Multiple abscesses! Causes? How to prevent?!?

[Squeak]

So, a little update on my lad. He was doing fine while we were waiting for farrier (due next week, he was too busy to come sooner) then at weekend blew another exit wound on his back right and was sore on it and became quite depressed. Went for X-rays yesterday and there’s a possible fracture to the inside wing of the pedal bone in that foot!!! ? he’s been on and off with it since mid August when the ground was at its hardest so assuming it happened then. Those X-rays have been sent to Dick Vets for specialist appraisal so I should know tomorrow what the plan will be for it ??
Both fronts show some medial lateral imbalance so vets going to speak with farrier before he comes to do him. Thought are the pressure of the imbalance on the hard ground in summer caused the bruising (he was landing outside edge when he was footy) which led to the abscessing.
Seeing as a pattern has been emerging over the last couple of years, it has become apparent that he just doesn’t cope with hard ground barefoot. Going forward he’s going to be shod all round before the ground gets baked and remove shoes Dec - Feb for a shoeing break ?? I don’t want a 3rd year of trying to keep him comfortable, treating abscesses and ever increasing vet bills!
I’m just hoping that this isn’t going to be a box rest situation. There are lots of success stories out there for complete recovery but all seem to involve lengthy stints of box rest ?

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing the update and I really hope your lad makes a full recovery. My friend has been worrying as both her horses had multiple abscesses in the last month. They had a shocking farrier for part of the summer so the abscesses being caused from bruising from imbalance seems very possible for them.

If they get more then she'll get x-rays etc done.

 

[Floofball]

I had a 6 Yr old Shire pts with an undiagnosed illness, despite vet involvement for over 3 months. Now I am pretty sure she had Cushings.

Eta, I am glad you know what the oriblem is and that it should be fixable but if the horse were mine, I would consider finding a different farrier.

Thanks for the reply - current farrier is fairly new for us, he’s the vets remedial farrier so hopefully got a good one on the job now (3rd one in 12 months ?)
Was about to Google ‘oriblem’ as thought it was a fancy word for pedal bone fractures ??? ?‍

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks for the reply - current farrier is fairly new for us, he’s the vets remedial farrier so hopefully got a good one on the job now (3rd one in 12 months ?)
Was about to Google ‘oriblem’ as thought it was a fancy word for pedal bone fractures ??? ?‍

Ooops! sorry about that I was on my phone, which has a mind of its own, not to mention my fat fingers

 

[MystieMoo]

I had a 6 Yr old Shire pts with an undiagnosed illness, despite vet involvement for over 3 months. Now I am pretty sure she had Cushings.

Eta, I am glad you know what the oriblem is and that it should be fixable but if the horse were mine, I would consider finding a different farrier.

Our 16 year old Connie had an abscess that just wouldn't go.
Vet came out from May to October and he ended up having an operation involving scraping his foot out and it went quite deep.
During all these visits, x-rays, and pondering by the vet, I did some research and suggested he could have Cushings, especially because of his age. They poo-pooed that until he had the actual operation and I insisted he be tested. Lo & behold, his numbers were up and he was put on Prascend (sp).
The costs by then were astronomical (uninsured) and I asked for a meeting with the surgeon etc because by now from research I was very sure it had been Cushings all along and that the operation may have been avoided if he'd had Pracend (sp) earlier. They denied that, said there was no proof Cushings could cause abscesses.
After a long recovery, pony was sound & happy, back jumping and on Prascend. My daughter had outgrown him by this stage and I advertised him locally with all history disclosed and on the condition that any prospective buyer speak to our vet.
We found a lovely local family. I explained everything. They called the vet. In their conversations the buyer asked if the Prascend would be ongoing and had Cushings been a possible cause of the abscess. Guess what? The vet said, "Very likely"! I couldn't believe it after all the denying they'd done and this was the actual individual vet we used from a practice of many vets. So, I looked like a liar because I'd told the buyer the vets had told me there was no proof Cushings caused abscesses!
Luckily, the buyer believed me and the pony went on to live with them and passed a few years later of something unrelated age 20 or so.

This was only 5 or so years ago. The vet was Rossdales in Newmarket.

 

[Indieanna6]

Mine had recurring abscesses in one hind which eventually turned out to be a keratoma - she also had a couple of abscesses in the other hind due to her compensating.

 

[Orangehorse]

Mine had recurring abscesses in one hind which eventually turned out to be a keratoma - she also had a couple of abscesses in the other hind due to her compensating.

Well that's interesting.

