A Growth Spurt And Injury Remedy

An injury update on Art while the next bone post is (still) being written. For posterity I'll detail the injury below

First, and for us quite significantly, in the last 10 days both my horses ages 2 and 3 have grown 1/2 hand. Art is now finally necessary 15' 3 1/2" to allow our enlarged Mr. Nob to breeze him. Rod has grown to the same size.

Is it coincidence that suddenly two horses including a middle 3yr. old simultaneously gain half a hand which also includes the overall increased scope that this entails? There's a big difference in total size between 15'3" and 15' 3.5".

I'm supposing in terms of bone growth"calcium matters". What's happened with the 10+ days of rain in July, my fields are covered with a sheet of clover which the horses ingest in the daily grazing. I feel certain this dramatically increases dietary calcium content which most likely is responsible for the present spurt. Would be interesting to know whether supplementing calcium would cause the same result. I have in the past induced growth spurts by providing sudden increases of alfalfa hay.

We finally have big enough horses which is so important for us.

ART'S INJURY

I'd thought the rap (hit) was on the tendon, but by day 4 with the swelling much reduced I see an enlarged fetlock and probably that's were the hit occurred. There's still significant heat on Thurs. night, and some significant swelling just above the fetlock in the tendon/suspensory/condylar area that THREATENS TO CALCIFY creating a hardened area above the fetlock. With calcification in this area and hardening the horse can still run pain free but this hardening of the lower tendon sheath is a permanent injury which compromises speed. You are unlikely to have a successful racehorse with such injury, and though I'm thankful we're without a bow, I'm very very concerned as I go to bed Thurs. evening.

While in Kentucky (Lexington in 97/98) witnessed all sorts of "remedies" for injury with most at first blush seemingly stupid. Over time there I began to develop a respect for "what works" and the accumulated knowledge of KY horse people.

One thing I learned in Lexington was how to create healing heat in the tendon area by putting furizone (the yellow Vaseline based topical antibiotic) over the area and covering it with plastic Saran wrap. This creates as much heat and therefore circulation in the leg as a heating pad.

And so, Thurs. night the furizone/plastic wrap was put on Art's tendon and fetlock. Fri. morning it was removed, and voila, swelling gone. (What a relief). There's still some very slight fetlock enlargement, but the area just above the fetlock is clean. Art, a horse that's impressing us, should be back in business by Sunday.

Training:
8/7/08 Thurs: Both horses were off for the 3rd day.