The story I got when my friends returned to the barn the next day was that George was on three legs again. Clearly something was wrong, so it was back to the barn for George. The vet came yet again that day, by this point George had already been switched off of Gentacine and put on LA 200 and IV bute that week. Apparently the vet showed up around hoof pack changing time on Friday. So, she took a culture of the puss for the lab with hopes to hear something within a day or so. In the meantime, instructions were to keep going as is and more x-rays in the morning if the filly still wasn't weight-bearing.
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| 4/23/11 x-ray, dark spots near middle are infection. |
Of course, in the morning, George was still on three legs. So the doctor who took the first set of x-rays returned to take a new set of x-rays. I was there for this set. Not good. In 8 days, on antibiotics, George had developed a bone infection. And a bad one. The vet ran through a couple of scenarios, but his ultimate prognosis was not good. In fact, he pretty much wrote her a death sentence.
Not one to give up so easily, my friend called her husband and was already brainstorming. Towards the end of the conversation, her eyes lit up and she turned to me and exclaimed: "Maggots!" Had I not previously been exposed to horses being treated with maggots, I probably would have been highly confused. She told me that her husband would talk to the podiatrist and see what he thought. In the mean time, she would yet again consult with the primary vet.
Later that afternoon, I got a call. The primary vet didn't think there was anything the podiatrist could do at that point for George. She called in a prescription for Baytril, about the strongest antibiotic possible. There wasn't much optimism from anyone.
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