2 year old with bad abcesses - any advice?

Doormouse

Doormouse

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I have a 2 year old WB x who has lived out virtually all her life, only being stabled earlier this year for 6 weeks to do some handling and only during the day.

Last winter she was turned out at grass livery and when she came back in the Spring of this year my farrier couldn't believe his eyes. She had had at least 4 abcesses during the winter and was amazed that no one had noticed them or that she hadn't been very lame with them. The people who had her on grass livery are very concientious and I can't believe they wouldn't have noticed her hopping round the field.

She now has another abcess, it has burst on her coronet band back towards the inside heel. The farrier couldn't find anything more to come out but her leg was swollen like a bolster yesterday so I got the vet. He has given her antibiotics and also dug about and thinks her sole is under run from the toe. She is now going out during the day and is brought in at night so I can wash and clean the holes.

She doesn't have the best feet in the world, her hind feet flair on the outside very quickly and she has 2 splits running down the outside of both hind feet. She is trimmed every 6 weeks although we are going to do it every 4 from now on. After she has been trimmed she is very very sore for several days on the hard ground.

I am at a loss as to how to help her, she has a vitamin and mineral supplement and the vet says her hoof quality is good but we cannot stop the abcesses and I can't seem to harden her feet at all.
 
It sounds like she has a stretched white line. What supplement is she on? You need to get that white line nice and tight, so it's harder for grot to get in it. So a supplement like Pro-hoof (ebay) and in-hand walking to stimulate hoof growth.
 
She is on codlivine but I must admit I did wonder if I should move her to Pro-hoof. Is is much better than Farriers Formula which is what my vet recommends but my farrier says is crap!! I struggle a bit with in hand walking because to get out of the yard onto the road I have to go up a really stony track and she bruises her feet really easily. Could I walk her in the school? Would that be the same?
 
Yes, start with any surface that she is comfortable on. Hopefully the soles will toughen up and you can then progress onto tougher surfaces when she is ready.
 
You could almost be describing my 2 year old!

We are on top of things at last, and would have been much earlier if I had not placed too much trust in my ex farrier (what he did to the other two horses was much worse....).

Definitely get a good hoof supplement. Mine was on Formula 4 Feet but I have changed to Pro Hoof. The problem was that the repeated abscesses set up seedy toe in both front feet, and it was too intrusive to grow out with regular trimming (every 4 weeks). New farrier, who works closely with my vet practice, said that it was a vet job so vet came out and x rayed the feet. Vet then drilled out all the seedy toe crud and after a weeks box rest, the filly had front shoes put on and special filler in the drilled out holes (which were BIG!).

That was a month ago, and the filly has since been so much happier and more comfortable! The shoes are only necessary until the seedy toe cracks have grown out, I favour barefoot as a rule but sometimes shoeing is necessary to correct a problem.

Good luck with yours!
 
Yes, I would tend to have her stabled at least a few hours every day, not least to get the feet dry, inspected and cleaned. It will add to livery costs, but really if you don't have any more problems it will be worthwhile, at her age more regular handling might be a good idea anyway.
Also recommend pro hoof as it seems to work for every horse, make the diet hi fibre, no molasses/moglo or alfa or cereals. So no molassed beet nuts, only non molassed quick beet, and no chaff with molasses either.
Walking in the school is not going to be a lot different to the field, what you need is a variety of surfaces, is there an area like an old track or a small [safe] yard she can go in to, even 20 mins in hand on tarmac is better than nothing.
I only feed micronised linseed meal, not keen on animal products for a veggie. Also the meal is less processed and is all round good stuff.
If the farrier has been seeing her every six weeks, he should have noticed this , not sure that there will be something to trim every four weeks.
 
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I don't think trimming every 4 weeks is going to be beneficial at all, considering she's already sore every time the farrier trims her now.
 
9tails said:
I don't think trimming every 4 weeks is going to be beneficial at all, considering she's already sore every time the farrier trims her now.
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That is concerning me too. Trouble seems to be that the feet grow out of shape really quickly especially behind and even doing them every 6 weeks they seem to be in such a mess shape wise that you feel they ought to be done sooner?
 
Trouble is that you are in a Catch 22 situation. You want the foot to grow so that her soles have some protection and can harden up, but then the foot flares and the cracks get worse.

My filly could hardly walk after her trims from old farrier as he was so keen to get rid of the cracks he took the hoof wall off right down to her soles.

Get the diet sorted and correct supplementation so that the new growth will be much stronger. I can only report that I have had to temporarily have front shoes put on my 2yo and it has really helped her and 4 weeks in the flare is much reduced cf what it would have been without them. She has her first refit tomorrow.
 
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