Healing!

The vet took a look at Solomon today, and was very pleased!
She said that his leg was looking good- no swelling, no infection, and it was draining properly. She said it was starting to heal from the inside out. I am to change the leg wrapping every 3 or 4 days, bute him for another two (two grams once a day, as per her instructions) and to be sure to continue to give him his antibiotics for the next 10 or so days.
To change his leg wrapping, I am to do the following:

* Clean his leg with bottled water. Betadine solution would make it harder for his flesh to heal after the initial cleaning of the wound, so clean fresh water it is.
* Use triple-antibiotic ointment liberally on the wound.
* Apply a non-stick pad.
* On top of that, stack some 4 X 4 pads.
* Around that, wrap his leg with the beige wrap that sticks to his hair.
* Around THAT, wrap some padding, being sure to make as few wrinkles as possible.
* Around that, wrap either vetrap or the cloth bandages with Velcro that one of the folks at the barn gave to me.

She said his eye was healing very well, and that I was doing a good job with him. Yay. :)
So today I drowned his bute in honey to get him to eat it. He almost hit his head HARD when I tried to paste him with the bute, even with a shoulder-roll. Even with a shoulder-roll and a bit of sedation still in him from the vet checkup. I just can't move fast enough yet I guess. Couldn't even do it with help from another boarder, he just freaks out more and more. We will be doing the applesauce thing when he's feeling better, oh yes we will.
But for now he gets it in honey on senior feed.
He's well enough to feel bored to tears in there, still pressing on the bars, still trying to smack me around with his head, though today I didn't let him get away with it. It's like he has slipped back a few months. Argh. Well we will work through it. He's drugged and in pain and feeling trapped. He'll get better. He is happy to see me and calls to me when I leave for the day.
Hook picking was done. Grooming was done. Pointment was done. Hand-walking was done, just a little bit, like the vet said. His toy has changed orientation so I think maybe he did play with it a little bit while I was gone, not sure though.
I asked about the turkeys, as a friend was concerned about diseases. The vet said they aren't a problem- they hang out with her horses too. Out in the pasture the horse herd and the turkey flock stick together, depending on each other to spot danger. West nile vaccine is administered to the horses. Too bad there doesn't seem to be a vaccine for humans for that! But yeah, the turkeys shouldn't be a health risk. Hell, he had chickens living in his stall with him in the old place, chickens running loose all over, and roosting on his back. But I did ask, and around here they are fine. Can't really keep them away either. I don't think it's even legal to shoot them most of the year, and there isn't s afe direction to shoot them from anyway, not in the area the barn is in.
I'm more worried about ticks actually, which apparently come out in force here when it cools off. My gods I hate ticks. Lymes is a problem out here. I'm going to have to pick them off him when he's back out in pasture again. I talked to the vet about that too. She agreed that he'll just be way healthier overall if he gets to go back out there once he is better. Maybe he won't hurt himself again. Usually they seem to when they are new to a pasture, still. Maybe he'll be more careful around the fences now. Gods I hope so.
The vet felt that he's too old to get hobble trained. She said it would be very hard to do with him, at his age. Especially since he has gotten hurt a few times- he'd be likely to just panic. Damn. Well I guess I'll just have to hope for the best on that front.
I swept his stall mats before I left. Much easier for me to do than attempting to clean out his old stall was. They clean it every day. I clean it in the afternoon or evening before I leave, so he has something of a comfy place to lie down, though he probably gets it messy again before he goes to sleep. Still, less rocks is less rocks.
I called a friend up who wanted me to come north and visit her at her farm. She's taking care of everything all alone for a couple of weeks. I can't do much in the way of physical labor but I could have kept her company and helped her catch the sheep and the cow. Animals are pretty calm around me. But I can't do that now of course. I have a hurt baby to take care of. She understands. Too bad though, I really wanted to meet the milk cow.
Solomon stepped on my foot today. For some reason the sedatives makes horses randomly decide to walk forward. He walked forward and then stood on my foot. I'm glad he still responds to "back." When I got home the cat jumped from my dresser right onto the foot Solly stepped on. It was the 20 pound cat of course. Hah, I had to laugh. Laugh and cuss a little.
But overall today was good. Hard work, but good news.