Yes it's here finally. I am the queen of procrastination. This coupled with my tendency to hit the panic switch repetitively during finals is generally not a great situation. I've been pulling my usual finals coping mechanisms: become extremely reclusive, avoid the library: too many germs and I can't be around other people who are stressing out. I've also been studying like hell this week since my brain will be mush during actual finals week. I'll be doing lots of swimming and sleeping to keep myself straight. We have Anatomy exam III tomorrow at 7a. I simply can't study anymore. It's heart/thorax, nervous system, abomen, repro. I continue to be blown away by how little other students know about the repro system. Anyway, I've also been stalking my Nutrition professor (my weakest class) Biochem + Nutrition remember. Ugh. He holds the keys to the hoof equipment locker. I took a break from studying yesterday to go trim a few horses since the large animal technician advised me that their frogs needed attention. Not a coincidence. One more time Dr. Naylor can see my shining face.
Unfortunately, everytime I go to work on these feet I am presented with a variety of problems. Once again I have bit off more than I can chew and I'm being cautious that I don't get myself hurt. Everyone of these damn horses has learned to use their powerful hind legs to tell you when they are fed up. This is something I've never tolerated in my own horse, and being faced with this and no chemical restraint at my disposal I finally appreciate how dangerous these creatures truly are. Great.
So their frogs are rotten. Mushy, soft, torn, overgrown, thrush like you wouldn't believe. I'm aware that I need to be careful since they will likely be tender and more sensitive than a healthy frog. What do you know, I drag in my third horse and begin to clean his foot. My (dull as ever) knife I had to beg for grazes a soft spot and my hands are immediately covered in thick red liquid. Excellent. I blink to be sure I'm not imaginging this. The horse didn't flinch, and I am not surprised by the blood given the state of these hooves. However I'm keenly aware that the foot I'm holding does not belong to my own horse, that this frog is pulsing, and that a large puddle of blood is accumulating on the barn floor. I look around to see if anyone has noticed, and realize that the gate is open and two horses have escaped. Crap! What the heck?!
I squeeze Buddy's frog to confirm that he's not painful (yet), drop his foot, and fly to the feed room for halters. Somehow, no one notices even though the security guard house is directly across from the barn. After catching the roaming horses and securing the gate, I return to my left fore foot which has not stopped bleeding. Thankfully I have seen this before and I know not to panic. I dig around for some paper towels and iodine. Cleaning fissure, I soak a clean paper towel and jam it into the crypt. Now to explain this to the technician, who can't believe the mess I've created. Not much really, it just looks bad. The frog is highly vascularized and feet bleed like crazy. I'm fed up with this so that's my last horse for the day, and I report back to Naylor to return his keys and explain what happened. Buddy's not lame for now, but these horses stand in mud all day and infection is likely. I advised the tech and Naylor of this. Then I returned back to studying.
My friends continue to ponder my obsession with horse feet. And it finally dawned on me that not everyone jumps at the word "laminitis." Once again, a challenge...perhaps this little herd will teach me more than I imagined.
My arms will be wrapped around Pags in 9 days :)
take care
lkc
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