How long to poultice for?

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Guinness

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My horse has an abcess in his heel, the vet has been (twice!) so I have been hot poulticing it now for four days (and tubbing) but there is still pus coming out. Oviously I dont want to hot poultice too long...the vet actually called me to see how hes getting on and he said to dry poultice for a couple of days to see if anymore pus comes out but that means I have been poulticing for a week? My farrier is coming to check it in a couple of days, but how long can I poultice for (assuming pus keeps coming out) without damaging his hoof?

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You can dry poultice for much longer than wet poulticing. And I'd be inclined to do this from now on.

Is the horse being turned out??
 
I am turning him out for a couple of hours a day at the moment just before I change his poultice (so it doesnt matter if it comes off). Apart from that hes in, although I do walk him out twice a day too...oh and hes on two bute a day. He was actually on box rest for a week as the first vet that came to see him couldnt find an abcess so thought it was something else...poor thing has been in for over a week now
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If you wrap the foot up in nappys and duck tape, I expect the horse could go out all day quite happily. The movement will also help disperse the remainder of the pus.
 
Ive had him in duct tape + wrapped an old feed bag round it and taped that up and he still managed to get it off...hes very clumsy! Will try the nappy idea though, cant wait to hear the gossip when I go and buy nappies from my local shop!

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I've always been told to wet poultice for no more than 3 days too - I thought that if the foot was wet for more than that it could impede healing.

I have always done hot / wet poultice for 2 / 3 days, and then dry poultice after that.
 
What poultice are you using? some are more effective than others.

I pack espom salts into the abcess hole after tubbing (salts and warm water)
and then wrap in nappy.
duck tape the nappy.
put a pad of carpet or something similar on bottom of foot
and then get feed bag and cut in half (one of straight bags eg. a maize bag) and put foot in the corner of bottom half (which still has seal) and secure using bailing twine around feltock
duck tape bottom of foot and round heels if puttting out.

stays on for at least 24hrs, and then is redone
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Thanks everyone, changed his poultice this morning (dry) and it came off clean
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So when he has got the all clear from the farrier tomorrow should be back to normal
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If you are using a massive size of poultice covering the whole from and foot, I wouldn't do it for too long as you will get a very soggy foot and frog with a secondary thrush...it short use a small bit that's covering the hole only!;)

Cover the poultice with water as hot as you can stand and then you can squeeze the excess out 'til it's damp only and bandage the foot up.

I generally say that you should hot poultice twice daily for 3d then once daily for 3d then use dry dressing....plugging the hole with epsom salts. I don't like dry poulticing personally, I don't think it really does much.

If you feel the foot is getting too soggy, then swap to 10mins salt water tubbing using epsom salts, and dry dress with epsom salts to dry the foot.

If the foot is still draining then you might need to get the farrier or vet back to encourage the drainage by widening the hole....:)

Hope that helps,
Imogen
 
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