Healing - Week #2

***WARNING!!!***

More Wound Shots!

On Monday I had Dr. Hill come out to update the horses' vaccines and while here he also took a look at Ben's injury. He said I have done a great job with his wound care and wasn't worried about it's healing process. He gave me a different topical antibiotic to use on it since the Fura-Zone may have been slowing the healing process by using it everyday.

I mentioned that I was worried about him being lame and so we had Ben do a trot test and sure enough Dr. Hill described him grade 3:5 lame. (To learn more about Lameness Exams, read this article.) Dr. Hill suggested that if once the wound was healed in about 2 weeks, if he still seems lame then he'd need to recheck Ben and run some additional tests on him. He mentioned the possibility that he could have seriously bruised or slightly fractured the wing of his coffin bone. I'm really hoping this is not the case, because I'd hate for Ben to be out of commission for much longer than a month. After reading this article on Coffin Bone Fractures, I'm really worried. Even though I sounded hopeful when I gave the vet Ben's update today, I'm thinking it would be wise to get him x-rayed soon so I know exactly what we are dealing with. I can't imagine him being on rest for the next 6 months! Poor Ben! Let's hope this isn't the case and everything continues to improve!!

Here are some photos I took today, two weeks after the injury occurred. It's still pretty swollen as you can see in comparison to the right front foot picture at the bottom. Sorry for the blurriness!