Barefoot ups and downs!

[pines of rome]

Just when I thought I was making progress with Romeo, he gets an abscess, had the vet out who made a smallish hole in his sole to let it drain, I poulticed for 2 days until it was clear and he now has a dry poultice on and is booted for turnout!
He has had a week off now and is no longer lame and his pulses are back down, I was wondering when I should resume walking him out and how long it will take for the hole to heal so he can be turned out without boots?

 

[Miss L Toe]

If you scrub the sole daily with salt water, you will be able to tell if it is sensitive, it should heal up quickly if it is no longer draining.
Two weeks was recommended by my vet.
I would have thought you can hack out on clean tarmac any time as long as he is sound.

 

[Oberon]

Just when I thought I was making progress with Romeo, he gets an abscess, had the vet out who made a smallish hole in his sole to let it drain, I poulticed for 2 days until it was clear and he now has a dry poultice on and is booted for turnout!
He has had a week off now and is no longer lame and his pulses are back down, I was wondering when I should resume walking him out and how long it will take for the hole to heal so he can be turned out without boots?

If he is comfortable - then walking out again is fine.

Abscesses cause pain only based on their positioning within the hoof capsule - like a splinter.
Walking helps them as long as the horse is comfortable enough to move.

If there is a track that you can't see the end of - then keep the hoof covered.
If you can see where it ends and you can reliably clean it out once a day, then you can leave him bare on dry ground.

A 10ml or 20ml syringe is a really helpful piece of kit for squirting liquid into a track. I use iodine - but that's just me.

The Red Horse ArtiMud is a putty that is great to stuff into holes but I have used iodine swabs/sudocrem swabs before now.

I haven't had lots of abscesses BTW

. Just one each for different reasons and low level infections to The Tank's dimpled sole.
Since using balanced minerals I haven't had any problems though - so the bag of nappies I bought will be sitting around forever

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

It takes 3 months for the dole to grow from heel to toe. Repair tissue may fill in the hole in tbhe mean time, but the foot will not b Argyll strength until the hole has grown out with the sole. In hand walking ad long as comfortable is always benificial. X