anyone delt with a nail puncture to foot?

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amandaco2

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my yearling managed to get a nail in a lump of wood in her sole last night whilst in her stable
(put fresh straw and shavings down day before)
i wasnt sure what had happened at first as she just started making a heavy breathing grunt and sitting right on her hocks.
she tried to walk and she looked like she had a broken leg.
i had the lights off and i pulled off what i thought was a big stone,but as soon as it came out i could see it was a nail.
the nail went into her foot just by the frog about halfway up.and it bled a little
shes got a poltice on and had a nice vet visit last night(she tried to cut away some hoof but her feet are like rock)
the little monkey was most put out by her new 'shoe' and is
busy trying to remove the poltice.


she went sound as soon as the nail came out
but she looks slightly uncomfy in walk this morning(frosty bumpy ground and a big clumpy bandage on her foot she keeps trying to bite dont help!)


was just wondering how many other people have had a nail puncture injury?
ive had horses for about 18years and never had one until now!
 
i have, some numpty took the field shelter down & burned the wood in the field, never cleaned up after themselves though
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tally got a nail in her hoof, was 4 weeks of poulticing/nappies/duck tape before it healed.
 
I've got one at the moment. The 'wound' has been opened up by the farrier and she is having her poultice changed daily. We didn't know she'd had a puncture until there was already a lot of pus and she was very lame. It's been just over a week and the pus is STILL coming out!
 
you have to be so careful as they can go gammy very quickly. my loan horse trod on a flint and it went quite a way in - box rest for 10 days, poulticing for 8 and then only allowed out when healed over.

It's just not worth the risk.....he had antibiotic injections for 5 days too.
 
My almost unhandled 2 year old had the same thing happen to him. Unfortunately the nail went a lot deeper than we first thought and he got very poorly with septiceamia and nearly died. His temperature was 104
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Thanks to my wonderful farrier who managed to find the pocket of pus after some serious digging about, there was so much pressure there the pus shot across the stable and it was dripping out of his foot.

Can you get your farrier out to dig around? You have to cut a hole deeper than the nail went in and then tub his foot if you can and then poultice it until nothing more comes out.

Good luck
 
My boy had one! (what hasn't he had?!?
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)

Not long after I got him he got a farrier's nail in his frog - was hopping lame when I bought him in from the field and when I went to pick his feet out there it was.

Vet came out (after telling me not to pull it out), x-rayed it then pulled it out. It bled a little and I had to poultice the foot. X-rays showed the nail was a couple of cms off doing serious damage (only saving grace was it went in at an angle). I box rested him for a week with a poultice then he had to go out in a sick paddock to start with so he didn't gallop round on it - unfortunately he jumped out of the sick paddock so we gave up on that idea!
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Anyway, he is fine now (2 years later) and hasn't had any problems to do with it since
 
i asked about turnout and she said it weas fine
shes got poltice still on
out field isnt that muddy,although obviously if it came off her foot,it woudl get muddy.
i cant see the hole now.
the vet seemed to think it didnt go in too deep.
no antibiotics and her tet jabs are up to date so the vet said she didnt need a booster or anything.
i couldnt believe it,i was due to go home in 5mins,thank goodness she didnt wait til id gone.makes me shudder to think she could have had it in all night!!!!!!!!!
 
I definatly go with whats been said before and get the wound site opened up, years ago I found my ned standing on a cone of straw in her stable which she must have done trying to get away from the pain in her foot caused by a very large nail which had gone very very deep.
I don't know how I did it but I managed to pull it out as I couldn't put her foot down with it still in there and a couple of days later she was very lame, I'm somewhat of an expert in foot abcesses as she had terrible flat TB feet so I dug the site out and the pus hit me squarly in the face, absolutely disgusting. After some considerable time poulticing it cleared up. I'd recommend a vet or farrier doing it though unless you know what you are doing.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you mean me ParkRinger I hate to say this was in 1985, now showing my age! So vets didn't tend to be so easily contactable.

[/ QUOTE ]

ummm no, original poster!
 
When my horse had one some years ago, vet looked, said was OK, poultice and keep it dry and clean (I used a Shoof - wonderful thing...) With hindsight, should have called the farrier to dig it out properly..... anyway, it was worse than thought, and in the end had to strip the whole base of the hoof off to let all pus out before it set off up the leg. It was a tough time, but if you dig deep enough at the start, you will be fine. I used a standard poultice, plenty of warm tubbing (which soothed the horse and was comfortable for him), then wrapped the whole lot up in fertiliser bags so that he could stay out as he would not stay in and was trashing the place. Once it starts to heal, it is amazingly quick and all fine, but it must heal from inside out and not lock in any infection.

My advice - get farrier out - even if he then says it is all fine and charges a call out fee! but anyhitng below the knee, the farrier is yer man!

Good luck....
 
My boy had a huge nail which I pulled out. Seemed fine to start with and walked out sound. Poulticed but next morning his leg was huge and he was crippled. Expensive trip to Liphook as a result. Stood there for 2 hrs holding his head while they x-rayed to see if it had gone into his joint capsule (would have been PTS).
Not nice! Luckily it was just a bad infection, he had to stay a week though. They told me next time to leave the nail in so they can xray and see where it is.

I would be a bit wary about turning out personally. It really needs to be kept completely clean to stop infection creeping up. But I guess if your vet has ok'd it he/shes obviously happy. Hope she recovers!
 
I had to tub and poultice his foot for weeks and in the end the farrier put a shoe on with a pad underneath and his foot healed fine.

The problem with this sort of injury is that the foot will close up over the hole, possibly trapping dirt/pus etc inside it and that's when you get infections etc.
I'd be worried if I couldn't see the hole.
 
All previous answers correct, BUT , <font color="red"> </font> , can go wrong VERY quickly.
Get farrier in , always more knowlegible about feet.
Good luck
 
My mare stood on a nail. I cleaned it and thought it was ok, but a couple of days later she was lame, our farrier opened it up and there was pus in there, so she had a week of poulticing (nappys are brilliant, just nicely hoof shaped and come in different sizes for different hooves !). Then when it had dried up the farrier filled the hole with liquid rubber which hardened and stopped anything else getting up there.
 
the vet didnt pull it out i did as i thought it was a stone at first(lights were off in stable and she was trying to walk round on it)
it hadnt gone in all the way.
vet did scrape off some hoof but she said she couldnt take anymore as the hoof was so hard.
but will contact farrier see what he thinks.
the nail wasnt very wide either.
the vet seemed totally unconcerned by the whole thing.
will have to double check tonight and see what baby is like,am a bit worried about her now!
 
I've had 2 with punctures. Both were pretty nasty. For the second one my vet recommended glycerine with epsom salts in the puncture wrapped with a nappy.Sounds wacky but worked a treat at drawing stuff out. I should think the vet knew how much hoof to cut back so I'd leave it be (don't involve farrier) &amp; monitor lameness &amp; heat in her foot/leg. neither of mine had any problems once it had healed.
 
Sounds like you've been quite lucky, Star got a farrier's nail stuck in exactly the same place as your mare last year and it was awful. He was hopping lame the next day, vet came out and dug it out and put him on bute and antibiotics. He wouldn't keep the poultice on, he kept ripping it off, it was a nightmare! It took about a month before I could start riding him again. Sounds like your mare is going to be fine
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