help with abscess

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AJ & Kiz

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Hi All,

I'll try and keep this one short so here goes... 3 weeks ago my mare went lame after doing some jumping (luckily my farrier was there and RI so they advised me to keep her out an bute her i did this and the first few days she seemed better then it occurred to me she was on bute and i was probably masking pain (cue taking her off the bute and a seriously lame horse) I then had the vet out who found an abscess and didnt even prescribe any anti inflams just said bute and poultice, i did this for a week and the lameness went but the heat has still there..i got a very experienced farrier out he had a look took her shoe off to see if its affected under there and said to hot poultice, ive doen this and ive also been using epsom salts ...i went to yard saturday and thought the heat had all gone so i gave it a good scrub and stood her in a bucket of epsom salt and warm water, came down in morning swollen tendon and the heat was back..dont know what to do now :( vets coming for my friend next week so will ask him to have a look at her but until then i have no idea ..she isnt lame but there is heat?? :confused: x
 
Well, firstly this should be in vets.........

Bute is an anti-inflamatory.

If the tendon is up - cold hose, and call your vet today for an appointment today or tomorrow.
 
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sorry for not putting it in vets!! thought it was more of a pain killer than anti inflammatory..i cant get the vet out any sooner i will happily tell you over pm but not over a forum.

The tendon only swells when the poultice is off thsi si what i dont understand

thanks
 
Mmmm, tricky one. If the vet is refusing to come out earlier than next week, perhaps time to look for another practice.

Is the horse lame, and are you turning it out?
 
its not the vets its a problem, its me that has a problem, i will happily pm u about it though but im not putting it on here. ive turned her out for an hour while mucking out with poultice on and shes fine but i dont dare take it off and turn her out after it swelled up without it on in the stable i dont understand why its doing it :(
 
and no shes not lame now, she was before the vet came out to dig abscess out though, i think theres still something in there
 
Remember, infection = inflammation, especially when stood around.

So, if she's sound and you can keep the poultice on, keep her turned out. If the swelling persists despite that, then call the vet.

Good luck.
 
This happened to a horse of mine, and the infection had travelled up and infected his tendon. Please get the vet out as soon as you can.

When you say the vet found an abscess, what did they find, and is there a reason they didn't dig it out?

Also, bute is not recommended for asbscesses as it can make them take longer to come out. Sorry, can't remember the technical terms :)
 
they did dig it out :) theres now a soft bit and a chunk where hes dug at, id show you a pic but i can only text to other phones

Thanks
 
thanks :) i dont understand why she trots up sound and is fine with poultice on but if i take it off she swells up :( id turn her out with poultice on but she keeps ripping them i need a boot for it
 
hi my horse has littlery just recovered from an abscess 6 weeks later!!.. they can take a while to burst mine took 2 weeks then when it did it took nearly 4 weeks to drain it completly. keep poulticing every day dnt leave it un poulticed as this could cause a secondary abscess which u dnt want. my vet wouldnt come out a second time or perscribe anthing because he didnt need it with abscess u just got to ride them out.... my tb is now compltly sound which his shoe bk on andstarting work agai. oh also his tendon was perminatly swollen untill the infection had gone and his leg went cold thats how i knew was time to get farrier back out he came and confirmed that he was ok to have shoeback on.... it just takes time... i hope shes ok x
 
thanks everyone much appreciated, I have the farrier coming again either tomorrow or thursday, my poor girl she is sick of being in her stable :(. KrujaaLass-ive been using a shavings bag and duct tape (well asdas own version of duct tape haha :) i have turned her out on a small bit of grass so she can stretch her legs but she always comes in with a ripped poultice :S silly mare. Everything is coming at once at the min :( ...shes 17 ive had her 5 year and never had an issue until now :( , my old pony had an abscess it went in down side of the frog and came out bulb of her heel :( i flushed it out with a syringe twice a day and poulticed her she was abscess free after just over a week!! x
 
My mare had lots of abcess, so I'm quite used to this... :(

It's not very serious if treated properly, but it's very painfull for the horse, so it looks worse than it is.

But anti-inflamatories are to avoid with abcess. They hide the pain and the abcess can make important damaged that it wouldn't have done if it had not been treated at all. (a vet friend of mine told me that she had to put down a mare beacause of this).

When I suspect an abcess, I call the blacksmith to make a hole in the hoof and let the pus get out. Then the task is to keep it cleen. Antibiotics might be required at this stage.
 
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