effectivnes of bute advice please

[JaneSteventon]

Hello. I have a horse with an abcess in his foot. He has gone from hopping on three legs to being practically sound. The vet cut out the abcess and advised poulticing for five days and a course of bute. If this dosn't work he will supply antibiotics. However i am concerned that the poulticing dosn't seem to have drawn out any gunk when i change the poultice it is practicaly clean. So my question is, is bute that effective it can change a hopping lame horse to a sound one and could it be masking the fact that his foot is still full of the infection or am i worrying about nothing. I am on day three of poulticing and will ring vet tommorrow but any advice in the mean time would be welcome.

 

[threeponies]

My pony had a suspected foot abcess 2 weeks ago and the vet said not to give bute as it would mask the lameness which infection was causing. If you aren't getting any pus get your vet back out for antibiotics asap, my pony now has quittor due (I think) to not getting antibiotics in the first week he was lame.

 

[vicijp]

After 3 days of poulticing all the pus should have come out, and you shouldnt poultice for any longer. If you do, alternate every 12 hours with dry gamgee.
Bute is an anti inflammatory as well as a painkiller, so its important to use in moderation to lessen the damage and speed up the recovery time.
TBH, most abcesses will come right after being tapped out and poulticed for 12 hours. We generally get the shoe put back on the next day. Only extreme cases need antibiotics.
p.s Next time call the farrier instead.

 

[henryhorn]

I would say once an abscess is opened the relief is almost instant and it's possible for it to have gone.
We always call the farrier first too.
They have something common to this area they call granite poisoning, which is I think tiny sharp bits of granite chips working their way inside the foot.
It virtually almost sorts it out once the pus is released, and a course of anti biotics if still lame will ensure the infection has gone.
I would stop poulticing and the bute and see what happens next in your position.
it will either come back in which case start again, or if it's gone the horse will be sound without bute.

 

[JaneSteventon]

Thanks for your replies. Think I will stop the poulticing its not doing anything anyway, and he has been on bute since Friday so it should have reduced inflammation now and i really need to see if he is lame without it don't I. Thanks again for replies its great to be able get good advice within a couple of hours if your worrying

 

[10past6]

Hope you get a good result, good luck