Nail 4cm into hoof next to frog

[TheFarmIsFull]

Have been on the phone to vets all morning, both the attending vet, the sister clinic and the referral hospital. Not a single vet has recommended XRays, it’s been recommended we start broad spectrum IV antibiotics and continue to poultice the foot to draw out any infection. She is very lame today and pointing her toe and they have said it’s likely a mix of bruising and an abscess forming/ being formed and that she will be worse before she gets better. Vets believe with the location of the nail that it’s unlikely caused damage to any vital structures but if it has and has damaged the tendon sheath that full recovery is incredibly slim even with surgical intervention so while they believe it won’t be the case it’s a time will tell situation and we need to be prepared to make decisions.
In the meantime I have turned her out on good quality pasture so she can eat her heart out and keep moving and hopefully drive any infection out. I have removed her poultice so I could look, I’m going to get some blue antibiotic spray and soak her foot when I go back out before I re wrap it.

 

[Prancerpoos]

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you have very pragmatic vets. Hopefully she can keep munching away, although one of my horses once had an abscess so painful that she would not move her back hoof and in the morning I found her standing in a small semi circle of munched grass ? She had to go to the vet hospital, which took a lot of serious drugs to get her to move at all. I had to drive the horse box right up to her in the field. After a few days the pus came out of her coronet. Her whole hoof eventually came off, but she was fine once the pus was out and had no long term issues. Fingers crossed!

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Why am I not surprised? Good luck to your poor young horse, I truly hope whatever the eventual outcome is that the horse's pain and suffering is soon over one way or the other.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you have very pragmatic vets. Hopefully she can keep munching away, although one of my horses once had an abscess so painful that she would not move her back hoof and in the morning I found her standing in a small semi circle of munched grass ? She had to go to the vet hospital, which took a lot of serious drugs to get her to move at all. I had to drive the horse box right up to her in the field. After a few days the pus came out of her coronet. Her whole hoof eventually came off, but she was fine once the pus was out and had no long term issues. Fingers crossed!

I have the vet coming out at 1 today to reassess and change up her ABs and pain relief. She towed me up to the new paddock today despite being lame so she’s feeling well in herself.
We have an action plan going forward for now and I also have my farrier coming out to take a look and see how he can help. We are looking at glue on shoes or hoof boots to help lift her feet further off the ground. She’s quiet flat footed and was due for new shoes this week but we don’t want to be nailing into her foot and cause her any unnecessary added pain.
The vet and farrier have both said she will likely loose a fair bit of foot from this, she’s only young so all going well they are right and it abscesses and she can start recovering.
Its nearing 40 degree heat here at the moment so iv turned my older horse out with her and they can both take the summer off while I focus on others.

 

[ycbm]

I have the vet coming out at 1 today to reassess and change up her ABs and pain relief. She towed me up to the new paddock today despite being lame so she’s feeling well in herself.
We have an action plan going forward for now and I also have my farrier coming out to take a look and see how he can help. We are looking at glue on shoes or hoof boots to help lift her feet further off the ground. She’s quiet flat footed and was due for new shoes this week but we don’t want to be nailing into her foot and cause her any unnecessary added pain.
The vet and farrier have both said she will likely loose a fair bit of foot from this, she’s only young so all going well they are right and it abscesses and she can start recovering.
Its nearing 40 degree heat here at the moment so iv turned my older horse out with her and they can both take the summer off while I focus on others.

What country are you in? This treatment seems very different from how it would go in the UK and your time zone seems not to be UK.
.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Why am I not surprised? Good luck to your poor young horse, I truly hope whatever the eventual outcome is that the horse's pain and suffering is soon over one way or the other.

Not surprised? That I’m following 3 vets advice, one who is at the largest equine hospital in our country? That I’m doing all I can for my horse who has had an unfortunate accident? I too hope her pain and suffering is over as soon as possible and I’m shaking my pockets empty to do whatever I can to ensure that happens.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

What country are you in? This treatment seems very different from how it would go in the UK and your time zone seems not to be UK.
.

Australia

 

[ycbm]

Australia

Ican understand your vet's pragmatic approach. I hope you see some improvement tomorrow.
.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Vet has been and said it very well could be abscessed already which is why she is so lame, she has super hard feet so she is currently soaking the foot in a boot with salts to hopefully help soften the hoof and help drain the abscess. I will go back and poultice and wrap in 30mins or so.
She is now on both IV and IM antibiotics and has had IV pain relief and we will continue with the oral pain relief. We will continue this plan for 2 more days and reassess. If she starts improving that’s great, if she declines the vet will re evaluate.

