Nightmare abcess. Help

One of mine had an abscess that went on and on, then one day I poulticed it and when I took the poultice off I saw a bit of wire sticking out of the frog. It had been buried in there all along out of sight until the pus pushed it out. He was soon sound after it came out. An xray would have seen that too.
 
ester said:
I'd overide the vet and insist on an xray, as you are on week 3? now?[/Q

The original abccess was located at the end of april. She came up lame on that leg a day or two before. The shoe has been on and off twice since then as it got reinfected once her shoe was replaced. In hindsight we think the shoe ought to have stayed off longer. I think if she is the exact same or worse by the end of next week I will. Just to rule out foreign body if nothing else. it would be amazing if it showed up and abcess material just for my ow peace of mind. But I do understand that an xray doesn't always show fluid up. Everyone is pretty confident its soreness/possible more abccess grumbling away as it was clear its where a nail was. it also had a small bruise visible initially. She is a massive whimp generally anyway so it can be quite hard to gauge. What I did notice today is then when i pressed her heal to the left side, she was not overly happy. Hmmmm. In the meantime we will stick to hacking and turnout and hope one day i either find she is visibly improving or something surfaces !!!
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I wouldn't be particularly concerned about a foreign body. I would be concerned be concerned about the pedal bone being affected and it would rule out a keratoma but I missed that it likely had a hot nail as the culprit which makes the latter hopefully less likely and the clearing up of the time line would probably have me a bit less concerned than I was.

Generally I just don't think it's a good idea to let them grumble on too long without checking as they can do quite a lot of damage without anyone noticing.
xrays also pick up on gas pockets which indicate infection, so you don't need them to fluid spot.
 
ester said:
I wouldn't be particularly concerned about a foreign body. I would be concerned be concerned about the pedal bone being affected and it would rule out a keratoma but I missed that it likely had a hot nail as the culprit which makes the latter hopefully less likely and the clearing up of the time line would probably have me a bit less concerned than I was.

Generally I just don't think it's a good idea to let them grumble on too long without checking as they can do quite a lot of damage without anyone noticing.
xrays also pick up on gas pockets which indicate infection, so you don't need them to fluid spot.
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Thanks. I will keep this all in mind. She looks really good tonight. So fingers crossed this continues to improve. But who knows!
 


At 14, I would ask the vet for a Cushings test, just to be on the safe side. They don't have to be old to develop Cushings. In retrospect, I think I had a 6 yr old with it.
 
little progress update.

So far so good. And I feel much more relaxed that the vet and farrier have been right. She’s slowly getting better. She can now stay in during the day or stand on hard ground for longer periods without aggravating and causing pain. She is 100percent sound ridden in a 3 gaits on all surfaces and in straight lines and circles. She is almost there in hand, but weirdly she did look better ridden than in hand ar times over the last week or so. We think she is anticipating the pain and is distracted when ridden. I would say that the turnout and light work has worked wonders. This has gradually been built up as she has allowed. Infact whilst out for a gentle hack last week, an excited pony broke into canter which led our girl to think it was a race 😂my daughter was on the buckle end with no stirrups and had no control whatsoever. Ears forward and there was no stopping her. Not heard my daughter laugh so much for a while 😂 I must admit I was worried a lot that she would be dog lame the nevt day as it was a fairly firm path. But no, if anything she looked better.
I hope we don’t see another abcess for some time after this one ! Bloody nail!
 
I shall post one last time as it all seems good and may be of use for someone in the future. I fully believe the turn out and hacking has moved things along. And not only that she's not lost too much fitness. I found some yellowish serous type fluid around her coronet band at the end of last week, with a small flakey area. Im fairly certain that a small amount of infection was still in there. Patience has been the key, and a good farrier!
 
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