My horse is still lame and hot after hoof abscess has cleared up, is this normal?

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gpea35

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Took my horse eventing two weeks ago (9th September) - farrier was due to shoe him the week after so shoes were starting to look a bit old so after going clear xc I jumped off and noticed he had lost both front shoes. Walked carefully back to trailer and he kept tripping over as very stony and he's quite sensitive unshod, thought nothing of it really. Tied him up at the trailer for about an hour after walking him off and came back to find him hopping lame on his left fore. Fetlock was hot and swollen and there was a tiny puncture wound in his sole with small amount of blood (supposedly from standing on a nail as his shoe came off). Left him in overnight and gave bute.

Vet came out the next day and said she would put money on it being an abscess that was causing the severe lameness, so said to box rest, hot poultice and give bute for 3 days, as the farrier was coming out to shoe the other horses on the thursday and she obviously expected the infection to have cleared up by then. Anyway, I continued hot poulticing for 11 days untill the poultices came off clean and had him shod two days ago and he is now on paddock rest.

The wound is looking like it's healing nicely, seems a bit tender still but dont think there's any infection left in there. But he is still a bit lame - not very noticeable on a straight line but seems quite uncomfortable and short on it on a circle. Yesterday his pastern was quite hot compared to his right fore, so hosed it and gave him another bute. Not so hot this morning, but I am just worried that he might have done something else as well as the puncture! Is it normal for him still to be lame and hot almost two weeks after I started poulticing? Could it be his suspensory ligament or does it sound like anything else? I will get the vet out again if no better in a few days but would be grateful if anyone has had a similar case or any ideas on it!

Thank you!! :D
 
Have you got a farrier or vet cut back the hoof around the puncture wound? I'd be worried that there's still something in there. My horse had a 2cm thorn in the point of his frog earlier this year. We (vet & I) didn't find the thorn for 2 weeks & by then he was nearly sound & there was no pus. If there was an obvious puncture wound I'd assume there's still something in there.
 
Ask your vet since when a horse that trod on a nail the day before and was almost immediately hopping lame has developed an abscess that bad overnight. Goodness, some of these vets seem wet behind the ears.

Your horse has pricked his foot and you don't know how deep it goes. Foot punctures can be serious, through to the bone, especially as your horse probably has thin soles - shown by the fact that he is sore without his shoes on. Another possibility is that he has fractured a pedal bone by jumping without the shoe on after it was pulled off.

I think you need an xray. Giving more bute is masking what is going on and he should be sound by now if all he had was a tiny prick from a nail.

Sorry to be gloomy. I hope he is better soon.
 
Well this is what I thought! Puncture wound is tiny and there wasn't as much pus as I would have expected. Last time he had an abscess he was definitely not as lame after such a short space of time.
Yes the vet dug the wound out as much as she could but as its in the soft tissue there was a lot of blood so didn't go very deep.
Thank you for your advice, I will call the vet on Monday.
 
Quick update....have not been able to talk to the vet due to issues caused by the recent flooding! Anyway, I initially thought his left fore (the one with the injury) pastern and hoof was hot, but looking at it yesterday I noticed that the left fore is the same temperature as both hind legs and feels about body temperature, and his right fore pastern and hoof is abnormally cold! I don't know if this could be from a lack of blood supply? But he isn't lame on it
 
My horse recently decided to reshoe herself :( was interesting to say the least anyway farrier came and we treated for an absess got tonnes of pus gunk etc out. reshod and turned out a week later came 97% sound by this point so assumed a few days and would be right. gradually she got lamer again so rang the farrier back out who was as confused as me as before he shod her we both agreed it had healed over whipped the shoe back off and hoof tested her she was sensitive again it turns out the puncture wound had healed over and we had treated the absess that had formed however another absess had formed underneath were it had healed over so farrier treated this and we were extra cautious giving her a full two weeks poulticed to ensure nothing got in but by around 4 days after the farrier had treated she was back sound. Sorry for rambling i suppose my point is get the farrier back out to have a poke around it may be possible that he has formed another one underneath the original. hope it works out for u
 
gpea35 said:
Quick update....have not been able to talk to the vet due to issues caused by the recent flooding! Anyway, I initially thought his left fore (the one with the injury) pastern and hoof was hot, but looking at it yesterday I noticed that the left fore is the same temperature as both hind legs and feels about body temperature, and his right fore pastern and hoof is abnormally cold! I don't know if this could be from a lack of blood supply? But he isn't lame on it
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One cold foot is actually quite common. I've scared myself a number of times over the years by finding a hot foot, until I realise that there's actually one cold one. It's never caused a problem.
 
