Lameness, possible abcess, advice please!

sychnant

sychnant

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Long story, please bear with me!

Leo managed to get a nail in his back foot a couple of weeks ago. It was in the frog, the tiny head was in the crack and the nail ran horizontally. He'd come in dead lame and I immediately thought abcess, so while I was waiting for the kettle to boil for the Animalintex I spent some time scrubbing his foot, and only found the nail because I thought the tiny head was a loose piece of frog!

I poulticed and box rested for a week, the first 2 days he had some Danilon too. The vet was happy with this. I never got anything out with the poultice, and after a week he was sound, so I turned him back out.

2 days later I noticed he was a bit off, checked the foot thoroughly, no sign of anything. The vet came out and used hoof testers, couldn't find anything. She thought it might be an abcess brewing and said she could feel a puffy area just above the coronet band. His leg was slightly fluidy above the fetlock too.

She gave him an antibiotic jab, and some for his feed for the next 2 days. She also said to keep poulticing and recommended a kaolin poultice, which I picked up yesterday. I took it off him today to find he is barely touching the ground with his foot again, although yesterday he was almost back to normal.

My question is - is the soreness due to the abcess being drawn closer to the surface, or is this unlikely, in which case it could be something else? Farrier is due tomorrow and I will ask him to take a look, but I'm not sure I want another huge callout fee for the vet to say yes, abcess, keep poulticing!

Anyone want to share their abcess stories? Only one of mine has ever had one before, she was lame, I poulticed, it burst. Wish this one was so easy!

Thankyou if you got this far! Sorry post length police, I know it's long, too bad, needed to give the full picture :D
 
To me it does indeed sound as though the abcess is ready to pop and if your farrier is out tomorrow then get him to dig a small hole for you to drain it. Then poultice it until the poultice comes clean and the horse is sound. We also skoosh some Hydrogen Peroxide into the hole to give a really good clean out before each poultice. No real need for the vet unless he really doesn't improve.

ETA. We spray the hole with Terramycin for a few days after the poultice is off to harden the skin hoof up again and act as a kind of anti-bacterial layer. You can only get this from the vets though.
 
Thankyou :) Hopefully he will find a sore spot with the hoof testers - although the vet didn't, I wondered if it might be higher in the foot and aiming to burst through the coronary band? But hopefully the farrier will work it out :)
 
Horse on 3 legs
Horse poulticed
Did so for 4 days
Day 5 farrier called back as leg swelling - he said don't worry it's about to go
Next day - BAM, burst the heel, sole and coronet :o
 
Right I need some help!!! New to this owning a horse only had her 3 months! She has got an abcess in her back foot, had vet out yesterday morning and was told to Poultice in the evening, however she is having none of it and is constantly trying to kick me or anyone who tries to touch the foot! So ended up calling the emergency vet out as she looked like she was in a lot of pain, in the end she put Poultice on but we have been told we will need to change it ourselves!! Each time the vet came out she had to be sedated as there was no other way or looking at it. Is there anything non-prescription that can be given to her so i can change the Poultice??
 
It very much does sound like a abcess , my boy has just recovered from one , it started off slightly lame so at that point I treated it as a injury cold hosing and bute ,he became better and thought nothing off it , a couple days later he was serverely lame , you would think he had broken leg at that point the abcess was near bursting ,I had farrier out to make a hole for it to drain from ,I poultice it for a couple of days then filled the hole with a cotton wall and tar he is near enough back to normal
Hope it gets better soon
 
I know I am going to get shouted at by a few people for this BUT it will probably work and there is no harm in giving it a try - twich your horse! Either nose or skin of the neck. You will need someone else to hold the horse and do this whilst you do the foot. Some horses get wise to a nose twitch and won't let you put it on so skin twitch to be able to nose twitch.

I know some people don't agree with twitching but it's a quick, easy, short term solution to save you being killed and your horse being more upset by you faffing around with her feet.

And just to put me in the bad books even more - don't use one of those silly humane twitch's as they don't work :D Plait some bailer twine, drill a hole in a shortened (like 1-1.5ft) broom handle and thread the twine through and create a loop.
 
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My mare also has an abscess at the mo :(, the farrier came yesterday but although he made a small hole I know he wasn't happy it was enough, so I'll poultice for a couple of days and then get the vet who will undoubtly dig a bigger hole. I would love it to burst beforehand but I have never had one do that on it's own...very annoying and I hate seeing her in pain. Fortunately she is an angel to poultice, which is just as well asI have put my back out.
 
Although I appreciate that the nail was horizontal to the foot it could still have entered the foot. I do not wish to scare you but anything involving a nail can have serious implications as the infection could be within a joint. Your horse would be best refered to a vet hospital so that full x rays, scans etc can be taken just to ensure that nothing has got in to the joints.
 
Hi, well my boy has spent the last MONTH with an abscess on and off, and it was drained by the vet initially ! Think it had underrun his sole so we'd poultice until no puss then he'd be fine then suddenly lame again :-( Finally seem to have got it completely out, his legs are clean and cold and so far so good ...
Anyway definitiley sounds like an abscess to me, sounds like it could be deep rooted so perhaps tub him each night before poulticing, this will help soften the sole so that the pus can escape - only do this for 2-3 days though (tubbing) as otherwise it can cause spreading of the white line.
The pressure building causes the lameness but this in turn forces the puss to find the path of least resistance so sounds like it might pop soon.

LeanneR88 have you tried the mint likit tub ? My youngster loves these and you can do pretty much anything with him if he has this, it sends him into a sort of trance, if someone had suggested this to me before I would have been sceptical but it makes such a difference to him !
Good luck all ...
 
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