Aussie`s Legs

All fall I was having trouble riding Aussie.  He did alot of refusing to the point I eventually stopped riding him.  Farm Girl did her best to keep at him and tune him up but she found he became more stubborn.  Particularly with his hind feet when grooming.  He absolutely refused to give them to her.  So I made a painful decision to sell him.  We had a woman very interested in him but when we went out to bring him in from pasture to tune him up for her to ride him, we noticed his ankles were swollen and bumpy from what I thought was scabs.  At first I thought he got into some burs but further investigation we realized they were not burs but actual bumps all over his ankles.  I thought he got his feet caught in the fencing so brought him indoors and changed my mind about selling him.  I felt responsible for him and wanted to make sure he healed and feeling better.  That was a month ago, his ankles never improved and if anything got worse.  The hair started to fall off around the ankles leaving him with huge bare spots.

Then yesterday we discovered one of his legs was overly swollen to twice it's usual size.

It was obviously very painful for him to stand on let alone move around on.  I suspect it had alot to do with his refusals and not giving his hind legs to us easily anymore.  I think he was in pain alot longer than when it became visual.  I had the vet come out today to look at him.  My fear of what he would report ranged from huge ex-ray bills to having putting Aussie down.  As it turns out, he has a common skin disease that is hereditary and only contagious to those who have similar hereditary defects.  It is not life threatening or permanent and is reversible if treated.  He gave Aussie two anti-flamatory shots and left us some sulfadiazine sodium to feed him to treat the infection.  We are also to bath his ankles daily in a product called MTG.  We do this until it hopefully heals.  I asked if it was preventable to stop it from happening again, but he assured us we were doing everything right so far and that keeping him in a nice dry pen is the best thing for him.  Wetness is his enemy.  So it looks like he will be spending the next several weeks, if not the month, indoors.  Poor Aussie, all he wants is to get back outside with the rest of the herd.