We battle On

This morning, I was so hopeful for Beau. He had 2 of his rectal antibiotic treatments yesterday... I wanted some good news but was not happy with what I found- his temp was back up (101.7) and his tenderness continues. The swelling, however is down- with the inflammation now primarily centered over the inside of his left hock. As Bill reminds me, this lessening of the swelling is great. But, I wanted to see more- and I don't want him to be in pain. He is not willing to walk and is still very unhappy with being touched; his hock looks like this

We continued with the prescribed treatment plan today, and when I spoke with the vet this afternoon, she was not pleased to hear he wont walk yet. She suggests he should be more willing to move by now (5 total treatments with the new antibiotic) He will bear weight- shifting leg to leg but was not at all interested in any real movement. He only came about 5 steps out of his stall for hosing mid-day. This is alarming as Sunday he walked out of the paddock and over to the hose twice, and went once yesterday. Tonight however, he actually walked off after I left him "parked" in the paddock where I had hosed him while I cleaned his stall. His gait was stiff and he was certainly protecting himself, but there was walking! The plan is to continue the banamine (which we should be done with today) smzs as a broad spectrum antibiotic in addition to the other antibiotic which will target the anaerobes from the infection in the abscess as well as continuing to cold hose and wrap. She asked me to drop my top stacked wrap down to cover the hock and criss-cross around the joint itself to see if we can get some of that swelling down. I thought the poor boy was going to fall over when I did him up tonight. If this pain continues tomorrow she says he will have to go over to the clinic... fingers crossed; we are about tapped out of "emergency" horse funds. I hope the morning brings some improvement.