Grody Pictures Ahead

Remember when I did a post on scratches a while back? And I lamented the fact that I had forgotten to take pictures and such before treating it?

Well, Colletta has scratches again. This time it's on the left hind fetlock, and looks worse than the last time it cropped up. So of course I've been taking pictures and documenting the whole treatment thereof...but since I know that some people may not like to see pictures of gross scabby stuff there's more after the break.

The weird thing about scratches is that it's never happened to us before this year. I'm not sure what's brought it on--theories abound from wet conditions, to a soil-borne fungus, to irritated skin that allowed another flare-up. But it only could have happened within the last week because she was fine a couple weeks ago, and when I checked her feet Friday there was a terrible peeling, cracked, oozing mess on her heel.

This is what it looked like after I peeled the crackled part off:

Gross, no? It gets all oozy and bloody for an added bonus. 

So after some mild freaking out I strained off some of my walnut liniment and doused this with it. But Saturday, I came out to see that her leg was swollen like so:

It looked terrible. And of course she was ouchy and reluctant to let me scrape the scabs off again and re-apply the walnut stuff (I can't really blame her there, because it's in an rubbing alcohol base and probably stung quite a bit). Thus, Saturday afternoon I invested in some medicated iodine-based shampoo and did some major research online for ways to naturally treat scratches. 

So far, the most promising stuff seems to be from a company called Zephyr's Garden. They have natural fly sprays, shampoos, liniments, salves, etc for horses and a line of shampoos, anti-itch sprays, flea treatments, etc for dogs. It's a really good idea that they have--but of course it's fairly expensive ($26 for an 8 oz jar of salve, with 8 oz being the smallest size). So I made my own salve using their ingredients for inspiration (it's not an exact copy by any means, but similar). I'll cover the making of that in a different post.

Today the salve was used for the first time. They recommend washing and drying the area thoroughly before applying the salve, and then layering an anti-fungal spray over all to help prevent it from spreading.

This is just after washing. I put some of my comfrey salve on it this morning to soften the scabs and they practically disintegrated while washing. I think it's looking a bit better--but her leg is still swollen and a bit hot, and she's still not happy about having the raw spots touched.

Slathering the stuff on... (ignore my hand, it was all oily and taking pictures with it was a rip)

...and post-spraying of the walnut. It makes her hair turn green, but I don't really care. As long as it works I'm not too worried about appearances.

Because I'm thorough I'll probably be taking pictures throughout the next couple of weeks to track how it heals up. I'll be watching her feet very closely to head off any potential flare-ups in her other legs as well...and scrubbing my hands obsessively to try and get rid of the iodine and walnut stains. O.e