 

[hobo]

Sounds like you are doing everything you can for her hopefully you will be able to draw out any pus. I have gone off you though after seeing you are basking in 40 degrees while it is cold and wet here. Though it will be making your quest to soak and soften her hoof to let the abcess drain out. Good luck.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Sounds like you are doing everything you can for her hopefully you will be able to draw out any pus. I have gone off you though after seeing you are basking in 40 degrees while it is cold and wet here. Though it will be making your quest to soak and soften her hoof to let the abcess drain out. Good luck.

I will swap for cold and wet! Yesterday I actually googled to see if people can have some kind of summer allergy, I suffer so bad in the heat and always have. I think we may have had a little puss yesterday after removing the soaking boot but it’s very minimal so can’t guarantee. Will take her poultice off shortly and have another poke around and soak her foot again.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Fingers crossed we can start the road to recovery.
Lastnight I put a soaking wet poultice on for about 2 hours because she wasn’t a fan of the bucket and I needed to help soften things up, when I took it off a big abscess burst from her heel and a flood of puss/blood came pouring out. I have never seen an abscess that nasty before. I’d attach pictures but some may be offended.
We gave it a wash and a bit of a squeeze and we even had some chunky bits come out. After cleaning it up I dry poulticed it but left the heel free from any pressure/ wrapping so it could drain and I hope this morning she is feeling a bit better. Today is suppose to be her last day of antibiotics so I’ll shoot into the vets and grab some magical “blue spray” and some more vet wraps and continue poulticing it to keep it clean.
I have never been so happy to see some puss, now we wait and see if she recovers from this abscess and hope that’s all we are dealing with.
We need her to start making improvements (becoming less lame) over the next 48hrs, if there’s no improvement then it may be something more sinister. Time will tell.

 

[bonny]

Fingers crossed we can start the road to recovery.
Lastnight I put a soaking wet poultice on for about 2 hours because she wasn’t a fan of the bucket and I needed to help soften things up, when I took it off a big abscess burst from her heel and a flood of puss/blood came pouring out. I have never seen an abscess that nasty before. I’d attach pictures but some may be offended.
We gave it a wash and a bit of a squeeze and we even had some chunky bits come out. After cleaning it up I dry poulticed it but left the heel free from any pressure/ wrapping so it could drain and I hope this morning she is feeling a bit better. Today is suppose to be her last day of antibiotics so I’ll shoot into the vets and grab some magical “blue spray” and some more vet wraps and continue poulticing it to keep it clean.
I have never been so happy to see some puss, now we wait and see if she recovers from this abscess and hope that’s all we are dealing with.
We need her to start making improvements (becoming less lame) over the next 48hrs, if there’s no improvement then it may be something more sinister. Time will tell.

That’s great news, we like lots of pus on here ?

 

[twiggy2]

That sounds like great news, you wont offend with photos on here, I dont think its possible to

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

The nail actually went in slightly further back than marked but it won’t let me edit it again, it’s a screenshot from a video so sorry for the blurry photo. Iv written on it because my non horsey friends and family have been asking how she is and wanted a photo
She had a trim 2 weeks before Christmas and was due for shoes this week before all of this happened so her feet are not great.

 

[Prancerpoos]

Brilliant news. Will keep the fingers crossed.

 

[Goldenstar]

That’s good and bad .
You still have no idea if that pus is coming from damage to a structure within the foot
only time will tell now.

 

[ycbm]

It's a good start. Everything crossed that's just expelling dead rubbish, and the path is upwards from here for you both.
.

 

[littleshetland]

Please keep us updated!

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

I hate it when you look up posts to try and see others experiences and they haven’t kept things updated and you don’t know how things ended so I’ll do my best....
The abscess blew out in the heel bulb and we also had puss blow out in back of the pastern likely caused by it being a significant build up and soft skin from poulticing. This caused a bit of damage to the thin skin there so she is going to loose a big chunk of skin from the pastern. Antibiotics are done for now but I have some on hand should we need to start a new course.
We removed her poultice today and things were a bit gross, good and bad atleast it’s continuing to drain and with slight pressure we get a bit of blood instead of puss which is a good thing. We gave it a heavy salt wash and antibiotic sprayed behind the “pocket” of skin that’s lifted on the pastern and it looks pretty good. I have left it to dry out which I believe it needs but in saying that it does worry me we will end up with proud flesh so I may re bandage before bed tonight. She’s not as sensitive on the frog now as she has been but she is still very lame but I do believe she is slightly better Putting more weight on her toe. She has a line running across her heel bulb where the abscess blew out so she will likely loose a lot of foot but that’s ok we can turn her out as long as she needs if that’s the worst we are dealing with.
The biggest thing we are worried about is there being more damage than we know of but the vets want us to get past this abscess/puss situation first before doing anything else.
I have the farrier coming over Thursday, perks of living rural and not having farriers on hand. It would be good to see what he suggests we do.
Aside from all of this she is bright and eating so keeping my fingers crossed for a full recovery.
Will keep people updated with any changes.

