Why Do I Do This To Myself?

I miss this!

Dino's leg is still puffy and a little bit warm. The puffiness is maybe SLIGHTLY more localized to the area right above his fetlock joint on the inside of his leg, but for all intents and purposes, it's stayed the same over the past week.

I clipped his legs to look for any skin funk or cuts that might be making him blow up, and took his temperature to make sure there wasn't any sort of infection going on. Nothing. No heat or sensitivity in his foot, either, which likely rules out an abscess. I then made Jess look at it, in the hopes that she would tell me I'm just being a psycho pony mom and he's fine.

Jess did not like what she saw, and when she picked up Dino's leg and pinched the puffy area hard, he definitely reacted.

The thing that scares me is that the whole thing looks pretty similar to when Jenna's horse Max had a tendon sheath injury, and I'm kind of terrified that Dino did the same thing.

So with Jess helping me to think rationally and not break down and cry right there on the spot, I poulticed & wrapped my pony and put him in for the night. The plan is to poultice & wrap him at night for the next couple days, see how he is, and then I will probably end up calling the vet out to take a look and ultrasound the leg. I decided to let him have turnout time and not keep him in his pen, because all he does is stand there and eat, and I'd rather have Dino be happy and out in the big field where the footing is relatively flat, than stressed out in his pen where everything is rutted and lumpy from the mud freezing.

Naturally, when I got home last night I went online and searched for "tendon sheath injuries."

WORST. IDEA. EVER. I don't know why I do this every time something is wrong with my pony. I just can't stay away from Dr. Google.

Reading about all of these nightmare injuries and 6 months - 1 year off MINIMUM with limited chances for full recovery pretty much did me in. I cried. Things have been going so well for us, and we've had such growth in our partnership over the last year, that this kind of injury and time off would just SUCK. Ugh. Plus having vet bills come in at a time when Michael and I are trying to re-organize and budget our finances is just irritating.

If anyone has a magical pony-fixing wand, I'd love to borrow it.