Internal Abscess

Where internally? How deep in the body?

I've known of two, both caused by thorns. They were lanced by the Vet and the thorns came out with the puss and a short course of antibiotics was also given.
 
I had a youngster come up for schooling - she was not long recovered from 'illness' - put down to a virus or similar. Within a few days she went down with what looked like colic but was accompanied by a high temperature. She responded to treatment - including antibiotics - for a few days and then became unwell again. This continued for several weeks and my vet suspected an internal abcess - bloods confirmed severe inflammation/infection - because antibiotics really only eased symptoms for a few days.

She went home and owner's vet scanned her and found what HE believed to be a large tumour along the bowel - she was PTS. Post-mortem revealed my vet was right - it was a HUGE abcess - full of ******* (naughty word starting with a and ending with d - not allowed on this forum) strangles. Vets thought it had been developing for months!

The problem with abcesses is that antibiotics usually can't penetrate them. If they run out of room they may burst - then you MIGHT have a chance with antibiotics. This one stood little or no chance - even if surgery had been attempted. She showed signs of colic when the abcess was big enough to press upon the bowel but there was ample room for it to grow without bursting.
 
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That's interesting this horse started with a temperature of 41 and which was kept down by very strong pain killers. He has now been put on antibiotics and also injected with penicillin. Much better now. Vet said it thought it was an abscess from looking at blood tests. Another in area has also just gone with what looks the same bug. The vet didn't think it was strangles which was our worry!! I hope he doesn't now go down hill when antibiotic stop or lose their affect!
 
If it IS an internal abcess, the risk is that the antibiotics will just 'damp it down' and then it will flare up again. There was no way - in the case we had - that you could KNOW what it was - until post-mortem. The mare started on a standard antibiotic and then was moved to a VERY expensive broader spectrum antibiotic - all to no real avail.

Let's hope it ISN'T an internal abcess!
 
My friend's pony had a colic op. The following year she had two episodes which presented as colic. The vets did a belly tap and decided she had some sort of belly infection and she was given a lot of IV anti-bios. The drugs were very expensive. The pony had a high temp and was pretty unwell for a couple of weeks. This happened twice, but she did make a full recovery.
 
JanetGeorge said:
I had a youngster come up for schooling - she was not long recovered from 'illness' - put down to a virus or similar. Within a few days she went down with what looked like colic but was accompanied by a high temperature. She responded to treatment - including antibiotics - for a few days and then became unwell again. This continued for several weeks and my vet suspected an internal abcess - bloods confirmed severe inflammation/infection - because antibiotics really only eased symptoms for a few days.

She went home and owner's vet scanned her and found what HE believed to be a large tumour along the bowel - she was PTS. Post-mortem revealed my vet was right - it was a HUGE abcess - full of ******* (naughty word starting with a and ending with d - not allowed on this forum) strangles. Vets thought it had been developing for months!

The problem with abcesses is that antibiotics usually can't penetrate them. If they run out of room they may burst - then you MIGHT have a chance with antibiotics. This one stood little or no chance - even if surgery had been attempted. She showed signs of colic when the abcess was big enough to press upon the bowel but there was ample room for it to grow without bursting.
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Does that naughty word start with a B and end with a d. ?
I was racking my brain with what it was.....;)
 
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