The Leg bone is Connected to the ASS Bone, the Ass Bone is connected to the...

No one wants to be a Lame Ass. Especially Rusty. At the beginning of November, Rusty, my prize Jack, got pretty limpy on his Right front foot. The hoof, leg and joints all seemed normal and I couldn't figure out why he was sore. My good friends Dennis and Karen Miller thought maybe he had an abscess in the hoof that needed to work itself out. A few days later, it went away and he was back to normal. But over the next two months, he occasionally seemed to favor the leg. It never lasted very long, or seemed very noteworthy.

Then 4 days ago, he went completely off of his Right front foot. This time when I palpated his leg and joints, he had obvious swelling from the top of the fetlock, along the tendon, almost up to the knee. And pain. Jackasses can take a lot of pain, but Rusty was showing it from the back of his hoof to the bottom of his knee. I've had him on 2 grams Bute, administered orally, bid (that's twice a day in Latin) for the past 4 days and he is slowly feeling better. That heavy swelling in the tendon behind his leg is about a half to a third of what it was Sunday.

This morning, Dr. Barton and Dr. King from the Washington Family Veterinary Clinic came by with their X-ray machine to see if we can figure out why Rusty is so sore. They are thinking it might be an injury of some sort. Maybe he jacked his leg in the fence or something. As a trained, experienced diagnostician (albeit for eyes), I'm puzzled over the intermittent, variable leg pain and the one day last week that he went off feed, while his leg wasn't sore. Is his sick day just a coincidence? Or is there some systemic problem? In the human world, inflamed eyes can indicate arthritis or even stem from an old back injury--and the eye bone ain't connected to the back bone or finger bones, as we eye doctors say.

Rusty was so happy to be done with the X-ray, he bellowed and growled all the way back to his stall. I'm hopeful. He seems spunkier than he has for months since I've had him on that Bute.

PS. The nice sepia toned photo at the top is the natural lighting captured by my Photographer sis--no photoshopping or alteration. Nice SHOT sis!