Improvement!

I was pretty dismayed yesterday after visiting Penny at the vet's and seeing how much pain she was in. However, today when we went, Penny felt much better! She wasn't quite as "dazed" with pain - her ears moved to watch Sammie and I as we groomed her, and she was putting more weight on her LF - even put it down to shift her RF around. The difference was the addition of "Previcox" - a drug prescribed for canine arthritis, but has recently been put in a paste form for horses called "Equioxx". Interestingly, the total dose that would treat a small dog would also treat a 1000 pound horse with the same efficacy, so the small dog pills are often used instead as they are 1/10th the cost (yay!) (<$1 a day vs. $12/day)

Here is Penny yesterday:


You can see her pointing the LF - owwie! She shifted it around a lot and seemed overall very uncomfortable. The nerve block from Sat. had worn off, and the banamine was obviously not doing a good job with the pain.

Here is Penny today:


She is holding her weight more evenly between her front feet, and much more relaxed. You can also see that she is not clenching her stomach muscles like she was yesterday. Her heart rate was down to 36, but I could feel the pulses in her RF had increased. Hopefully, the Soft Ride boot will support her and keep her comfortable to prevent any laminitis issues.

Other things that helped me relax a bit is to hear that the procedure to drill into the hoof to remove any dead bone is relatively simple, and cheap (considering! $1-200 instead of the $1-2K I thought it could be) They do it while the horse is standing, but sedated, so it would not involve major anesthesia to do it. The senior vets do believe it is probable that it will happen, and we will see it on the followup radiographs in 4-6 weeks. Or maybe after that. Because the fracture is completely across and already appears separated, it is likely, but she could yet surprise us.

It was nice to hear that the prognosis was better than I was feeling yesterday, and that this certainly should be something we can make it through with proper care (my specialty!). The key will be managing her pain so that she does not get laminitis in her good foot. If we can do that, then I think we're going to be okay!