Can I Get A Break, Please?

Just when you think things are looking up, they start going downhill again. I swear every time I get ahead, it all starts to fall apart. When we arrived home from our vacation, my OH went out to feed the horses. It didn't take long to realize something was wrong with Fritzy. He came to get me and I went out to check her out. It did not look good. She could not walk on her front right and when she would try to take a step, she would throw her leg really high in the air and hop on 3 legs. At first I thought she had a broken leg. Then upon further examination, she was standing on her tip toes on both hind feet. Second thought, laminitis. Then I notice all four legs are extremely hot and swollen. I immediately call my vet. No one answered, so I called another vet I have used in the past. Of course it was after hours, so they have to call the on call emergency vet.

While I wait, I take Fritzy's temp. 102 degrees. Fever. I do not give her any Bute yet, so the vet can see her before she gets anything for the pain. The vet arrives about 45 minutes later. Her first thought was laminitis too. She does an examination and everything looks and sounds okay, except for her legs. Fritzy can barely stand and walk and she won't allow anyone to touch her legs. The vet has us give her 2 grams of Bute and diagnosis Fritzy with Cellulitis (an infection under the skin, that can be caused by a very small cut or any break in the skin, and that is how bacteria gets under the skin) on all fours, which is extremely painful. She has to sedate her in order to clean up her legs, puts on Nitrofurazone, saran wrap and then bandages all fours. The Nitrofurazone works as a sweat and it is supposed to sweat out the infection. She did not want to put her on antibiotics yet. She wanted us to lock her in a 12 x 12 area. Since we don't have a barn, we had to move 3 of our arena panels down to a dry area to make a 12 x 12 stall.

Fritzy with her legs wrapped.

The next day the vet came out to draw blood and take her temp, which was back to normal, and get the blood work to the lab. She wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else going on with her. She called me later to say her WBC came back normal, which is good. But we still needed to get this infection under control. When I got home from work, I was to take the bandages off, rinse off the Nitrofurazone, cold hose her legs, dry them and put on more Furazone, saran wrap and standing wraps. When I got her bandages off, her legs were extremely red, still swollen and very hot. But she was walking better. I hosed her legs and she actually tolerated that pretty well. She pulled her legs away a couple times, but was a very good patient. I then put on the Furazone, saran wrap and standing wraps.

This is where we are at this point. There can be complications of cellulitis. We have to keep a close eye on it because it can lead to laminitis or sloughing of the skin (in horses that have had Strangles, and Fritzy had strangles as a yearling). We also do not want any weeping of the skin.

My OH has had Cellulitis in his knee before, and he knows how painful this is. I saw how much pain he was in when he had it. It was bad. But can you imagine having 4 limbs effected? Especially when those 4 limbs need to hold your body up?

So I will continue treating my girl and hope for the best outcome. I will be taking a break from blogging until I get this under control. I am completely slammed with work and the care of my own horse. I could really use a break right now..................this has not been a good year for me.