Lady is doing wonderful! I never dreamed that she would heal like she has.
The most difficulty we've had was keeping her from chewing on her leg. It must have itched like wild because she would chew on it even with Chew Stop on. I was hoping that we could stop wrapping it but after leaving it open for several hours, she broke it open and it had to be bandaged again. We finally got down to only one non-stick pad covering the wound and then wrapping it with gauze. This we did until the end of October. I was changing her bandage one day and after I got it all cleaned up Lady slowly turned and started to walk away from me. I said to her, "Lady, don't you want me to finish bandaging your leg?" She turned and stood looking at me with the "Lady look" and then slowly turned and walked away. This was very unusual 'cause she had always stood for me to rebandage her, even without a halter. I thought we should again try leaving it open and see if she left it alone. That was the last day she was bandaged. She has a scab on the front of her leg about the size of a half dollar and a small sliver of a scab on the outside of her leg. I had told Mandy that when Lady was all healed up that we would have a party. I never thought it would be in the winter!
I was happy that she left it alone because her winter fur had started to grow. She needed it to grow around her wound which it wouldn't do all covered up! We extended their original pasture and built a shelter for them (instead of the tarp shelter) in a little valley protected from the wind. A special thanks to our friend Ben who helped us SO much building it. It turned out much nicer than anything I would have cobbled together! And a special thanks to my husband for being such a good sport about the horses having a shed instead of him having a garage. :)
Mandy rides Lady several times a week. The only visible effects from her injury are her misshaped leg and she drags her hoof slightly when she is stepping out. Lady was always a SLOW walker, and now after she is free to roam she walks so fast that I can hardly keep up with her unless I jog. She loves to trot and will wait at the gate so Mandy can take her out for a ride.
Ella had a little adjusting to do after her mother was out of the small pen. It was amusing to watch Lady re-establish her dominance over Ella. She even still shews Ella away from Ella's pile of hay, so Ella will go and eat Lady's. Then Lady will do it again and they will be back to the piles they started with.
