hoof abscess question...

J

JenHunt

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weird - i'm sorry!

but, do hoof abscesses have a distinctive smell in the way that thrush does?

We think Tom has an abscess, he's hopping lame on a back foot and the only thing thats made much difference is taking the shoe off. The farrier couldn't find a specific spot with the pincers in order to open it up to let it drain, so we are tubbing....

the reason i ask is that he is improving, slowly, and each time we tub his foot there is a very distinctive smell like sour milk, or like when you strip out a cow with mastitis (sorry!!).
 
I don't know about that, but the gunk that is an abscess stinks like nothing else;) Got some on my fingers a couple of weeks back and it is truly putrid - my hand stunk, the car stunk. Washing my hands didn't get rid of it and in the end I had to resort to the smokers trick of using tooth paste. It's truly revolting.
 
Oh yes! The stink doesn't even wash off. Have a look down the side of his frog, they sometimes leak out there instead of bursting out properly.

Keep tubbing for a week after the smell has gone, would be my advice, or it can seal back in.


I hope you're not going to miss a hunt, I've just lost five weeks to a punctured sole and I've no idea what he trod on, but it was sharp and it's out there in my twelve acres somewhere :(
 
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Hi All!

Yes, ctp, we are missing hunting - haven't even got going yet....first Tom skinned a hock in the field (tried to go investigating and walked through a fence!) then when he was right from that Ron bruised a heel really badly, he's sound and almost hunting fit now, and then Tom's got this! Most annoying is that we thought it was his arthritis playing up as it started gradually, so the vet was out, did nerve blocks, showed absolutely nothing up to the stifle!... but then when farrier came to take shoe them (and could only take that one off Tom as he was so uncomfortable) he was less lame... hence the conclusion that it was an abscess.

We've been tubbing twice a day, and then poulticing between times, and it is stinking! I can't get rid of the smell from his foot or me! There was a load of goo on the poultice on Monday night, nothing tuesday, and then again last night, but in a different place from on monday.... :s both times it has been down one side of the frog (or the other!) though.

But, he is now 90% sound.... so even if it was the arthritis (I now doubt it) then the box rest and poulticing has helped him somehow!

So you reckon to keep tubbing/poulticing until the smell has gone?


Ron, meanwhile, has returned to thinking he is 4 (he's grown up a year, it's usually 3!) and is being really unhelpful while Tom is on box rest. He insists on hiding behind the tree in the paddock, or standing out of Tom's sight. So Tom gets stressed and has taught himself to stand on a diagonal pair of legs... keeping the sore one off the floor, and bashing the stable door with a front one! naughty!
 
and so.... we think it's finally burst properly!

It seems to have come out of the groove between the bulbs of his heels of all places, as well as seeping out down the side of the frog a bit too. it only took a week....

We've moved to dry poulticing now, and he's 95% sound so we'll see what occurs over the next few days.

oh, and, bless him, our farrier rang to check on the patient this morning!
 
I really recommend you either tub for another week or squirt 3% hydrogen peroxide in the hole really hard for another week. It's a devil if the seal up again.

Happy hunting soon!
 
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