abscess grrrrr!

[Finlib]

Got problems with an abscess that just keeps rumbling on.
2weeks ago noticed one of my horses a bit lame when I fetched them in seen on a turn and on rough going right fore not terrible a slight nod .
Farrier was due out that day so he took a look and found a entry point of a gravel on the edge of the hoof near white line dug down and found some puss advised poultice for 4 days then came out to check .Got some puss out and ended with a dry dressing .Shoe back on.
Then in the last couple of days same symptoms again farrier again recommends poultice but this time wrap around the side of the hoof at the coronet band as he feels it is travelling up rather than down.
I think I will also tub in warm water /Epson salts .
They live out 24/7 so is walking about farrier feels ought to help .
Spoke to vet who knows the farrier well he agrees .
Both say abscesses that track like this are a pain .Horse isn't sad or sorry just looks a little awkward on rough going or a sharp turn to the right
Any thoughts of anything else I can do?
Farrier back out on Tuesday to take look again .

 

[Tnavas]

Try

 

[PorkChop]

I feel your pain

My mare has recently had a pig of an abscess, which we treated in much the same way as you did.

After 10 days of huge improvement but not complete success my farrier told me to turn her out in a fairly dry field - she had been out 24/7 but I had kept her in for a few days to keep the hoof dry and poulticed. A week later, and she has been shod and sound.

Obviously you cannot leave a horse untreated but sometimes the best solution is to let the abscess break naturally.

 

[Maesfen]

My mare went out totally sound then came in with one, she thought her leg was dropping off! Broodmare so no shoes anyway; found a huge deep hole at front of toe, deep enough for a clench to almost disappear up it - but no pus; there was no sign of it anywhere else, just the toe. She was so sore she couldn't put it down so we could trim other front. I thought it might be an x-ray job but both farrier and vet said poultice first so poulticed for several days including the coronet band but nothing came out at all so farrier suggested plugging hole with cotton wool soaked in either neat Hibiscrub or iodine and keep doing that if it came out which I did. Two days later completely sound as a pound but hole as deep as ever so kept it plugged. Trim last week just over a month later and we found (along with cotton wool plug that was still there!) that it had tracked along the side of the foot from toe right into the heel; it was like a thick black worm of dried gunge but there was still nothing else to see or feel, any grit or anything. In 30 years of shoeing my farrier had seen nothing like it at all or certainly not as large. How does a TB mare (she does have very good strong feet normally, we can only conclude it was to do with the wet they had to be turned out onto) who is a bit of a wimp, manage to have something as bad as that without giving me some idea she was in pain until that day she hobbled in as it must have been brewing for some time to be as deep as it was?

 

[JFTDWS]

One of mine has just had the abscess from hell. He was sound, I trailered him 50 miles for a lesson and he came out dog lame. Spent 5 days stuck up there, had vet out on a Sunday, x rays and all sorts before we found pus and could be sure it was an abscess. Got him home and it rumbled on for the best part of another 4 weeks. Utterly uncool.

 

[Brightbay]

There isn't really anything you can do. I've had two of these since new year, and one burst out after a week of tubbing and poulticing (horses live out so affected horse can move around as much or as little as they like, choosing to stand beside the hay and water, or hobble around grazing), and then one where the horse just wouldn't allow the leg or hoof to be touched - it burst out after a week as well.

So I think a lot of the time, the tubbing and poulticing is just to make me feel I'm doing something

I do much prefer when they burst out the top - they seal up quite quickly and just grow out, whereas the ones that are dug from the sole, you spend ages packing holes, worrying about mud and dealing with flare ups (had this last year...).

Poor horses are so miserable with them, though, it is just no fun at all dealing with abscesses.

ETA - the one that burst out in early January (satisfyingly while I was massaging the coronet band as the hoof soaked in warm water) was quick to drain - and yesterday while I was picking the hoof, flaps of sole started to come away and I can see how far it tracked - all around the frog and back to the medial heel. It burst out just above the heel in the end.