Mustang Saga

Bella is having a laminitis attack. I thought it was odd the other day when I trimmed her that she seemed to have trouble standing for me, like something hurt and she could only hold a foot up for so long. At the time I wondered if it was her stifles, or even just flies bothering her. But yesterday it was obvious something was wrong. She's lame on all four feet. Her digital pulse is pretty strong but at a normal rate (44), her hooves are pretty hot. She walks okay but it's uncomfortable. Standing was uncomfortable for her before the bute, she was constantly shifting her weight around. She's not lying down. She will pretty easily allow me to lift a hoof but she needs a break after about a minute holding it up.

I'm treating her with bute, ice baths for her feet, soaked hay to remove the sugars, epsom salt as an emergency magnesium supplement (I'll get something better ASAP), and her hooves are padded to support the sole and coffin bone.

She also has some strange lumps under her skin, most notably along the sides of her jaw.

So I'm wondering if this is a chemical/toxic reaction to the wormer I gave her the other day. If there were a lot of worms (I never saw any evidence of any and I was looking) their deaths add toxins to the system as well. That and the fact that she's too fat and obviously predisposed to metabolic issues just adds another reason as to why she might founder. I think the wormer probably just tipped the scale in the wrong direction, and she was probably on the verge of founder anyway. She'll need better feed management in the future.

This is a good lesson in something I knew but didn't practice - don't let your horses get too fat, and when the neck crest gets hard you're in the danger zone. She has been off pasture and losing weight, but I shouldn't have had her on pasture so much and allowed the weight gain. So now I have 4 easy keepers and one slightly hard keeper. I think I'd much rather have a hard keeper than an easy keeper. Or better yet, a trouble-free horse! I'm not sure there is such a thing.

Oh, I do have some good news though. My sister says she's never seen a young horse that didn't have ascarids and she wouldn't worry about it at all. (She's had and cared for a LOT of younsters, since they run a boarding facility). Horses develop an immunity as they age and most any wormer will kill them. My vet advised worming them again in 3 weeks and again in 6 weeks, with whatever is cheapest, Ivermectin, Panacur, or Strongid.

Another good news is that Scout's facial marks are bite marks, not a fungus. Thank goodness I don't have to bathe his face.