Just because your NAME is "Trilogy" doesn't mean it ALL has to come in threes!

Update after Monday's vet visit: Good GRIEF my boy is talented. He had three different things going on...mercifully, none of them serious and requiring more than rest.

1) His left front had a reaction to the Rap Last. The skin is red and irritated, but not swollen. Washing it off and hosing it, as I've already done, is likely all that was necessary there.

2) His right front--the big ugly swollen mess--was likely caused by some sort of blunt trauma. He kicked himself, he got cast, he...uh...yeah, we likely will never know. His tendons and feet are fine, and most lameness is gone now. The swelling and heat was still present at the time of examination, but significantly better. Treatment: more of what I've been doing. Cold hose, Bute, rest.  A week later, it's essentially gone.

3) Now, what had me scratching my head--his slightly depressed demeanor. Apparently, he has a respiratory infection. No fever, no runny nose, but a bit of a cough. I noticed the cough in particular when lunging him yesterday to check for soundness--I showed the vet the video of it I made on my phone. He said it wasn't the normal throat-clearing cough some horses do at the beginning of exercise--"Yeah, that's not normal." Just for emphasis, Tril did some coughing when I trotted him during his lameness exam. The doc listened to his lungs and said they were essentially clear, but there were some sounds at the beginning that he compared to an asthmatic reacting to a smoggy day. There's been a mild respiratory thing going down the line of the properties, though the other two horses had snotty noses. Maybe it just went straight to Tril's airways--like these dang bugs tend to do with mine??

This means Tril just needs about two weeks of rest. Not stall rest, mercifully, but he shouldn't do anything that will increase his respiratory rate. Getting on and walking around with buddies will be fine.

So WAY TO GO TRIL! Three different things going on. A "trilogy" if you would.  

How typical of him. Nothing serious, nothing too difficult to treat, nothing major...just a whole lot of somethings.

And now, just five days later, he's a fire-breathing dragon.  The swelling on the right front is gone, the cough subsided, and he is done with this walking crap.  I lunged him a bit yesterday, and while he was more or less good (if a bit more deaf to commands than usual), I could tell he was on the verge of being a 1000lb kite.

I love the mildly annoyed handler's unruffled and unimpressed expression.  

He also didn't cough once on the lungeline, so back on the property I took his halter off and let him snort and gallop about just to run off the stupids.  It's a catch-22--he needs rest, but he also needs to not lose his mind.

He was sound, snorty, and happy, but I didn't let him do too much.  While he grazed-twitched-spooked-galloped-rolled-repeat, I turned my attention to cleaning his stall...and, yeah.  Boy is BORED.  His poop was scattered all throughout the stall, a sign of a bored horse pacing and kicking his crap all over the place.  Oof.  I'm glad I let him out, if however limited.

Two weeks of this?  Really?  And we're not even done with week one?  

I don't know which one of the two of us is going to need that calming supplement more.