Abscess or something worse

[Caol Ila]

It's been a sh1t week for us. Gypsum was lame in the walk on Tuesday, and it did not look like normal arthritis stiffness. Spoke to vet on phone and he thought abscess was likely. I've been poulticing since Tuesday evening and after seeming a bit better yesterday, she was very lame today. Called vet out. Not my usual one, but another from the practice, who was on call. She dug around the foot and palpated the joints and found nothing conclusive. Argh. Said it could still be a deep abscess and to poultice through the weekend. If no better on Monday, they'll come back and do nerve blocks and x-rays.

Really worried it could be something sinister.

 

[doodle]

Could your farrier come and have a look before then?

 

[PapaverFollis]

I've had a deep abscess take 10 days to come out so try not to panic yet. Its horrible waiting though and even after that experience I would still get awful twitchy if it took more than a couple of days to resolve another one.

 

[Caol Ila]

Probably not over the weekend, and if the vet failed to find anything with hoof testers and scraping away as much sole as she could, I'm not sure what the farrier can do.

 

[milliepops]

IME farriers are better at finding them and do less cutting away of the foot in the process

Will keep fingers crossed for pus over the weekend. My 3yo came in broken leg lame the other day after being "off" for a few days, got a good squirty abscess in his heel. Huge improvement overnight. Hope you get as lucky.

 

[doodle]

I have always found a farrier much better at finding the issue and taking approx 2 swipes to find the pus where the vet has scraped away most of the hoof and still not found it. I have also found farrier very helpful at coming out to a “help my horse is very sore sos call”. But clearly that is not what you want to hear.

 

[Caol Ila]

It's neither here nor there, because the farrier can't get to the barn until Monday. Unfortunately, he shoes horses all over the country, like the Western Isles and deepest darkest Argyll, and can be in some place like Islay and can't get to you quickly. Means he's not the best at urgant SOS calls. Doesn't have a bloody mobile signal half the time when he's shoeing horses in East Bumblefkuck Highlands and Islands. You want someone to look at your horse quickly, you call the vet.

But if she isn't better on Monday, he will be there anyway shoeing schoolies and assorted liveries, so I can ask him to take a look before asking the vet to bring the x-ray machine.

 

[Equi]

Fingers crossed it is only a stubborn abscess.

 

[bouncing_ball]

I’ve had a 4 month abscess they can take a while to burst.

 

[Caol Ila]

Oh, God. Four months. I hope not.

 

[holeymoley]

It's neither here nor there, because the farrier can't get to the barn until Monday. Unfortunately, he shoes horses all over the country, like the Western Isles and deepest darkest Argyll, and can be in some place like Islay and can't get to you quickly. Means he's not the best at urgant SOS calls. Doesn't have a bloody mobile signal half the time when he's shoeing horses in East Bumblefkuck Highlands and Islands. You want someone to look at your horse quickly, you call the vet.

But if she isn't better on Monday, he will be there anyway shoeing schoolies and assorted liveries, so I can ask him to take a look before asking the vet to bring the x-ray machine.

I think you have the same farrier as me. If so, it was a big birthday for him this week so I think he was only doing short days.

Abscesses are a pest. It’s the not knowing whether that’s what it is that’s the worst. Hopefully some gunk will appear and that will be it.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Our longest one was six weeks and we needed the xray to work out where to dig as the farrier was not going to dig any deeper without one.

Good job we did as it was mm from the pedal bone and vet had to dig deep to get near it for us to hot poultice. then two weeks of poulticing and then months of bandaging while the foot grew out.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

It's been a sh1t week for us. Gypsum was lame in the walk on Tuesday, and it did not look like normal arthritis stiffness. Spoke to vet on phone and he thought abscess was likely. I've been poulticing since Tuesday evening and after seeming a bit better yesterday, she was very lame today. Called vet out. Not my usual one, but another from the practice, who was on call. She dug around the foot and palpated the joints and found nothing conclusive. Argh. Said it could still be a deep abscess and to poultice through the weekend. If no better on Monday, they'll come back and do nerve blocks and x-rays.

Really worried it could be something sinister.

Just out there could her soles be soft because of the weather, I only say this because my pony went very lame, and I suspected Lami flare up or abscess, vet came said her soles were sore so could be deep abscess, so wet poultice 3 days then dry. I did this and she was happier,
> Then I went got keratex hoof hardener, and I now pick them out and leave to dry then paint them daily. Seems to be the help she need so think about that option too.

 

[Caol Ila]

Vet thought her soles were hard, but I feel sort of stupid. I'd been putting on Keratex daily for a while, but had gotten lax about it over the last few months. Maybe we would not be here if I'd stayed on the ball with that.