Abscess v Thrush

cblover

cblover

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 October 2009
Messages
1,887
Visit site
What you your thought on this please.....

I have a yearling who has been very prone to abscesses and after a great deal of hard work and expense I have managed to get his feet looking fab and we've had 8 weeks of him being sound....thats a long time for him! I clean them daily, wire brush them and let them dry then apply hoof stuff from red horse products and art-mud. Itt's been a winning combination really. However, Ted got his feet trimmed on Sunday and the farrier was very pleased with the condition of the hooves and commented on how clean his white line was.....great I thought!

Yesterday I went to see him and he was hopping lame on one front foot. Could only put the toe down and I started treating it as another abscess (can't see where its at though)....epsom salts, hot poultice etc but today I had a friend there and as I was changing his dressing I cleaned down the side of his frog (which was very deep) and there was very black gunky smelly stuff that came out...not just mud it was far darker than mud.

So.....can thrush make a horse hopping lame? Does this sound like thrush to you? I've used a small amount of peroxide today and dry poulticed it. Just not entirely sure whats going on....is it something to do with the ground being so much wetter these last few days or due to having his feet trimmed. What's your thoughts? Cheers.
 
Last edited:
I've never known thrush to make a horse hopping lame, thats not to say that it cant, but given this horses previous episodes of absesses this would be my first thought, and I would treat it at this. Also for thrush to make the horse lame I imagine it would have to be there sometime and if the farrier couldn't see any signs on Sunday i doubt its thrush making them lame. The black gunky smelly stuff sounds like pus too, so again pointing to absess. This is the prime time of year for them to start too, so wouldn't suprise me. I would keep poulticing until you can get your farrier out to have a better look.
 
Thanks both! Farrier coming this weekend and yes my first thought is an abscess. I'll go back to wet poulticing tomorrow I think. Farrier says he didn't see any signs of thrush last weekend but when I put the peroxide in tonight it did bubble at this particular sight far more than anywhere else (I treat all four feet just in case)

Plus if it is an abscess and its draining out through the side of the frog, would he not of reacted to the peroxide?
 
How brave is he? ;)

On a more serious note, I have cleaned my mare's abscess out with diluted Hydrogen peroxide and she didn't mind. It did fizz like mad though.
 
Thanks all! I thought afterwards that it could be the abscess coming out through the side of the frog...I think I was just so sick of having to deal with them that my train of thought was completely shut down!

I've had the best vets in the area out (Frames of Penrith) and they assured me it was 'only' crap and stones in the white line and that it would take a while to grow out. Since then he's only had one abscess until now and this is just after a trim.....although that might have nothing to do with it. His feet are so much better on the whole but my heart just sinks each and every time it happens again...to the point I could cry and throw the towel in!

He has a dry poultice on now with a nappy and vet wrap etc, but I might go back to wet poultice tomorrow and draw it out....I've just totally ran out of energy!
 
Thrush can make horses very very lame if it gets down to live flesh so could be either i would maybe poltice while stuff gunk coming out then if you can get hold of some stockholme tar and mix with suger and shove that in the hole it seems to work very well on abcess's if its thrush then clean daily with maybe paroxide or some other good product milton works too and keep clean and dry
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top