Well, it wasn't his back.

Peg hopped into the trailer early on Wednesday morning on three legs.  He was very subdued on the way to the LSU vet school, but he perked up when he arrived.  He thinks he is something special and always wants to show off when he is in a new environment.  There was a lot of activity that morning. It would have been amusing to watch Peg's three-legged antics if I had not known how badly he was hurting.  It takes a lot to lower his spirits, so he was behaving like his normal, bright self.

After doing a careful examination of Peg's back, Dr. McCauley decided that Peg's back was not the problem.  He went on to look at the rest of Peg's body, and he especially looked at his right hind hoof, the lame one.  It turned out to be the source of Peg's acute lameness.  Peg has a recurrence of the abscess he had a few months ago.  It was large and painful.  Dr. McCauley had x-rays taken of the hoof in order to discover the extent of the cavity in Peg's foot.  Thankfully, it was not too deep, and it had not penetrated into the delicate inner structures of the foot.

To make a long story short, Peg needs more soaking, wrapping, and care.  He also needs a fancy shoe, so we will need to enlist our farrier's help.  This time, we ordered a special soaking boot and a hoof protection boot, so I don't have to wrestle with Peg's foot anymore.  He isn't sure he approves of that.

We will have to go back to the vet school after this abscess heals in order to diagnose the back/lameness issue.  However, I am so thankful that my boy is not hurting like he was on Wednesday morning.  Praise the Lord!