So tired of this...

Saturday night, about 24 hours after the farrier visit: heat back in the foot, swelling in the fetlock, lame at the walk.

I groomed him briefly, went home, and had a rather spectacular meltdown.

Sunday, I came out the other side determined to do stuff. So I took him out of his stall and groomed him thoroughly. I massaged his shoulders. I worked on clicker training with him: loading the clicker, then taking him into the ring and teaching him to touch his nose to a blue bucket. He was slightly bewildered at the idea of having to do things in order to get treats - kept glaring at me and nudging both my pockets and my clicker hand, once he realized the click meant treats. And one or two times I stretched my distance from the bucket too far and "broke" it, and he stalked off in a huff to the other end of the ring, standing at the door that led back to the aisle. But he came back, and I settled for one more good target on the bucket and then he was done.

Monday, I did the same thing, and when I saw that he'd had enough of the bucket I did a little bit of confirming his "back" command with the clicker, clicking when he moved a foot back in conjunction with the command. He once again didn't much see the point of having to work for treats, but he had clearly caught on a bit more than Sunday.

Still heat, though. Still a bit of swelling. Even through the bute.

New crazy theory: is he brewing another abscess? I'll try to call the vet this afternoon and run the idea by her, have her take a look at the x-rays and see if there's anything that might indicate that. The other thing that causes so much heat in a hoof is laminitis, and that doesn't make sense to me, based on all his physical and environmental factors.

I have a work thing until late tonight, so I'll check on him again tomorrow night, and by then I'll have decided whether to start wrapping the foot again and perhaps poulticing.