heat in hoof (coronet band)

[HannahPatsy]

My horse has had a number of problems – the latest being navicular syndrome (possible DDFT damage) – she is currently on box rest, and has been since October. She was initially in wedges which made a difference for a few days, but she soon went back to being quite lame, then was shod in graduated bar shoes, which didn’t make a difference at all. I decided to have her shoes taken off at the beginning of December as I am going to try barefoot (and hoping to get her to Rockley this month), since then the foot she is lame on has been hot the majority of the time and she has become more lame as time goes on. I thought it may be an abscess so I poulticed her hoof for a few days, but nothing came out – just a bit of brown/yellow goo from around the frog – which then made me think it was thrush, so have been scrubbing her foot with iodine and putting athletes foot spray on. The heat had gone for a couple of days, but is back again? It is mainly around the coronet band area. I understand that infections such as abscess/thrush are quite common for horses on box rest.. Or does anyone have any idea what else it could be? Especially with going from graduated bar shoes to barefoot – could this cause such sudden changes in the hoof?

 

[Ella19]

does sound like an abcess, I would get your farrier or vet to check it to give you peace of mind. I would never wet poultice the coronet band though so it might be you need to wait it out, until it comes out, but farrier should be able to help. The brown/yellow you got would most likely have been thrush if you wet polticed. I would get farrier first and if they have no idea call your vet back out.

 

[brucea]

Sounds like an abscess grumbling away there - sometimes they can take ages to fuminate

I know this is not goign to help, but one of mine had not had an abscess in the 6 years I had him until we went barefoot and then he had significant decontraction in the hoof, and a spate of abscesses as things inside changed and cleaned out.

He's fandabulous now! (4 years on)

Rockley is a good decision.