Battle of the sores

I wish it was spring already.

Last fall, Hampton started to develop these odd sores on his pasterns. They were on the front, they were round and they started to grow and become very raw and sore.

He was not unsound, but my constant, obsessive picking at them and treating them eventually did start to piss him off so I knew they had to be somewhat sore to the touch. One even caused a very mild case of cellulitis in his front leg. I freaked out of course, especially after the summer case of cellulitis, but thankfully it cleared up very quickly. But still. The struggle is real.

I never took photos, but they looked a lot like this:

Once we moved to the new barn, his sores continued to exist and annoy me to no end.

At first I though maybe it was a weird case of scratches or some fungus/bacteria combo thing. So I brought out everything I had. I tried every fungus treatment I could think of. I cleaned and scrubbed them daily. I used antibacterial creams. Fungal creams. Dry cow treatments. Diaper rash ointment.

I made one trip to the grocery store and walked out with Tinactin, Monistat, and Preparation H. I am sure that checkout lady thought I had one hell of a personal problem.

Then someone suggested they might be summer sores. So I gave him a double dose of wormer, put a little extra wormer directly on the sores and wormed him again 2 weeks later. No change.

I had the sores treated with a cold laser. This helped a little, but they were raw again a week later.

Someone suggested he might have a sleeping disorder and would fall asleep and buckle down onto his pasterns at times - creating these sores. I guess it is possible, but Hampton does not show ANY signs of lacking sleep. He enjoys his naps and I, nor anyone else, have ever seen him buckle.

Finally I just came to the conclusion that they are simple bed sores. Why he started to develop them now I have no idea. BUT I did find a pretty good solution. These puppies:

I think I found them at Valley Vet

They are reasonably inexpensive - $25 or so - and while not super durable, they continue to do their job after almost 2 months.  I do take them off and let him go without a few times a week to help prevent fungus. But if I leave them off for more than a few days, raw spots do start to re appear. So they are helping. The sores are almost totally healed now. Just some missing hair and a few flaky spots left. Major improvement. I think you could also try an upside down bell boot in a pinch.

Hampton has also gone back to living outdoors 24/7. I am hoping this also helps. He loves living outdoors, and it's also saving me money. I call it a win-win.