Horse Illustrated Magazine

After several painful interactions, I had promised myself that I would no longer provide vet services for Rose. She usually paid her bills on time and followed my instructions, but there was just something about her that always managed to ruin my day. My assistant Kelly didn’t like Rose either, but she was generally good at hiding it.

Archie Nemesis

Unfortunately, when a barn manager called about a lame horse a few weeks later, I was busy, and Kelly didn’t realize whose horse it was and booked the appointment. When we figured out that it was Rose’s gelding Archie, Kelly flopped back on her seat and shook her fists at the ceiling.

“Why does the universe hate me?” she wailed.

“You? I’m the one who has to convince her that I’m a qualified veterinarian every time I see her horse.”

Kelly did a perfect Rose imitation. “Why didn’t you know that my sweet boy was about to go lame? Don’t you know I have a show coming up?”

I started laughing and Kelly continued. “My vet back East had such an instinct for these things. Oh well, we can’t all be like Dr. Perfect, can we?”

Second Choice

The next morning, we pulled up to the imposing front entrance of Rose’s barn and punched in our gate code. I pulled into a parking lot full of gleaming Teslas and Tahoes. We didn’t have to look far for Rose in her pristine Dubarry barn coat, holding Archie and barking orders at a stall worker. My stethoscope and thermometer were already in my tote, and I added a hoof pick and hoof testers.

“Hi Rose!” Kelly said brightly. “We’re sorry to hear that Archie isn’t feeling well.”

Rose ignored her and addressed me. “The sports medicine team from the university was in the area last week. They’re really the best, but they won’t be back for a month, so I had to call you.”

The instruments in my kit rattled slightly. Archie, who was badly behaved on a good day, snorted and pranced in place.

“You have to move slowly and quietly around horses!” Rose barked. “They’re very sensitive animals.”

I gritted my teeth and forced my voice to sound pleasant. “What seems to be the problem, Rose?”

“Well, it’s obviously his right front leg. My trainer saw it from across the barn. We think it’s the shoulder, but you’re the vet.”

“Can you please walk him down the breezeway for me?” I said briskly. Rose handed the lead rope to Kelly, and Archie immediately planted his feet and lifted his head, the whites of his eyes showing. Kelly clucked gently to him, but he refused to move.

“Horses respond best to confidence,” said Rose. She snatched the rope from Kelly, who’d grown up on a Thoroughbred farm and was an accomplished eventer. “Watch what I do here.”

Rose faced her horse and yanked on the lead, but Archie was mad and raised his head even higher. Then he ran backwards, dragging Rose with him. Kelly and I exchanged looks as Rose scolded him, shook the rope, made weird purring sounds, then got a striped wand and waved it at the horse, who danced away in awkward half-circles.

Abscessively Wrong

“OK, you can take him now!” Rose panted. Kelly snatched the rope and growled something in Archie’s ear. She walked off calmly, the big horse following behind her.

Archie was absolutely limping on the right front. I gently palpated the leg, looking for heat or swelling, and the big horse tensed when I pressed on a spot on his coronet band. There was a thread of heat running down the outside quarter of the foot.

I retrieved my hoof testers and identified a painful area around one of the nails of the shoe.

“When was he shod?” I asked Rose, who made a face at me.

“It’s not his foot. I already told you, it’s in the shoulder!”

I looked up at her. “Rose, put your hand here and feel the swelling and heat in his coronet. He’s got an abscess, and this shoe may need to come off. I’m going to pull this one nail and see if it’s the problem.”

Rose was silent as I returned to my truck and grabbed my farrier tools. Soon I was working the nail free from the hoof, and a gush of black-ish pus began to flow from the nail hole. The stench was terrible.

Rose gasped. “He’s bleeding! What did you do to him?”

“That’s pus, Rose,” said Kelly in exasperation. “There’s an abscess in his foot.”

Rose huffed as I flushed the nail holes with a special mixture that I liked. I poulticed the foot, gave Archie a tetanus shot and some pain medicine, and instructed Rose to soak the foot daily. I decided to leave the shoe in place. From experience, I knew that he’d be feeling a lot better in a few days.

Hocus Poultice

Kelly and I returned to recheck Archie on day five, and I decided not to comment on the big glob of poultice on his shoulder. Rose silently haltered Archie, and he walked off smoothly. The heat was gone from his foot and the pain and swelling had resolved.

“He’s a lot better today,” I announced. “The infection in the foot is resolving nicely.”

“Yes, my trainer brought by some better poultice, and we also treated his shoulder after you left. It’s amazing stuff—you should learn about it.”

I’d had enough of Rose and her trainer, and I looked her right in the eye. “Yes, it’s amazing how draining the pus out of the foot makes the shoulder feel better. You know, you could have put cow manure on that shoulder and Archie would have recovered.”

Rose blinked in awe. “Well, then why didn’t you do that instead of making his foot bleed?”

This edition of Vet Adventures about Rose appeared in the September 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!