Heel Toe and Dosie Doe

Sorry the update is a little late today. CMK was up on foal watch all night so didn't give me an update until late. A grey filly was born early this morning. Her dam came with Mama in late Mar, but she wasn't in the same sad condition as Mama. Other than a worm overload, she was in decent shape. This is another big filly who is also suffering from contracted tendons in all 4 legs. Let's hope that she's the normal contraction that self resolves with a few days of movement. CMK can NOT deal with 2 babies in splints. I'll give an update on the new filly as soon as I know more.

Monday was a smiling day at the ranch. When the splints & wraps were removed from Filly's legs, both of her legs held steady with NO knuckling at all. She & Mama were put out in the paddock & not once did CMK see Filly knuckle over on her left fetlock. She didn't run & play because she's a very smart & careful filly who made sure she took no bad steps. It was so awesome to see her walking almost normal. Her legs are weak & the fetlocks a little soft from the splinting, but other than that she was pretty close to normal. Yahooooo! This was definitely a high on the manic roller coaster. It was noticed by DW that Filly's hind hooves are growing too much heel & starting to look like they want to club. Yikes! All the focus on the front legs have made for neglect the hinds. Out came the rasp to take a little hoof off. For the next few nights the rasp will take a couple of swipes to keep the heels down & balanced. We can't have gone through all this to save her front legs, only to lose her hinds. Tomorrow it's planned to glue a cuff with both toe & heel extension onto the left front. The cuff needs to be expanded a little because it was a bit too tight. Once the heel extension is on, it's expected to support the fetlock & have Filly walking on her hoof correctly instead of on the heel bulbs. She will continue to get dosed with probiotics until her manure is normal for at least a week. She's eating like a little pig & it's hard to keep her out of Mama's bucket, which she is not suppose to be eating. She's so full of personality & is just a love. Not to be too optimistic, but it's starting to look like Filly is on her way to a wonderful, happy life.