There's a fungus among us!

Poor Prisoner Y! In the space of less than a week, he has gone from a carefree over-stuffed appalachian sofaback gelding to a fungus covered, sore boy. It started out with one scabby sore on his pastern. Within 36 hours, his legs were covered up with it. He gets photosensitized to the dew, and develops these horrible sores on his legs and muzzle. Poor boy!

Last year when he developed this, I had dislocated my knee, and he was such a hand full that my hero, Joleen offered to take him and treat him. He had also injured his neck/head/back/whatever, and was a real pill to try to do anything with since the vet, in his infinite wisdom, would not listen to me and ended up roughing the boy up. Asshole.

Anyway, back to today... I mixed up a fresh batch of wonder goo. It has baby butt cream, antibiotic, anti fungal, and anti itch meds in it. You slather it on and it is healed up within a week. Simply amazing, and waaay cheaper than the vet's version. After they ate, I let them in to mow the grass in the feed area. I caught him without any fuss, and led him outside to the tree I'd picked to tie him up. I had already hung up a hay bag with a flake of really nice alfalfa in it. I tied his happy ass to the tree and left him there. I went to visit with Prisoner X for a bit. She was happy to get a belly scrub :) Then I sat in my truck for a bit and just let him figure out that he wasn't going anywhere. When he settled down to eat hay, I took the pot-o-goo over and started slathering it on. Front legs were no problem at all. He got lots of pats and some cookies. His back legs were so sore that he was not happy about me rubbing on the goo, but he stood pretty well. I hit a sore spot, and he pulled back and then pushed. When he pushed, he caught a fingernail, and thought I had stuck him with something. That caused a minor blow up and a tiny bit of thrashing about. Fortunately, he remembered that thrashing while tied will get him nowhere, and he stopped. All told, it took about 15 minutes and we were done. No drama, no fuss. I was so pleased with him. He was such a pill last year that I was expecting the worst, but was determined not to lose my temper, and not to give up. I gave him a good grooming, which he loved, a few more cookies, and left him to eat some more hay. He stood quietly with a leg cocked and munched away. After another little while, I untied him, shot the wormer in his mouth, and let him back out with The Nanny.

I am so pleased with him. Just when I worry that he is going to be a total dick, he surprises me and is a gentleman. Good BOY!