Nailed it

I just finished reading “Letting It Be” (Case Report, EQUUS 472), about a horse named Raye who had a nail embedded in her hoof. Wow, did this bring back memories.

About 15 years ago, the same thing happened to my Arabian gelding, Sequoia. I went out to feed him one morning, and his back leg was swollen from his coronet band all the way to his hock. When I picked up his hoof, there was a roofing nail embedded in there. I immediately called my veterinarian, who said, “Don’t touch it. I’m on my way.”

X-rays showed that the nail had missed the coffin bone, so my veterinarian extracted it on site. And so began four weeks of soaking, packing and wrapping along with antibiotics. It was a long road, but Sequoia made a full recovery, and all these years later he’s had no setbacks from the experience. He was lucky.

The first thing my veterinarian told me was to never take anything out of the hoof. Once the object is out, there is no way to know what path it took or how much damage it did. That was some of the best advice I was ever given. I’m happy that it all turned out well in the end for Raye. Dianne Benedict Derry, New Hampshire