hoof poulticing

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Morgan123

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Does anyone have any tips on poulticing difficult horses? My extremely spooky/nervous welsh cob has a puncture wound in his frog and I have to poultice it for at least a week. However, this is getting steadily more difficult as he hates having the bandages on. Has anyone found a secure way to hold on the animalintex with a tubigrip for example? ATM im using animalintex covered with a bandage, with a canvas pultice bag over the top – but as he hates the bag and stamps hit foot endlessly, it’s difficult to get the bandage really secure – I can’t use duck tape or anything because he can’t stand the noise and it results in very nasty kicks (though he’s not usually violent, it just really freaks him out). Please help if you have any tips, we are both getting more and more frustrated with the situation each day!!

Also the vet’s given me five days worth of antibiotics and bute for the infection, but after this I assume I’ll have to keep it covered over – anyone any idea roughly how long could it be before it heals over given that it’s deep, but in his frog?

Thank you!!
 
... hmmm thats a difficult one. I guess you dont have acess to horse boots, such as those you use when your horse looses a shoe? Would it be possible to sedate him or would that be too much of a hassle? Sorry I cant be of anymore help. Good Luck with him.
 
I had a mare who regularly got abscesses and she got less and less helpful in polticing them - this worked for us.....

prepare in advance, cut poltice, newborn size disposable nappy (with self sticky bits) and pre-cut (out of hearing range) a star shape of duct tape (cut into strips and laid on top of each other to make a star shape), big enough to cover the sole and around the front/heel to hold it on.

Soak poltice, put everything ontop of each other, apply, fasten the nappy and fold up the pre-cut duct tape.

That kept everything in place enough to cut more tape and apply where necessary.

This was changed twice a day for about three days until the sole was soft enough to be able to find and dig out the tract - cotton wool soaked in stockholm tar was then used to plug the hole to prevent any nasties getting in there.

Hope this is explained simply enough to understand
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if you can get normal vetwrap on as a bandage, can you replace that with powerflex (similar to vetwrap but stronger, so would last on the foot with a poultice). You can get from Leverton who supply it, or vet could probably supply it
 
Poltice then vetrap followed by a pit of thick plastic(Carrier bag or shavings bale plastic ) all covered with duck tape.around the whole hoof. worked a treat and stayed dry in wet fields during the summer. if you are skilled when taking it off slice down the front of the hoof and then you can reuse the same duck tape boot that you have made, may need patching up tho. but it worked for my horse who had a very bad abcessthis summer.
 
Does it help if you make a "raft" using 4 pieces of the duct tape which you can prepare in advance and then just put on? Then secure that with a couple more strips, again prepared in advance so he doesn't have to put up with the ripping noise?

How is he with regard to the sound of vetwrap or something similar? I was putting that on over the animalintex to fix it in place, it does make a noise but not much and is much easier to unwind than duct tape. Then the poultice is secured in place before you start fiddling about with the duct tape.

With regard to how long you keep on doing it, well I suppose that depends on the healing time and ground conditions. (which I appreciate is rather stating the obvious)
 
hi, thansk for all your suggestions with this! it's been really helpful. have now found a way to do it with electric tape (doesn't make a noise like duct tape :-)) and a ski sock!! and he seems to be on the mend - thank god! thanks for all your help. xx
 
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