Day seven: Could it realy have been this easy all along ?

After two finished treatment weeks we are half way. This is week three and it is definitely following the good old, has to get worse before it gets better routine. His ears are full with crusts and he continuously wants to shake his ears from the moment I get him out of the paddock. Brushing his upper neck where the halter is buried in mud is a challenge a sign that his ears are really bothering him. But he knows now that being on the cross-ties and getting a grooming is not the time for ear wrestling and he lets me clean him up.

After the ride I give him the 4 ml of Xylazine and the 1 ml of Buthorphanol. I let him be while I put the tack away. When I get back to his stall I find him with his nose in the feed bin, his head against the wall and wobbling on his legs. He is actually snor(t)ing his left over supplements from the bottom. Since he is tucked into the corner I sneak my hand trough the feeding hole to clean out his ears with a wet napkin. It is coming off reasonably easy and I probably took at least half a cup of crust out of both ears. He is still not quite agreeing with all this and has made some steps trough his stall freeing up space around him. This now allows me to get in there with him without running the risk to get crushed into the water buckets.

This resisting he gives me is barely worth mentioning considering what he was doing before. It is merely a putting his head up or shaking his ears. But when I insist and continue to clean he settles down again and lets me finish. After I got all the stuff that would come loose removed, I put a nice layer on both ears making sure to get all the surfaces covered.
And then, Oh my gosh it's done !!!  This was a breeze !!! Happy that finally we are getting into a routine that works I take the pictures and let him be.

The nice thing of doing it IV is that the drugs act almost instantly and he is back to eating in a hour. This is something I can work with. I just wish we had started off this way. I might add an other week just to make up for the first half hazard week. On the pictures you can see the left ear has two spots on top that have evaded treatment. His right ear still has two ridges of original  crust that have not come loose yet. Aside from taking a knife (no I will not attempt that) and cutting them off I will have to wait and keep putting the cream on and around it. Hoping it at some point will soften enough with the inflammation and come off. I also don't seem to be able to get a sharp shot of the right ear, not sure what's up with that.

Left ear:

 

Right ear: