Lame or bad CC?

Aw great thanks :) she said its available without a prescription at her pharmacy so will go there as a last resort as its over 30 mins away.
 
Or buy contact lens disinfecting solution from the optician - bottle should be clearly marked 3% hydrogen peroxide. Chemist stuff will be 6 % - add the same amount of water before using.
 
Vet visited this morning as still heat in the hoof. Farrier was up last night but didn't seem concerned. Vet nerve blocked and removed shoe but she was still showing signs of lameness. :(

Plan of action; farrier to remove the remaining shoe and trim all 4. Shoes are to be kept off. Farrier is due Wednesday but trying to get him out tomorrow instead. She's to be on bute until Tuesday and if still lame Thursday/Friday then they'll xray. I'm assuming that if they want to xray then they're moving away from the opinion that its an abscess?

They also want me to poultice the whole hoof until Wednesday as the hoof is quite hard apparently so this should soften it?

Any thoughts?
 
You have an exit wound. Poulticing to soften the whole hoof is supposed to achieve what, Lauren? I think you should ask your vet why he wants her whole foot softened when it already has an exit hole in it.

I am amazed that your vet has given bute and nerve blocked a horse with a very significant abcess which has underrun the entire back quarter of her foot (Lauren and I have been PMing, the horse had a split developing on the bulb of the heel and holes in the coronet further round. The whole lot will join up and the entire back quarter of the foot will probably shed gradually over the next few months).

There WILL be heat in the hoof - she has a damned great piece of ruined foot in that back quarter and she is putting in extra blood to fight the infection and rebuild the damage. There will be heat in that foot for days or weeks yet.

As for her not being sound with a nerve block, she has a bed of pus under the whole back quarter of her sole and heel and frog. That means they are no longer attached properly to her foot. There is a new, baby, raw sole and frog growing under the pus level and who knows what sort of mechanical issues that may be giving her. It is squidging around there with every step she takes, and yet your vet expects her to be completely sound. This is unreasonable, I think.

I would think what your vet is concerned about is that this is not a second abscess but a continuation of the first. It is possible BUT VERY RARE that there is a deep infection, possibly in the bone, and this may be what he wants to find out.

BUT, I think it is far too early to worry you like this. Horses with big abscesses like this one are NORMALLY lame for at least a week, and often for three or four weeks after you have an exit wound.

If I were you I would stop calling the vet and go with your farrier's advice. He knows far more about feet than your vet. If he is unconcerned, you should be unconcerned.
 
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Thanks :)

He seemed to want the xray as a last resort i.e. get the farrier to trim them first. Thinking back though I'm abit confused as he said that the site around the bruise on hoof was were the abscess would've been but then later said that it was an abscess but didn't know where it was now situated. It basically sounds like he wants the farrier to poke around doing the work for him or am I being dull?

He said poulticing the hoof would soften the site which would aid the drainage. He also said by keeping her on bute she'd weight bare on that leg which would also encourage drainage.

It's been going on so long now that I just want it sorted and feel like I must be doing the wrong thing as nothing seems to be happening.

I'm waiting for the farrier to call back but he's up Saturday for another owner so can catch him then.
 
Bute will mask any lameness though so i am not sure what your vet is trying to achieve as above you posted that if she was still lame they would xray. Well the bute will mask any lameness so i certainly wouldnt be giving that too her. I would however poultice - it stops dirt getting into the wounds especially if she is being turned out which can lead to even more infection, or get a hoof boot for her to try and keep it all clean.

Also go with your farrier, they know a lot more about feet than vets!!
 
LaurenM said:
Thanks :)

He seemed to want the xray as a last resort i.e. get the farrier to trim them first. Thinking back though I'm abit confused as he said that the site around the bruise on hoof was were the abscess would've been but then later said that it was an abscess but didn't know where it was now situated. It basically sounds like he wants the farrier to poke around doing the work for him or am I being dull?

He said poulticing the hoof would soften the site which would aid the drainage. He also said by keeping her on bute she'd weight bare on that leg which would also encourage drainage.

It's been going on so long now that I just want it sorted and feel like I must be doing the wrong thing as nothing seems to be happening.

I'm waiting for the farrier to call back but he's up Saturday for another owner so can catch him then.
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Lauren I am really sorry for you but you need a different vet next time if he does not know where this abscess is :( Abscesses pop on the coronet band and heel bulb but in my (extensive!) experience of them they are NEVER located there. They are always somewhere under the sole. In another couple of months you will find that a whole piece of sole will fall out. The front cover of her bar in that side may fall off, leaving obviously exposed dead laminae. Part of her frog may peel off too. NONE of this will cause her any problems at all, but it may look quite dramatic.

You aren't dong anything wrong. What you have described to us is perfectly absolutely completely 100% totally NORMAL for a big hoof abscess in the back quarter of the foot.

It's common common common. Please try not to worry.

I never poultice an open exit wound in the heel/coronet, I just shoot them full of 3% hydrogen peroxide, keep them turned out and moving for it to pump itself out, and they are fine. I even turn out in mud. I certainly would not poultice if it means you have to restrict movement.
 
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Given that they don't work at the dentist with a tooth abscess, I'd imagine a nerve block wouldn't block sound for a foot abscess either, it does seem a bit odd to be nerve blocking when there is clearly an abscess there.
 
He said he wanted to nerve block just to be sure its in the hoof. The bute is to encourage her to put more weight on the leg. He didn't say whether to keep her in or not but farrier said that poulticing for a few days wouldn't hurt her.

