abscess in toe, what else can i do?

[only_me]

so horse has now developed abcess where the shoe fell off and clipped his toe, and since farrier only back today we only discovered it, as we thought he was just footsore from casting the shoe.

farrier had a good go at it today, with lots of blood and he managed to get some of pus out. i tubbed foor for 20mins in hot water and with lots of salt. then i polticed it with kaolin and brown paper, and bangaged it up well. horse also had one sachet of bute to help with the pain.

is there anything else i can do to help draw out the pus? or anything else?

 

[jewel]

i think you are doing all you can

 

[susannita]

I feel your pain!! One of mine currenly has an abcess which is tracking out of his heel and it STINKS!!!

Ok bit late now, but hacking away at the site can often do more harm than good. Blood is NOT a good sign. Plus the infection can track all round the foot so it may or may no only be in the toe.

I think the kaolin is a very old fashioned thing to use - i have used animalintex and nappies for the last 15 years or so, so can't advise anything to do with the kaolin! Use hot wet animalintex til it bursts((which it sounds like it should have done) Then pad up the foot with a couple of nappies (my 15.3 tb has baby size 4 feet if that helps!!) that helps draw anything that the poultice misses and padds/protects the foot.

I then use a vetrap followed by a doubled up priece of plactic feed bag, then duck tape the whole lot so it is waterproof - then turn out the horse!!!! The movement helps expell the ick! If stabled bandage the opposite leg too as they can stand very awkwardly on the other limbs.

For soaking it is normally epsom salts which are most useful (magnesium sulphate) as it is used to draw stuff out of wounds etc in other preparations. One it is coming out i switch to Milton sterlising fluid - I *think* the max recomended dilution is 50/50 with cold water and soak for as long as you can!!

I also use homeopathic remedies - I had an absess one made up by crossgates farm in a spary form (which was in my first aid kit already!) which seems to have worked really well (vet was expecting it to take a while to start draining but less than 24hours) It contains hepar sulph amongst other things but am not sure which strength you would need.

Finally (!!) don't give the horse the bute. The anti-inflamatory effect can cause the abcess to seemingly settle and then come back as soon as the bute stops. As soon as the abcess has burst the pain is relieved subsatntially (unless your farrier has done a real hatchet job!)

Hope that helps - i had the emergency vet call last sunday as his leg was like a balloon and he wouldn't weight bear - thankfully it is an abcess rather than the broken bone we feared!! Hope that helps!

 

[palomino_pony]

Runny honey in the hole works loads quicker

 

[traceyf]

bute does not work for abscesses! my farrier would suggest tubbing, followed by animalintex poultice changed every 48hrs twice then dry poultice if all clear. then use stockholm tar to seal hole and keep it clear

 

[only_me]

thanks all!!

wasnt there when farrier opened the abscesses. we poluticed him and then put him out in field, but he kept walking so walked himself lame - so he was on bute to try and help the pain. he then managed to pull off the poultice ( ?? ) so we then soaked the cotton wool in stockholm tar and fingers crossed, it has stayed in since saturday. have been tubbing fri, sat and sun, but then stopped to try and harden the foot up. he then preceeded to pull off the other front shoe so is now lame with that! but it is being put on tommorrow.

he only had one sachet of bute which wouldnt really help, but it seemed to let him relax more. also use kaoline as YO was very traditional, and believes that it is the best!

thank you