abscess

[happyhaffie]

is it just my horses, or do anyones elses know when the vet is most expensive?
im just worrying myself stupid, hopefully for nothing bad, but on sunday morning, i walked down to the field to find my pony hopping lame, it took us about 15 minutes to get her back to the stables normaly 2 minutes, when putting her front leg down (the bad one) she was only putting pressure on the very tip of the hoof, i rang the vets, he said to give her two bute and he would be out around tea time
anyways vet turned up, he couldnt decide whether or not it was acute laminitis or a realy bad abscess, he could feel a digital pulse on the offending leg but also a very slight one in the other front, he did hoof testers on her and found her very sore in three different places so gave her a jab of anti-biotics advised us to poultice and one noradine and bute a day
i checked her on yesterday morning, no digital pulse, but still no weight bearing, i rang the vet and he said its definetly and abscess and to keep poulticing
now heres where im confused, at first i couldnt get in touch with my vet so i rang my farrier (on monday) i explained everything to him and he said its best to dig it out, if shes that lame, so hes coming this morning to have a look, ive left a message with the vet advising this (its his day off after been on call all weekend) and the surgery werent very helpful and couldnt advise anything, so am i doing the right thing? im also petrified incase its something more sinister but thats just me

and the silly little girl what she is was meant to be going out on loan sunday i think shes telling me something lol

wow sorry for it being so long, tea and biccies if you get this far

 

[AmyMay]

My first port of call for these things is always the farrier. Shoe off, and a dig, and hopefully either the abcess is located, or certainly the area that's causing pain is.

We never administer Bute or Danillon for an abcess as it serves to dampen it down - when in fact you want it to run its course and come out.

So ask your farrier to come out and get the shoe off. Then you can poulitce properly and hopefully sort it out.

 

[Adina]

Agree, I always call the farrier first. They are a lot cheaper and will tell you if you need to get a Vet.

 

[happyhaffie]

farrier has been, he'd finsihed by the time i got their (this is a farrier who has never been on time never mind early), hes managed to locate the abscess and dig a hole for it to come out, bless him he was on poulticing her foot by the time i got their, hes agreed with you guys no more bute and half an hour walking inbetween changing the poultice and all free of charge, think he will have to go on the christmas list this year
thanks for your advice guys, ive never had a horse with an abscess before but i think my farrier will now be first port of call

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

Shame your vet didnt think to do this!? I would have expected that to be what they would do (after using hoof pinchers to locate the sore area!)
Poulticing is great, but if there is no escape route for the poultice to draw it through its kind of pointless......

Glad its on the mend now though!

Always good to have a good farrier