Absolute drama queen with feet because of abscess

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zoon

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My 4yo horse has an abscess. Let me poultice foot without issue and then the following day decided that a new one would categorically not be going back on - stamping foot down, barging into me and kicking out. I’m on my own, so not a safe situation to be in

Horses live out, no where entirely clean and dry to keep them, although we don’t have much mud as have lots of land for the number of horses with good grass cover, it’s still wet. So ended up turning lame horse back out with no way to poultice it

I use a barefoot trimmer, so they can’t dig into the foot. Nothing against farriers, but there are quite a few really crap ones around here so it has been difficult to find someone that does a good job of their feet. The trimmer I use is very good, but can’t help me sort this abscess so vet called

Horse was as rude with vet as with me, but managed to distract enough with treats. As soon as hoof testers squeezed the foot, pus erupted from the white line. Vet managed a very messy poultice. I’m surprised vet didn’t want to sedate as horse was throwing himself around. Left me with relaquine to use to change poultice every 48hrs.

Relaquine made zero difference. Vet then advised double the dose. Still did zero. Managed to get poultice off, but not a chance of getting new one on. Managed to put woof medical boot on clean foot and turned back out. Vet not happy to give dormosedan gel for use regularly enough for poulticing. Plus would cost me a fortune. Their advise was keep medical boot on to keep it clean and let it drain and heal naturally.

Horse came sound and then fine with feet. Abscess caused by little section of white line disease where crap can get in. I’ve been cleaning and packing it, but horse is now lame again. Mildly better with foot, but no chance of poulticing, just not getting kicked this time. Scraped dirt out of gap today and out burst a load of pus again.

I am not sure where to go from here. WLD needs sorting as that is why the abscesses are forming. But horse is being a total nightmare as soon as there is pain in the foot. I think vet will want to dig/resection infected area of hoof wall and I worry I can’t keep horse in anywhere to keep it clean and dry

If I get an X-ray, will that show how far up the WLD goes? Where the abscess has tracked to? To give an idea of what I am dealing with
 
My young gelding was a handful with his first abscess and poulticing. The gaffa tape sound pulling off the reel seemed to really stress him! In the end I got loads of strips pre-cut ready and waiting for him to come in, then I could do the job quickly.
Subsequent abscesses he wasn’t half as stressed.

It’s good your abscess is draining, it’s more worrying when not. There can be some sound and unsound cycles over days as it reinflames to get more yuck out.

If you’re able to get the woof boot on fairly easily, would you be able to put one of those pre-cut hoof-shaped animalintex abscess drawing pads into it prior to fitting?
Have it warm rather than steaming hot as too hot might make him react more. Theyre good for helping draw the gunk out. I’ve used them a few times with success.

You can get the pads here:

www.viovet.co.uk

Animalintex Hoof Treatment

Animalintex Hoof Treatment is available online with fast delivery from VioVet, the trusted supplier of veterinary medication, foods and animal care products.
www.viovet.co.uk www.viovet.co.uk

They also do animalintex whole square pads to wrap the entire hoof - if the woof boot is fairly loose, you might get away with covering hoof with larger pad and shoving into woof boot?
If the boot fits tightly already, it would be better to use the hoof cut pads linked above and have it in the boot ready to put hoof in. They will likely get moved about within the boot eventually, but hopefully the medicated moisture of the pad will be initially soaked into the hoof to help.
 
Are they just normal animalintex cut into hoof shape? I have big sheets of it I can pre cut and stuff into the boot, but it’s a fairly snug fit so not sure how well it’ll work as may just scrunch up into the toe as I shove the hoof in before the foot is slammed down 😩
 
Do you know what's causing the absesses? Is the hoof generally a good shape underneath or has it got a stretched white line or deep wall cracks which would both invite infection. As a future preventative can you plug any crevices and gaps on a clean, dry hoof with something like Red Horse Field Paste or Hoof Clay?
 
Would she tolerate tubbing? A bigger boot might make things easier too
And I'd ask the vet about pain relief, eg paracetamol as it's not anti inflammatory so won't affect the abscess itself
Also start with clicker training for handling the feet
 
When the Appy was young she was awful with her feet (needed sedated for trimming) so her first abscess wasn't fun.

I now place the animalintex poultice into a nappy. Before it goes anywhere near the horse it already has duct tape on it - that means once it is whacked onto the foot i can at least have it stuck to the leg (basically whatever the tape sticks it stays)

I then shove a feed bag over it. My duct tape grid is done away from the horse if they don't like the noise and that goes over the feedbag. I have lots of pieces of precut tape hanging from the bench that get stuck wherever I can. Unless it falls off it stays on - no daily removal if we're being difficult.

Are you using a good balancer? I've rarely had any issues since realising our soil was v low in copper and selenium so the horses diet wasn't the best.
 
One of mine was similar with an abscess. I do empathise, it's horrible!

I kept her in and hand walked because she became a nightmare to catch. I advertised for an experienced freelancer to help with a horse on box rest, and had someone with me every time I handled the horse. Hats on every time, even for a check.

Like @SEL I prep my poultices away from the horse and place my duct tape on the nappy ahead of time so that it's simply a matter of getting the foot up, whipping one off and replacing almost in one movement. Simply she says - I do remember it not being remotely simple with this mare!

I resorted to horselyx for distraction - they did help.

I know they are better out etc etc but if you're dealing with a dangerous situation, sometimes compromises are the reality. My horse recovered perfectly well in but I did hand walk and graze her on the lead so she had some movement in her foot. Horrible to walk a lame horse but standing all day doesn't help either.

Mine hasn't had another abscess since being on forage plus hoof and skin balancer. They do a summer and a winter and it's done my horses the world of good with their feet and coats.
 
I don’t poultice abscesses and haven’t for a few years now.
Farrier digs out. Spray with engemycin. Turn out. Blast hole with hose and reapply spray 2x a day. Heals just as well if not quicker.

However for our one with WLD shoeing was an instant cure sadly.
 
A rehab yard would be competent handling tricky horses, and would have numbers of staff/setup to facilitate this. If you can afford it, I’d do that.

They would also have access to a medical/remedial farrier who could advise re the white line disease.
 
zoon said:
Are they just normal animalintex cut into hoof shape? I have big sheets of it I can pre cut and stuff into the boot, but it’s a fairly snug fit so not sure how well it’ll work as may just scrunch up into the toe as I shove the hoof in before the foot is slammed down 😩
Click to expand...
I think they’re both medicated yes, but whether with the same stuff I’m not sure as I can’t find the ingredients of the sheet, but it does say it’s medicated for anti-inflammatory and healing. The hoof ones say specifically for hoof.
But you’re right, if the boot fit is tight there’s risk of it immediately scrunching up as you insert foot.

Likely the suggestions of red hoof paste or a green clay blob slapped all over the hoof before booting would work better with a snug-fitting boot.

I’d second the suggestions for mineral balancing additions like copper/zinc/mag etc as both my horses feet improved incredibly once I balanced them to the grazing. Mud fever and abscess bouts disappeared when consistently fed top-up of key nutrients. And they have exposure to lots of mud to really test the theory!
 
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