Monday, October 5, 2009

Now the good news...

Riley was glad to be home (pictured right, just off the trailer). Although I gave you the bad news first (by accident), Riley's day 'o drama (Oct. 1) was rather undramatic. No surgery, no dire diagnosis. Some questions answered, but still a good deal of mystery. That said, the news is mostly good, thanks for the jingles and all jingle-type activity.

Here's the good news...

  • If there is a bone infection, it's low-grade, and they feel it's more likely to be infection of hoof tissue.
    • They superficially debrided some of the granulation tissue (it may have been causing pressure within the hoof). did an antibiotic perfusion (amakacin).
    • They injected the hoof hole with some kind of antibacterial packing (amikacin sulfate and infused collegen) that disintegrates (no need to remove it).
    • He gets a new antibiotic, one that is effective on bone infections. It is toxic to some humans (um, fatal to a small segment of the population, 1 in 45K). You're supposed to wear nitrile gloves and a face mask when administering it.

  • He got a new glue-on shoe and a hospital plate, no more bandaging! Picture on the right -- you can see some swelling in the pastern, most likely from all the procedures. He seems to be walking more comfortably in this glue-on, even though his LF is shoeless...
  • The new hoof growth is clean and it's coming in fast. He could be on turnout in a month to six weeks.
  • The pedal bone "area of concern" has not changed and it's believed to be non-significant.


12 comments:

  1. Whew, that sounds a lot better than your last post. Some really positive things going on here.

    That antibiotic is scary stuff! But I guess bone infections need dramatic efforts.

    Nice that the bandaging is over. It should make it easier on everyone, including Riley.

    Still cheering for you both.

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  2. Really good news! He's looking pretty good. What antibiotic is it? - I'm interested in this stuff.

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  3. Could there be a happy ending? I have my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed.

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  4. Liquid Ambar, I'm counting on a happy ending -- think we just need more time...

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  5. Those antibiotic perfusions are almost magical IME. Bet everyone is tickled with the hospital plate, too.

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  6. Happy he is doing better! Fingers crossed!

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  7. The hospital plate seems like a great solution. I'm glad that you've been given some good treatment, from the sounds of matters, so that Riley's body can concentrate just on getting better. Turnout soon? Woot!

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  8. This is good news -- I'm very happy for you. Is the horizontal line just below his coronet band in that last picture showing the new hoof growth? Just curious.

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  9. Hi Marissa, no, I'm not sure what that line is, it's gotta be a shadow b/c it is not really on his hoof. You can see the new growth as a 'ring' on this radigraph though, about 1/3 the way down the outline of the top of his hoof

    http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fBv2DfHNpllX-zMg--WmHQ?feat=directlink

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  10. Great news! Whew.

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  11. Glad to hear the good news. I bet you'll be glad when all this foot stuff is a thing of the past. It really is amazing at the advances they have made to fix our horses. I'm sure you won't miss the bandaging!

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  12. Great news! I'm so glad things are looking up. From the photos, he looks to be in pretty good shape. Hope it continues on this way.

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