Our old blind horse Scout is continuing to act "ouchy" on his feet. We had started treating him for Cushing’s disease, which I mentioned in a post last week. We’ve been giving him a twice-daily anti-inflammatory called Banamine, plus his Cushing’s medication. But he still seemed uncomfortable on his feet. When Kathryn and I trailered Chance and Lonesome George in to Dr. Bill Brown’s clinic this afternoon for their chemotherapy, I took Scout along as well. I wanted Bill to take another look at his hooves.
In the photo Bill is shooting X-rays of his feet, while Kathryn is holding Scout still. Bill has placed Scout’s front feet on wooden blocks to get a complete view of each hoof. The X-rays revealed what we feared — that Scout’s laminitis has now caused the bones in his feet to begin turning. Specifically, the coffin bone is rotating down and away from the hoof wall. This is painful and explains what we’ve been seeing in Scout.
Bill trimmed Scout’s hooves in a special way to make him more comfortable walking with this condition. Other than that, at this point all we can really do is hope the Cushing’s medication starts kicking in soon, and we’ll continue with the Banamine. The April issue of Equus magazine has a great article on Cushing’s, and it gave us hope that if we can get Scout’s Cushing’s under control, we can turn the corner on his chronic laminitis, too.
(Click on photo for larger image.)
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