She's only in at the minute as she's a houdini with a poultice in the field and all the other mares are in for the day and some at night due to the rain. Don't get me started on that though lol!

Thanks for all the advice. It's so frustrating as I feel like I lack so much knowledge in the lameness department.

Is she likely to come sound and then go lame again then or should this be it for this nightmare of an abscess?
 
This will be it as long as you keep the exit wound open until it heals upwards from the bottom. There is a very slight chance that she has a bone infection but that would be VERY uncommon and is VERY unlikely. She should get a little bit sounder every day but she may take a couple of weeks to come completely right.
 
Another update! Farrier has trimmed and had a look but cannot find anything. He has recommended having the xrays done. He said she's not showing signs of being sensitive on the hoof but its clear to everyone that when raising the left front that she hesitates about putting it down in walk. She did weight bare on it when having the right front trimmed. He briefly mentioned a chipped pedal bone but said that she would have a sensitive hoof if that were the case.
 
What does he mean he cannot find anything Lauren? You showed us photos of what looked very like an abscess exit wound on her coronet and told me she had a spongy blister at the join of the heel bulb and the coronet?

You should have the xrays done, of course, but I am confused, as I'm sure you are! Please come back and tell us what the xrays find.
 
LaurenM said:
I will do. Yep trying to not think about it in the meantime as I'll only stress!
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Please try not to stress. Nothing that you have told us is at all unlikely for a nasty underrun abscess which will heal perfectly well. Just because your farrier can't find pain with his testers does not mean that she cannot feel the pain deep in her foot from the raw nerve endings in the abscess site. And she may even just be remembering how much it hurt and hesitating before she puts her foot to the floor. Your farrier and vet are probably just being cautious. Meanwhile, keep treating it with hydrogen peroxide as if it was an abscess, just to be sure.
 
PF had an abscess that ran up the wall of her hoof but wasn't coming out anywhere. Took an xray finally to locate where it was so the vets could dig it out and it HAD got into her pedal bone. Vets at Rossdales made big hole in her foot and scraped out the icky bit of her pedal bone and put a plate on her foot. I had to pack the hole with iodine swabs for several weeks but she was absolutely fine and the hoof healed with no complications and she's been fine ever since. Got some wonderful xrays!
As there IS an exit hole in this case, I don't think the infection will be getting into the bone and would go along with cptrayes advice :)
 
cptrayes said:
You have an exit wound. Poulticing to soften the whole hoof is supposed to achieve what, Lauren? I think you should ask your vet why he wants her whole foot softened when it already has an exit hole in it.

I am amazed that your vet has given bute and nerve blocked a horse with a very significant abcess which has underrun the entire back quarter of her foot (Lauren and I have been PMing, the horse had a split developing on the bulb of the heel and holes in the coronet further round. The whole lot will join up and the entire back quarter of the foot will probably shed gradually over the next few months).

There WILL be heat in the hoof - she has a damned great piece of ruined foot in that back quarter and she is putting in extra blood to fight the infection and rebuild the damage. There will be heat in that foot for days or weeks yet.

As for her not being sound with a nerve block, she has a bed of pus under the whole back quarter of her sole and heel and frog. That means they are no longer attached properly to her foot. There is a new, baby, raw sole and frog growing under the pus level and who knows what sort of mechanical issues that may be giving her. It is squidging around there with every step she takes, and yet your vet expects her to be completely sound. This is unreasonable, I think.

I would think what your vet is concerned about is that this is not a second abscess but a continuation of the first. It is possible BUT VERY RARE that there is a deep infection, possibly in the bone, and this may be what he wants to find out.

BUT, I think it is far too early to worry you like this. Horses with big abscesses like this one are NORMALLY lame for at least a week, and often for three or four weeks after you have an exit wound.

If I were you I would stop calling the vet and go with your farrier's advice. He knows far more about feet than your vet. If he is unconcerned, you should be unconcerned.
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Thanks for this bit of imfo. Mine just throw a foot abscess no signs to hoof testers just lame all the same signs of one heat in the same spot as last year. Farrier out took shoe off and said no signs of it just to poultice the next morning it all came out by his frog and heel. Hes not on bute either. Last year Beau throw one that took week's to come out either had vet out who said it will come out when it's ready too which it did 3 day's later. Try not to stress too much I know it's very hard!!
 
Xray is booked for tomorrow afternoon. She's stiff on her offside hind now as well so will get the vet to have a look at that too. Fingers crossed..!
 
Good luck tomorrow. The stiffness in the offside hind may well be because it is on the same diagonal as the bad nearside forefoot and is taking some of the strain off that leg. Let's hope it's just one abscess in the front foot. Fingers crossed for you.
 
cptrayes - the vet said the same thing and that if the hind is still bad once the front has been treated then they'll look into it further.

Lilly has to go to horsey hospital for the day :( He done another nerve block and he thinks its definately not in the hoof. The injury is anywhere from the knee upwards. He mentioned arthritis in her knee as being out of work could cause a flare up. Lilly had enough fussing over the leg so we had to call it a day (she was heavily sedated and tried to throw herself on the floor to prevent him touching said leg).

As she's stiffer being in the field than the stable I've been advised to keep on box rest. She'll hate it.

Amymay - do you know of any boxes for hire in the South Wales region?
 
Lauren, try Sally Bassett. I don't have a number though, sorry. Your get might also have some contacts or your local tack shop.....
 
There's a post in new lounge at the moment - trailer hire south Wales - and it has contacts and numbers.
 
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