!!) abscesses at one time.  The abscesses are extremely painful and sometimes develop on internal organs.  If and when that happens, the horse is hospitalized and put on very strong antibiotics for six weeks minimum.  It's called pigeon fever because the puffy spots on their chest resemble a pigeon's chest.

Because the discharged pus is so contagious, the best course is to lance the abscess just before it ruptures, capture the discharge and remove it before flies can spread it to other horses.  If it does rupture when no one is around, the best thing to do is soak the ground with diluted bleach.  Of course, you need to know where it ruptured or you could end up soaking an entire paddock.

To minimize the chance that Cody or any of the other horses in the area would get it, I spent most of Sunday in the rain, in the mud, creating a small paddock within the paddock out of electrical fencing and a solar charger.  It's a much smaller area, so if an abscess ruptures, there's a lot less ground to sanitize.  

And, yesterday morning I discovered the ruptured abscess in the photo at the beginning of this post. I hadn't separated them the night before, so we can only hope that the small amount of discharge from this relatively small abscess was diluted by the rain.

But, the vet had to come out again, sedate Rabbask (he wouldn't let you touch his leg), culture the discharge, flush the abscess with betadyne, bandage it and give him an immune system booster.  He checked the other swellings on Rabbask's chest and decided that the larger one is just fluid accumulating under the skin in reaction to the abscess that formed higher on his neck.  That one is now about avocado size and is hard.  Apparently, it will develop a soft spot when it's ready to rupture and that's when we need to get the vet out again to lance it.

So, now I need to go down (in the driving rain) change the bandage, give him some pain meds, put a heat pack on the now shaved abscess and put some DMSO on the outside of it to accelerate the development of the abscess.  Maybe the rain will stop for a while?

New "cast"

Well, we stopped at the vet's today and, though they didn't want to make the support shorter and smaller, they did.  And, when we got home, Sasha hopped from the car to the gate.  On the other side was an eviscerated  stuffed animal and as soon as she could, she picked it up.  It was the first time in days that she's shown any interest in the stuffed toys.

The support is constructed with a metal "spine" resting against the back of her leg and wrapped in a thick bandage-type gauze and covered with "vet wrap".  The risk they are concerned about is that the end of the spine will rub against the bone and create a skin abrasion.  If the spine goes from joint to joint, there's less chance of that particular problem.

But, life is full of trade-offs and I decided to take that risk in return for a happier and MUCH more mobile dog.  We'll keep an eye on it, but they had already scheduled weekly follow-up visits!  

Horses as Change Agents

In my late 50's, about seven years ago, I decided to become a horseman.  I had no idea how much my perspective on life would change as a result.  Simply making the commitment triggered my first epiphany.

If you know me, you know I don't like doing things poorly.  However, I quickly realized that becoming a good horseman was going to take a long time.  In fact, at my age, I could probably never become as good at it as I expect myself to be at everything else.  And, if that were true, logically I could only enjoy horsemanship if I could enjoy the PROCESS of BECOMING a horseman.

It hadn't occurred to me before but all of a sudden I realized that I actually had a choice: I could CHOOSE to treat this adventure as a PROCESS rather than a PROJECT.  I could enjoy the ups and downs and getting better in increments rather than focus on the end result and feel inadequate until I reached my fuzzy goal of being a "good" horseman. 

If you're a woman or a Buddhist, my "awakening" to choice may not make sense to you.  But, believe me, it was like an earthquake in my brain.  And, as the awareness of choice about horsemanship sank in, the fault line in my brain deepened and widened. 

I quickly realized that I have approached EVERYTHING in my life as a series of projects; everything!  As a consequence, I denied myself the pleasure of just living; deferred enjoyment until some goal or another was met. I experienced life as endless work and constant stress. I focused almost exclusively on where I was going and rarely on where I was at the moment. 

Ironically, I realized that I had lived my entire life focused on futures that never really materialized.  Goals always seem to change over time; mine usually changed because my expectations of myself expanded.  Even when I did finally reach some end point, it never quite felt like I'd completed what I set out to do.

This is not to say that I haven't accomplished much in my life; I have.  But, when all this was dawning on me I began to understand how I had accomplished what I have and the price I paid for doing it this way.