Lame 3 yr old

[wynnwith]

Bit confused... My horse is pretty lame on off fore but weight bearing. No swelling, she has quite a strong pulse in foot but farrier can't find any bruising or abscess - she is prone to abscesses but he's not convinced it is one this time. Is there anything else that it could be? Saturday she was slightly unlevel then worse sunday and been the same since. She is 3yrs old any ideas would be much appreciated I'm starting to think of all sorts of horrible things it could be......

 

[ImogenBurrows]

Bit confused... My horse is pretty lame on off fore but weight bearing. No swelling, she has quite a strong pulse in foot but farrier can't find any bruising or abscess - she is prone to abscesses but he's not convinced it is one this time. Is there anything else that it could be? Saturday she was slightly unlevel then worse sunday and been the same since. She is 3yrs old any ideas would be much appreciated I'm starting to think of all sorts of horrible things it could be......

Hmm...probably still abscess. Can take a while to brew. If you want to look for other stuff while you're waiting for it to brew up further then get the foot blocked to confirm it's there - 10mins on the yard, v easy. Then is positive search the foot again. If still no abscess xray to rule out a fractured pedal bone. Whenyou confirm it's not that, keep looking for the abscess
Farriers are great but a vet will confirm the site of lameness and can dig a bit more agressively. Sometimes they take several days (even weeks) to be found....don't give up. Most times it will be an abscess,
Good luck,
Imogen

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

try tubbing the foot in hot salt water. abcesses can take week to 10 days to come through. yes vets do dig more aggressively than farriers, not good! blocks and x rays would be the next step if you want to spend the money, but have patience if horse prone to abcesses (tho would query why she is prone to abcesses?) you could try a magnesium sulphate paste poultice to see if you can draw it out? i would restrict her turnout but if not better or burst out in the next few days you will need your farrier and vet!! good luck.

 

[ImogenBurrows]

try tubbing the foot in hot salt water. abcesses can take week to 10 days to come through. yes vets do dig more aggressively than farriers, not good! blocks and x rays would be the next step if you want to spend the money, but have patience if horse prone to abcesses (tho would query why she is prone to abcesses?) you could try a magnesium sulphate paste poultice to see if you can draw it out? i would restrict her turnout but if not better or burst out in the next few days you will need your farrier and vet!! good luck.

LOL - didn't think this going to be interpreted as bad! - only done when necessary. And I didn't mean it to sound like farriers aren't doing enough - they have a strict boundary when investigating foot as they can't give pain relief or block foot if required.
With care you can investigate a hole/abscess site deeply, without causing a massacre to the foot...and without blood. Sometimes this type of exposure is required to prevent under-running of the sole by an abscess.

One word of warning though - mag sulphate paste can be great, and I'm a big fan of tubbing the foot too, but full foot sopping wet poultices will just give your horse a lovely great big thrush. Oh, and if it bursts out the coronet, not great, so get the farrier or vet to dig out the bottom of the tract then to minimise drainage at the top....and for Gods sake don't poultice the coronary band - i'm sure no-one would...