An Update on Speedy's Heel(s)

Somewhere in the middle of the summer, Speedy developed a crack just above his heel. My vet vet suggested I treated it with a wrap and antibiotic ointment, and it went away. A week later, it came back. I talked to the vet about it again, and he decided it was a form of scratches or something irritated by heat, flies, and dirt. He next recommended that I treat it with Genta Spray, a topical spray with both a steroid and an antibiotic. Here's what it looked like in early September when it was already improved.

Not gross, just persistent.

While I sprayed it daily with the Genta Spray, I went out on a limb and treated it with a second topical treatment, Equiderma Skin Lotion. I am not saying that stuff is what did the trick, but I've decided Equiderma is now one of my must have on hand bottles of goop.

No longer gross, and slowly fading away.

The crack is almost gone. It's not nearly as deep as it was, and the skin has closed steadily from the top and bottom. While I don't know which treatment did the trick, I do know the Equiderma helped with two other skin issues: the cannon bone crud and a nasty gash Speedy got last week.

Both are good stuff.

I have no media of Speedy's cannon bone crud, but if you've ever seen it, know that it's even funkier on white hair. I scrub it every day with a dry jelly scrubber, but to get it off completely, I have to draw blood. I used the Equiderma several days in a row, not following the directions at all - I just glopped it on and walked away. A few days (maybe a week?) later, I hosed him off and the crud was gone.

I have no photographic evidence, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The stuff really does work. As an added bonus, there was no burning of the skin or irritation at all. He just had clean smooth skin to show for it.

Different foot.

Last week, I came out to discover a huge hunk of dried mud hanging from Speedy's foot. I hosed it off only to discover it wasn't mud at all, just a hunk of flesh that he tried to tear away from just above his hoof. I cleaned it as best I could and put him back in his paddock hoping it would look better the following day.

Of course it didn't, so the second day I used a more thorough scrubbing technique. The wound looked pretty much like hamburger. I simply couldn't get the dirt out of the crevices. Speedy had somehow gouged into the flesh at the hairline of his hoof. While he was sound on it, it was definitely painful and swollen. Not knowing how else to get the encrusted dirt out, I doused it with my new best pal, Equiderma. (Mineral oil is the first ingredient.)

The next day, I was able to get nearly all of the dirt to wash away. Only then did I feel comfortable coating it with a nitrofurazone ointment and wrapping it. Obviously Equiderma isn't going to heal a laceration, but the mineral oil did soften the caked on mud enough that I could pick it off.

It's not a career ending injury, but it is annoying. I am sure he'll be good to ride later this week. I do wish he'd quit trying to mangle his back feet though.

If Facebook has tempted you to pick up a bottle of Equiderma, I'd say get it. For $24 (at the Riding Warehouse), it actually seems to do what it says it does. Has anyone else tried it?