 

[Snow Falcon]

When Benji stood on a nail the abscess under-ran his sole and burst out of his heel. I'm not squeamish but when the vets finger disappeared into the cavity.....

I hope your mare comes right. Benji was in for 6 months in total with a metal plate on his hoof for some of that.

 

[hobo]

Thanks for the update glad stuff is coming out and hope she gets sounder soon. Hope farrier can offer more of an insight to how bad it is. Fingers crossed for you.

I would swap you some heat for our wet I am battling a really bad 'mud fever' though it is not a true mudfever it is her immnue system attacking one leg but it would be easier to get it to heal if our ground was dry.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Thanks for the update glad stuff is coming out and hope she gets sounder soon. Hope farrier can offer more of an insight to how bad it is. Fingers crossed for you.

I would swap you some heat for our wet I am battling a really bad 'mud fever' though it is not a true mudfever it is her immnue system attacking one leg but it would be easier to get it to heal if our ground was dry.

Thanks!
I have found zinc creams and supplement really good for mud fever, zinc deficiency plays a big role in mud fever.
We had what felt like 3 months of rain this winter and i struggled so much but I do prefer it over summer. It’s so dry, we are bordering on a drought. We will start feeding the cows silage soon so I’ll have access to that to supplement the ponies. For now we are hard feeding and have grass. Every time I buy smaller bales for the horses it goes off before I can get through it.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

The vet came today and has given another course of antibiotics as a preventative as the skin had come off her pastern overnight leaving an open wound. As horrid as it was to find it was very clean but she had been licking it because her lips were all blue from the spray. We are not sure whether to continue wrapping it. It needs fresh air to help dry out but the bugs are rife and we need to keep it clean but in this heat even the most basic of dry wraps end up causing the wound to get all moist so for now it’s salt washes and topical sprays to keep it clean.
She is slightly more weight baring now albeit still only on her toe and 3 legged so we have started more pain relief.
We are assessing every day as to the next move we make. If she declines we need to look at options but for now she’s slightly improving *touch wood!
Here is the photo from this morning. Yes it’s gross but the vet has checked and given it the OK

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

Another update.
We had the farrier out today, her pastern is healing well and her hoof has been draining as it should however she still is very very lame.
We seen a slight 2% improvement over the last two days and today she is back to square one with the lameness. The vet has been also and we just finished more strong antibiotics and are continuing with oral pain relief. The farrier said with placement of the nail it wouldn’t have hit any bone but the infection may have caused injury to the tendon sheath and he believes that there may be some tendon calcification going on and she will never be able to walk correctly again if he’s right. Both the vet and farrier have said to continue with foot soaks, antibiotic spray and poulticing and if we see no significant improvement by Monday then we may need to look at calling it quits.
We have spoken to the equine hospital who have said xrays are not recommended and it’s too late to use a probe to assess the original injury which they also didn’t recommend at the start anyway. Everyone is currently pointing towards digital tendon sheath damage/ trauma and have said the likelihood of a recovery (even for a broodmare) is slim.
Sorry if none of this makes sense I am devastated and trying to type and think whilst crying on my bed. I have known her since she was In her mummas belly and foaled her down so this is very very heartbreaking.

 

[alibali]

I'm so sorry the news is not good. Thank you for keeping us updated. I will cross fingers for a positive outcome.

 

[Squeak]

Crossing everything for you that she makes a turn for the better over the next few days.

It’s so scary how easily they can injure themselves so badly.

 

[TheFarmIsFull]

I'm so sorry the news is not good. Thank you for keeping us updated. I will cross fingers for a positive outcome.

Thank you.
My heart hurts so bad, I just spent some time with her in the paddock and she was laying down flat out in my arms. She’s the sweetest and it sucks that something so simple can cause such a significant injury. I was happy to allow her all the time she needs to recover but if the prognosis isn’t good and recovery is unlikely then there is no point in making her spend any more time like this.
It’s a real kick in the guts because her wound is healing well, her hoof is draining well and the last two days she started bearing weight, only a little weight but I was taking all the positives I could no matter how small.
I’m really praying for a miracle that we see some real improvement by Monday, the whole situation makes me feel sick

 

[DabDab]

So sorry it has turned out that the injury was significant. So devastating for you, bad luck with horses can be truly brutal x

Will keep everything crossed for a miraculous improvement though.

 

[Prancerpoos]

Oh dear OP, I feel so bad for you. They just break your heart, with the fact that they have no idea what is going on whilst you watch them with your head full of all the worst case scenarios. Keep reminding yourself that there could yet be a good outcome. You are doing everything you can and it sounds like your vets will not let her go on too long if they think she has no chance, so must be some hope.

I don’t know you, but big hug from the other side of the world.