I posted recently about my horse's abscess (I've been living in the stable ...) Well he's Ok now and the farrier came to put his shoe(s) back on and he was due for a re-fit anyway. The abscess was a front hoof, caused I think by almost ripping off his shoe about a month ago .... but I digress.

The farrier thinks he has a keratoma in one of his hind feet (don't panic) as it is growing in a different way to the other foot. And this is the foot where he has over his life has had at least two and maybe more abscesses so that makes perfect sense. He said not to panic, it is just one of those things, unless it suddenly starts to grow and I have heard of horse's having them removed either successfully or not. In view of my horse's age I don't thing I would be putting him through an operation, so let's hope it just continues as it is.

But it does explain things.

 

[Floofball]

Thought I’d update this with hopefully a positive outcome ??????

Consultant feedback of the X-rays of back right was that pedal bone wasn’t fractured (yay!) there was abscess tracks around the bone but no significant gas pockets. Presumed bruised pedal bone that should settle once stabilised with shoes. He was shod on the Wednesday, then Friday his back right was swollen with a pulse and Saturday 2 more exit wounds/sores appeared on his heel bulbs and he was lame on it again ? Vet back out Monday who thought it would’ve been brewing from before shoeing. Antibiotics (Doxycycline) given for 7 days which he didn’t mind at all, then protexin quick fix to boost his gut after - boy did his droppings stink ?
I have slowly brought him back into work. He was sound on straight lines with slight tenderness on back right if he was turning to the left. He was still wanting to land outside edge first and suspected bruising was on inside of pedal bone. This has now stopped and after he tiptoed about in his new shoes for the first couple of weeks on hard ground, he is now marching about and feeling great ??
The exit holes on his back right have all grown down into the centre back of his frog - and I’m still having to manage that but he hasn’t shown any tenderness in that area for a week or so now.
Even though I’m wary to say it he feels the best atm! No more abscessing since the antibiotics, slowly increasing workload - 2nd set of shoes going on tomorrow - hopefully onwards and upwards now ??????

the photo below shows his back right heel before shoeing. It is obvious he’d been walking outside edge down. There was another 2 sores appeared after this ? it’s been a long job. I’ve just got everything crossed he stays sound in shoes as having tried my very best for 3 years I’ve had to concede that due to some medial lateral imbalances he just doesn’t cope barefoot on hard ground ? I do plan on giving him a shoeing break Dec - March going forward - if farrier agrees.

 

[TigerTail]

DIET my mare used to do this, baffled the vet and trimmer for months. Eventually I had a soil sample then hay (made from same land she was grazing) done with forage plus and it turns out that our soil is high in metals, which were blocking the absorption of micronutrients like magnesium cobalt, vitamin E et cetera, and it was showing up in her feet to start with. I fed her, a bespoke mix, forage plus made based on my soil analysis, but then moved onto one of their general mixes after a year which she has been fine and ever since I have also done a lot of work to the land to redress the soil nutrient balance.

 

[Burnttoast]

DIET my mare used to do this, baffled the vet and trimmer for months. Eventually I had a soil sample then hay (made from same land she was grazing) done with forage plus and it turns out that our soil is high in metals, which were blocking the absorption of micronutrients like magnesium cobalt, vitamin E et cetera, and it was showing up in her feet to start with. I fed her, a bespoke mix, forage plus made based on my soil analysis, but then moved onto one of their general mixes after a year which she has been fine and ever since I have also done a lot of work to the land to redress the soil nutrient balance.

My friend had a similar experience with her non-cushings boy with multiple abscesses. She had her grass analysed, fed minerals based on that and the abscesses ceased.

 

[Highmileagecob]

You have my sympathy, this is a nightmare to deal with.
EMS is basically type 2 diabetes. When insulin levels are very high, the body cannot process sugar as it is meant to, and changes to circulation in lower limbs results. In horses, this is laminitis.
Laminitis, even at the very early no symptom stage causes small separations and tears which bleed. The blood has nowhere to drain to, and eventually rots down. This is your abscess.
Cushings and PPID will predispose a horse towards laminitis.
If you suspect EMS may be at play, exercise is a key part of recovery. Once you can balance exercise to the amount of food ingested, symptoms will start to level off and disappear. Shod or barefoot does not seem to make a lot of difference, unless your horse is susceptible to bruising. Try to keep sugars low in the diet, and also try to support the gut by offering a range of forage, not just plain hay from one source that may have been sprayed to remove plants other than grass. Fingers crossed you start to see light at the end of the tunnel.