Absces - any thoughts?

[Christmas Crumpet]

Horse been slightly off all week but on Fri wouldn't put her near hind down properly and was resting it on the toe. Very lame yesterday and so decided to get farrier out today to take off shoe as poultices were clean.

Abscess located under the shoe on the inside of the foot along the hoof wall. Farrier dug about and found it tracked an inch or so along side of hoof wall and dug as much as he could but stopped because he was near heel. Not sure whether he actually reached the end of it as it were.

There was black pus/yucky stuff in hole but nothing spurted out. Pressing in the hole she didn't react at the front of the hole but was quite ouchy at back end. Just wondering whether its likely to keep travelling and burst out of the heel/coronet band and whether I should have just left well alone. Obviously the shoe had to come off as abscess under shoe and farrier reckons abscess about a week old.

Was worried about hole but am assured it can be packed with some kind of hoof filler so shouldn't be a problem. Horse def. far sounder and can actually turn in a circle now without falling over. Its not the kind of abscess hole I'm used to - ie. an exit hole. This is more of a channel dug following the abscess route.

Is there anything I can do to speed up process other than tubbing/poulticing and giving it a really good squirt with either Terimicyn (blue foot spray) or hydrogen peroxide.

 

[be positive]

It is open so should continue to drain, use poultices and tubbing, I would not use peroxide or spray until it has finished draining as it can dry and seal the hole.
You could not really have left it alone, a non weight bearing horse will be in severe pain and it could take days or longer to come out.

 

[Silver]

My horse has never had abscesses before until this year she had one in September and just recovered from one. Drain and poultice. Reasons for it were the wet fields she was in. She has now moved to drier field for the winter. May also be worth boosting immune system.

 

[Mammoth]

I'm far from an expert but my horse has now had four abscesses this year. From reading around the topic, my impression is that it is better for the abscess to be drained from the solar surface (superficial to the white line) or through the lower hoof wall rather than tracking all the way up to the coronary band as this leaves a long track with delayed healing and a greater risk of recurrence. The hole in the solar surface will dry up and slowly heal by secondary intention (will fill in from the inside out). The hole can be packed or as it is under the shoe, once this is replaced, pine tar could be put in the hole (sticky antiseptic) and the border of the shoe sealed with more pine tar (my farrier advised this after the first abscess).

The black pus is the dead, liquefied tissues of the hoof and there isn't necessarily a lot of it as the hoof is rigid and so a small volume can create significant pressure and lots of pain. As you say there was black pus drained when the farrier dug out the abscess, the body of the abscess has been opened, even if it is only via the tracking along the hoof wall and so keeping things clean and poulticing should encourage any remaining pus to discharge. The pus will take the path of least resistance which is now via the hole rather than the plane between the hoof tissues to the coronary band.

Full healing will take some time as the hole in the hoof needs to grow out. Once there is no more drainage from the hole with hot, wet poulticing, dry poultice for a couple of days and look to have the shoe put on again. Once she is sound she can return to normal work regardless of the hole.

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

The poultices have been completely clean since Sunday night so I've dry poulticed her since yesterday.

Farrier has said now we need to harden up foot again so once had a squirt of hydrogen peroxide then she gets a liberal spray of iodine and foot rewrapped.

She is standing on it so much better but does, at times, still rest it with weight on the toe. I can't figure out whether this is because she is still sore.

Farrier going to put a pad on when he replaces the shoe and then silicone the back of the pad so no dirt can get into it. Am hoping she can start walking out next week so long as nothing else goes on!!