I would say that the abscess is still active - or there is another one from possibly treading on the nails of the pulled shoe.

Go back to poulticing and poultice the whole sole. Have the farrier rummage around for you - they are great at finding the tracks of an abscess.
 
My mare had an abscess which didn't come out for 6 weeks and she was crippled. It finally came out of the heel. It had under run sole and had several other pockets of pus. We are now 10 weeks in with two lots of antibiotics and still dry poulticing. There is now only one pocket left which has a very tiny amount of pus in. It was such a deep abscess that the vet had to go right down to the sensitive tissue to find it. It's been a nightmare but touch wood we are nearly there now.
 
I would have to agree withc ptrayes- sounds like something more serious, infection more than an abscess, but actually given that the fetlock is hot and horse still lame now foot should be more sorted Iw ould wonder about a soft tissue injury higher up or a foot penetration deeper than you think. Would possibly not be using the same vet either!
 
pc2164 said:
My mare had an abscess which didn't come out for 6 weeks and she was crippled. It finally came out of the heel. It had under run sole and had several other pockets of pus. We are now 10 weeks in with two lots of antibiotics and still dry poulticing. There is now only one pocket left which has a very tiny amount of pus in. It was such a deep abscess that the vet had to go right down to the sensitive tissue to find it. It's been a nightmare but touch wood we are nearly there now.
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blimey thats dreadful what an absolute nightmare, do they know why it was so bad?
 
SusieT said:
I would have to agree withc ptrayes- sounds like something more serious, infection more than an abscess, but actually given that the fetlock is hot and horse still lame now foot should be more sorted Iw ould wonder about a soft tissue injury higher up or a foot penetration deeper than you think. Would possibly not be using the same vet either!
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This is what I was going to say. My vet was adamant that my horse had a slow to burst abscess. By the time I got a second opinion the infection had moved up into the tendon sheath and pretty much destroyed his tendon. I WISH I had got a second opinion earlier and it might have been fixable. Please, get a scan and/or xray done in case it is an infection.

I hope it's not, and wish you and your horse all the best :)
 
Victoria1980x we have no idea. She literally went lame overnight. I can only guess that she maybe trod on something as she doesn't get turned out when it's wet and she is time restricted on turnout. Her feet are incredibly hard which is why I think it took so long to find and come out. Having to claim on insurance as it has cost me well over £1000!!!
 
pc2164 said:
My mare had an abscess which didn't come out for 6 weeks and she was crippled. It finally came out of the heel. It had under run sole and had several other pockets of pus. We are now 10 weeks in with two lots of antibiotics and still dry poulticing. There is now only one pocket left which has a very tiny amount of pus in. It was such a deep abscess that the vet had to go right down to the sensitive tissue to find it. It's been a nightmare but touch wood we are nearly there now.
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Did your vet explain why he gave antibiotics? They aren't normally recommended for a hoof abscess. If they are given before it bursts then they can make it encapsulate and take forever to come out. And it's generally agreed that they are pointless once the abscess has broken open unless the infection has spread elsewhere in the leg/body.

I'm also puzzled why your vet had to dig anywhere when it had broken open at the heel? I have always found that pumping something aerobic (I use 3% hydrogen peroxide) into the hole in the heel using a syringe for a week or two sorts it nicely.

I'm only asking because I wouldn't want others to read of your experience and demand antibiotics from their vets for abscesses when, in general, the advice I have had is that they are either unnecessary or positively detrimental.
 
Sorry she only had one lot of anti-biotics as we didn't use the first lot.

As you say vets don't like to use them but I think he was concerned it may spread.

The reason for opening up on the sole was to help drainage and also she was still very lame after it had burst at the heel. She had three different pockets of pus in the sole and then a very large split on the coronet band of the heel.

My vet was very reluctant to use the anti biotics as they don't normally use them for foot abscesses like you say. He also said that he hasnt really experienced an abscess take so long to burst or take so long to stop draining.
 
Thanks for the explanation. He must have been worried about possible bone infection. I hope everything is going fine now and all will be well.
 
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