Janice's Sore Leg

Janice had a sore spot on her left front leg, right above her dewclaw. There was some swelling and it was warm, but I couldn't see any cuts or scrapes. She was limping on it and it didn't look or feel broken at all. I wish I had taken a picture to show the swelling, it wasn't bad, but it is always nice to have a photo for reference.

We gave her aspirin in the morning and evening for two days to see if she would heal on her own. She seemed to be in a little less pain with the pain killer, but it didn't get better. She was limping just as badly on Wednesday as she was on Monday.

Last night (Wednesday) we decided to put a comfrey poultice on her leg. I've got a friend who gave us a comfrey plant last year and it is huge! She uses comfrey for things like sore muscles and broken bones.Vet2Be and I decided that we would give it a try.

Here's a video I found about making a poultice for comfrey.  Making a Comfrey Poultice

It was kinda slimy when it came out of the blender! I was surprised, it held together like a mass of slimy goobers and it looked like green.... yuck!

Vet2Be smeared it on a gauze wrap and wrapped it loosely around Janice's ankle above her dewclaw. We didn't use flour like it said in the video and we put the comfrey directly on Janice's leg. Then we taped the outside of the gauze to keep it on.

I also trimmed her dewclaw since it seemed to be really long and uncomfortable.

We took the poultice off this evening and surprisingly, she walked much better this evening. We'll see how she does tomorrow. If she is still walking and feeling better tomorrow I will cut a bunch of comfrey and dry it so that if we need it in the winter we will have some.