This picture was taken when the swelling had gone down a bit.
The vet thought he looked stocked up, I think he called it, like he'd been standing still too long in a confined space. He was puzzled because Fox has a lot of corral space to walk about in. His temp was normal and his pulse in that area was fine. I showed him where his abscess had been and asked him about antibiotics. He felt we should wait and see. He did suggest I use the wormer Zimecterin Gold instead of the Safe-guard (fenbendazole) that I was going to use this time. Zimecterin Gold gets tapeworms too. I'll wait till we get a harder frost.
Foxsun's very first dental exam went fine.
I had to hold Foxsun's head up a bit for the vet because his chin was almost on the ground!
The vet said his teeth weren't all that bad really. He didn't think they were the reason for his weight loss. There were some ulcers in the back where his teeth had been rubbing so he filed the pointy bits off.
Wednesday Foxsun was really happy and feeling good. He arched his necked, stuck out his top lip and lifted his back leg to have his belly rubbed. His teeth must have been bothering him before. He was still a little bit swollen in all four fetlocks and pasterns.
Thursday, today, I went in his little house and saw wet spots on the wooden floor. I looked under his belly and saw his abscess was dripping and had nasty gunky stuff hanging down, again. I also felt another abscess growing near his belly button. It was very painful for him when I touched it. Tonight when I went back out to wash the drippy bit I saw the new abscess had grown a lot bigger.
Here's what the first abscess looks like today.
You can see it's pretty much flat looking.
His coat is shedding on his back when I rubbed my hand on it. It should NOT be coming out in October!
I'm going to starting Foxsun on antibiotics in the next few days because I think he needs some help at this point to fight this thing.
I have been so very worried about the Mustangs getting the Pigeon fever and I don't think I have done my own health very good.
Foxsun's old cow wife, Dandylyons, really misses him. She's been wanting me to comfort her.
I'm thinking of bringing her over to the horse barn to be with him. She loves the little barn area and has lived there for most of her life but she's not very lady like in it and her big hooves and weight tear up the floor. She also will eat up all his food very fast. So maybe I shouldn't till he improves a bit.
5 comments:
I'm sorry to hear he's still sick. I really thought he'd get better when the abscess burst. Poor guy.
Are you sure he's not just shedding his summer coat to make way for his winter coat? Ours did that a while ago, but maybe it's warmer up in your area?
That's really interesting about Foxsun's legs swelling up. Last year at this very same time (mid-late October), my quarter horse colicked (pretty badly, but we got her through it). The same day I noticed that my mare was colicking, I noticed that my mustang gelding had swollen rear fetlocks (I think it was just the rear, but I can't remember exactly). They were so swollen...you know the word "cankles"? Well, that's what my gelding had. But he lives in a huge pasture, so it couldn't be stocking up. We worried that it was something in that pasture (mare colicking and cankles?) so pulled them out and put them with the other horses. The next morning, Chico's cankles were gone and he's not had a reoccurence. We never did figure it out. That's just strange because it sounds the same as Foxsun's problem.
Oh, Arlene, I am sorry he is still sick. That is awful. I would be panicking.
That's what I thought of when I saw Foxsun, 'cankles!'. Funny thing though, he seems OK. He's not at all lame and show knows signs of belly problems.
I'm really, really sorry he isn't better for you--you have your hands full and I can't believe how cold it's getting in your area. They say winter is going to come hard and early and then ease up on us later--let's hope that's true--the easing up part, that is.
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