First things first. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Ricky's hind legs were swollen. Of course this was when I was going to start riding him in the mornings before work <IMSOMAD> Anyway I did ride him the next morning just light work lots of walking and trotting. His legs looked much better after our ride. I thought well they're ok. No they weren't I got home that evening and his legs were swollen to his hocks. His legs looked like the elephant man. They were solid all the way down. So I gave him 2 grams of bute and hydro-ed his legs. That didn't work so the next day I sprayed his legs with DMSO. Still didn't work so I still hydro-ed his legs then put Ice Tight on them and sprayed him with the Green Alcohol mix I got from GB. Still didn't work. Now I am feeling really bad because I don't know what to do, but if I work him in the round pen or ride him lightly at a walk or trot the swelling goes down. Well my husband worked up the arena for me on Sunday so I took Ricky over there and lightly worked him. His legs looked good after I worked him. I noticed something else before I rode. His nose looked a little chapped from the sun. So when I got him home I hosed him off cleaned his nose up and put some Bull Frog and aloe gel on his nose. That night I put him in the pen with a shed. It has trees so it stays shaded all day. Well his nose got worse all week and his legs never went down, so I called the vet he gave me this cream to put on it, and mixed up some DMSO and Dex to put on his legs. I started to do that and his nose looks so good now and his legs look terrible. I went to the lake with my family this weekend and it's only 20 min. from the house so I came back and forth to treat him. Well he was looking great and I though I was knocking it out. I got home Sunday and he walked out from under the shed and his legs were all bloody and looked like someone had pealed the skin off of his legs. I called the vet he came out and we started putting the same cream I am putting on his nose on his legs. Hopefully he will get better. His hind legs are white like his nose and the vet believes he has gotten into a weed that has made his white pigmented skin very sensitive to sunlight. Since Saturday he has been wearing a fly mask with a nose flap. That has helped. I have had him in the pen with the shed and now he is under my unfinished barn. I took my round pen apart to make him a stall under there. Please pray for me that this gets better soon. I don't know how much more I can take. I feel so sorry for him. They vet came and took some blood from him tonight. I'm getting some blood work done. I will keep you posted. I am going to post pictures up here so you can see what I have been dealing with for about 2 weeks. It looks really bad on his nose, but that's better now and his legs have gotten worse.
