Burst abscess from flint in hoof - reassure me it’s probably fallen out in the straw and she’ll be better tomorrow?

maya2008

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Little weanling not having a good time - got chased, kicked, fell over. Muscle injury healed, happy and cheery, then we got an abscess that burst today at her heel - entry hole under the frog like something stuck under your nail. It burst before the vet arrived, but he was concerned he didn’t find the stone when flushing it. It’s probably fallen out at initial bursting, right? What are the chances it’s still in there? He flushed and flushed (how he found the entry hole!) so is sure it’s clean inside now.
 

ycbm

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Why is he so sure there was ever a stone in there?

My experience of a flint was that it sliced into the frog and obviously introduced a whack of dirt but there was no stone in it.

Luckily I felt the horse do it, saw the flint and managed to find the hole to flush it when we got home.

I think you should be OK if you got a nice spurt of pus out. I hope so anyway.
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maya2008

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Why is he so sure there was ever a stone in there?

My experience of a flint was that it sliced into the frog and obviously introduced a whack of dirt but there was no stone in it.

Luckily I felt the horse do it, saw the flint and managed to find the hole to flush it when we got home.

I think you should be OK if you got a nice spurt of puss out. I hope so anyway.
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That’s what I thought - she was chased down the hill so my theory is that she dug into the mud to stop, sliced into her hoof and then surely it would have fallen back out then? He said sometimes you get the flint pushed right in, and it comes out with the pus.

Entry wound looks like a stone apparently 🤷‍♀️. Curved slice rather than a smaller deeper hole if that makes sense. It was a giant explosion of pus with a hole you could stick your thumb in…
 

meleeka

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I can’t see how the vet would know if there was a stone in there or not. I’d go with the theory above, that it was a cut. It’s good that there was loads of pus. It’s probably self cleaned now. If it doesnt resolve, then consider xraying, but my bet is it’ll be fine.
 
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