Cut that won't heal

["April Lee" <adlee@bigfoot.com>]

Hi,

  My horse, Apache, has had a cut, or something similar, on his left back
leg for the entire 4 months that I have owned him.  The location of the cut
is about 1 inch above his hoof, right where his foot bends if you pick his
hoof up to clean it out.

  I have tried several things to heal this cut.  I tried nitrofurozone, that
didn't work.  So I tried Wonder Dust; that didn't work.  So I tried
Blue-Kote (got it from Jeffers); still didn't work.  I tried a combination
of the three, but nothing seems to work.  It continues to refuse to heal.
If I leave it alone, it gets proud flesh.  If I mess with it, it just bleeds
and never heals.  I'm at the end of my knowledge and my local friends'
suggestions.  The vet is scheduled to come out in 2 weeks, so I am planning
on talking to him about it, but I'd like some input if you guys can give me
some.

  It doesn't seem to bother Apache.  That is...he appears sound and doesn't
limp at all on it.  There is no swelling, no heat in the tissue surrounding
the cut.  He definitely doesn't like me messing with it, though.  He will
pull back on his hoof when I try to clean the cut or otherwise treat it.  He
and I had a fine time teaching him that his foot would come up when I asked
for it after the first few weeks of trying to get the cut to heal.

  I'm not sure if any of the three products I tried should even work on his
cut, but I doubt they ever have much of a chance to work.  The reason for
that is twofold.  First, the location of the cut.  I suspect that the
constant movement of the skin caused by his everyday activities (walking,
running, whatever) doesn't allow the cut to close up.  Second, his pasture
is often wet and muddy.  There is a stream running down the middle, which is
great, but as soon as he crosses the creek, there goes the medicine I just
put on.

  We have no barn.  No way that I can stable him for any length of time.
The small pen that we have for feeding is not appropriate to leave him in
either because he would probably end up breaking it down.  He enjoys his
freedom and won't stand for his herd to be very far from him (apparently he
was cut very late; so still has tremendous stallion tendencies).  Is there
any kind of boot or something like that that I could leave on him (out in
the pasture) to help protect the medicine that I try to put on?  I'm afraid
that doing that would only lose me boots.  None of the ones I've seen look
like they'd stay on very well for any length of time, and probably not
through water either.  I'd like to keep the cut clean, dry, and medicated in
order to heal it.

  I'd like to have this healed up before our first endurance ride....will
have to wait and see, I guess.

  Can answer in private if this is not of interest to others...Thanks.

Thanks for the input,

April
Chattanooga, TN
adlee@bigfoot.com