Two days ago I found a deep cut on Blondie's left, hind pastern. It wasn't fresh and looked as if the skin around the cut had started to peel away and harden. As I am still in the process of completing her overall grooming to get her to 100% health, I hadn't found the cut, but did notice her fetlock was swollen. I originally assumed it was from her standing in mud all day at the barn because the rest of her legs looked slightly swollen. It wasn't until I made my way through another layer of caked-on mud until I found it. I immediately washed it with warm water, very carefully, and doused it with hydrogen peroxide. The amount of foam it produced only made me worry more. Before tucking her in for the night I put on a salve to keep dirt from getting into it and conditioned her other hooves as well as rubbing vetrolin lininment on her swollen fetlocks. I waited until after class today to check on her cut. Let's just say I wasn't happy with the way it looked, even though it had stayed clean. Her other legs were back to normal size and her hooves looked better, but the injured pastern had swollen to twice the size it was the day before. It did look as though it had drained the infection out, which is always a good sign.
I cleaned it with warm water again to remove any specs of dirt before putting peroxide on again (this time creating less foam!). I rubbed on some Neosporin and covered it with gauze and sporting tape. I found my leg-pillows in my college stuff from Findlay as well as my adhesive bandages and wrapped up her leg as well as I could so that she wouldn't rub it against anything overnight. I made sure to leave it loose enough for movement. Being a newby at wrapping legs, I'm hoping I don't wake up to find it torn to shreds in her stall. If the swelling doesn't go down or it looks even worse, I plan on making a call to the vet tomorrow. Let's pray that that doesn't have to happen!!
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