Poultice makes perfect

As well as still being swollen underneath, when I came in from the field on Monday evening I was lame. Auntie Gemma had a look at me and suggested Dad ice inside my stifle area which had heat and make me as comfortable as possible overnight.

Ed from the vets had been booked for this morning to check my infection and clean me up again in readiness for further treatment tomorrow. He saw me move and set about diagnosing this lameness. He checked my hooves and found my offside hind was bruised. He took off the shoe and, after testing and a little excavation, found not one but two abscesses.

Ed poulticed and bandaged the hoof and also gave me ACP and cleansed as Elspeth had done. He said he wanted me to go out later in the day to benefit the treatment of the infections. Other Dad went to buy extra poultice materials, bandages and duck tape, since I have to be poulticed for three days and then have iodine compresses for a further three. He returned with these items plus two types of poultice boot - one in canvas and the other in plastic. Unfortunately neither was big enough and had to be returned, so Dad made me a boot from a cut-down Megazorb sack and duck tape.

I was very tentative walking out, but got the hang of it in in my home-made poultice boot and delicately skirted the mud at the entrance, as Dad wanted, to make my way to the drier part of the field. On entering, Dibby joined me for some energetic mutual grooming through our heavy- weight rugs before starting to graze in the sunshine.

When we came in, I was happy to co-operate in walking around the quagmire to avoid getting my poulticed hoof all muddy. Dad was pleased that our Do It Yourself poultice boot had stayed intact and quite clean. He said I must be one of the few cobs who didn't care to tread in water or mud. He was right.