Annagain
Well-Known Member
We take it in turns to put the horses and they get led out in pairs. Wiggy goes out at the same time as my friend's horse as they are the only two fatties who don't get a morning feed. For a good few days over Christmas, when we turned them out, Wiggy would sniff at and lick my friend's horse's back right leg then do the pflehmen response. This was every morning for four or five days. We checked the leg repeatedly and couldn't find anything wrong / stuck to it so put it down to Wiggy being a weirdo.
Then, my friend's horse was lame on that leg one morning with swelling above the fetlock. We gave it a good check but there was nothing obvious so he went out to see if movement helped it. By the time he came in, he was sound with no swelling but by the next morning it was swollen again and he was stiff on it. Wiggy was still obsessed with this leg. The same thing happened the next day - lame and swollen in the morning, totally sound by the afternoon. All the time we were checking it closely and there was absolutely nothing else to go on. My friend was about to call the vet but that morning, his skin appeared to be weeping. There was no wound or scabs just a wetness around his coronet band. I wiped my hand over it and it absolutely stank. We poulticed it and the next morning had a glorious eruption of pus, the only issue now is it's left a very sore raw bit of skin (there's no cut as such it just seems to have broken through the skin) so he's in (and getting quite grumpy about it bless him) until that heals.
Wiggy had obviously been able to smell this long before it became apparent to anyone else - even the horse himself! Horses never cease to amaze me with their ability to know things we don't.
Then, my friend's horse was lame on that leg one morning with swelling above the fetlock. We gave it a good check but there was nothing obvious so he went out to see if movement helped it. By the time he came in, he was sound with no swelling but by the next morning it was swollen again and he was stiff on it. Wiggy was still obsessed with this leg. The same thing happened the next day - lame and swollen in the morning, totally sound by the afternoon. All the time we were checking it closely and there was absolutely nothing else to go on. My friend was about to call the vet but that morning, his skin appeared to be weeping. There was no wound or scabs just a wetness around his coronet band. I wiped my hand over it and it absolutely stank. We poulticed it and the next morning had a glorious eruption of pus, the only issue now is it's left a very sore raw bit of skin (there's no cut as such it just seems to have broken through the skin) so he's in (and getting quite grumpy about it bless him) until that heals.
Wiggy had obviously been able to smell this long before it became apparent to anyone else - even the horse himself! Horses never cease to amaze me with their ability to know things we don't.
) but she always did.
