Pedal Bone Infection

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floella82

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Looking for any advice or similar experiances!

My boy has had a recurrent abcess for the last 10 weeks. In between the poulticing and draining of the abcess he has been sound for periods of up to 6 weeks.

Came in from the field very lame on Friday so called the farrier, he took the shoe off and pus immediately burst out of the drainage point he already had. Farrier recommended x rays as had been ongoing for so long which he has been for today.

Vet called after x rays and confirmed that he had infection on his pedal bone :( this is not the news that I wanted to hear.

Thankfully they managed to remove all the infected pedal bone under standing sedation and he has to stay in the vets for the rest of the week until his foot starts to cover the pedal bone that has been exposed.

The vet and farrier seem very positive about his recovery and have said that they we should be able to put a false hoof wall on in approx 4-6 weeks and if sound start some gentle work.

Looking for any other people that have been through this, so upset for him but glad that we have found what the problem is and we can deal with it.
 
My mare had an operation for this nearly 2 years ago - she had a general, which was totally terrifying. She then got laminitis as a result of the general/stress. She is now fine though - she has been competing dressage all summer, galloping about and has done some jumping (a rare event for me). She is barefoot - she hadn't had shoes on for about 8 years before the operation, the vet said she had to be shod after the op (which I now think was wrong), but she had the shoes off after 6 weeks. She is 20.
 
Thanks for your responce!!

I'm finding this whole experiance terrifying so very glad to hear a recovery story!!

How long was it until you could start riding your mare again? Had such a run of bad luck he had a check ligament tear in April had about 10 weeks of riding and he started with the abcesses.

I hate to think of him in pain but at least I know that he is in good hands. Did your mare have a section of her hoof taken off?
 
The op was February and I think I started riding again in June. I have two others, and was getting over a back operation myself at the time, so I took it steady! It was really this year that she came back into full work but again that is more to do with me than her.
She had a hole right through her hoof - about the size of a 50p on the sole up to about a 5p half way up the hoof wall. She still has an area of her sole that is not filled properly - I assume the solar corium takes a long time to regenerate - but I just fill it with Keratex hoof putty to stop anything going in there. It is filling in slowly with time, and she wears hoof boots for stony tracks. She was stabled for six weeks after she got home from horsepital, but as soon as the shoes came off I put her hoof boots on to protect the bandages and turned her out. I didn't exactly follow the vets advice there, so it was a bit nerve-wracking, but she just reared a bit and then settled, and was much happier overall to be back out. She was a little bit sore so didn't move about fast, but I don't know if the soreness came from the remnants of the laminitis or the operation itself - she didn't have any painkillers after she went back out.
If you search 'septic pedal osteitis' on here, you will see her whole story - I asked for lots of advice!
 
I will do thanks.

Seems like your mare has slightly different treatment to my boy as they have gone in through his hoof wall rather than his sole in a triangle shape.

I am just hoping that he heels well and we have no set backs going to visit him tomorrow with lots of treats!!!
 
Yes, my horse split/sliced his hoof open to the coronet band 2 months ago. Don't know how it happened but got him in from the field and the crack was filled with mud and grass... A quick trip to the horse hospital for an operation under GA then specialist farriery and 6 weeks later I was riding him again! It sounds horrific but in my case I had a bad month with him on box rest and dressing changes but we're out of the other side now. I hope your horse makes a quick recovery and the rehab isn't too stressful.
 
Thanks I hope he recovers quickly too!

Vets have done the first dressing change today and are very please with the healing. I'm going to vets tomorrow to learn how to change the dressing so fingers crossed I'll be able to take him home with me! Vets seem to think that should be able to fill in 6 weeks and will take 2 -3 months before I can get back on, presume the vets will keep a close eye on him even when he comes out.
 
My horse split his LH hoof at the front leaving a v shaped cut deep into the coronet band, that healed ok but there is a raised ridge that grows down and gets filed by the farrier.

Then he got a flint shaped stone lodged in the cleft of the hoof, same one, when that was removed there was a 50p sized hole right through the sole, you could see right into his hoof - very scary. Luckily the vet was on site and treated it. The hoof was packed and I did a daily hot tubbing and repacking until it healed over again, box rested but allowed a small daily walk.

Then same hoof again, he got a 6 inch nail stuck right into it, through the side of the frog and out the back of the hoof. That was the most problematic, he had recurrent abscesses and antibiotics. Luckily he's great at standing with his foot in a hot tub of epsom salts and salt, and allowing me to dress it. We would think all ok then it would flare up again. He ended up at the vet hospital for bone scintigraphy. They said he had pedal osteitis which had happened because of the trauma to the hoof and the abscesses.

He was on box rest for 6 weeks but during that was allowed daily out into a tiny (size of 3 stables) grass paddock at the entrance to the yard. That kept him sane because he could see what was going on and he could have a pick at some grass.

Thankfully he has recovered fine and is mostly back to normal now. I do have to get regular (every 3) months visits from an equine physio because he has got in the habit of resting that foot more than any other and there is slight muscle wastage on his quarters at that side.
 
PF had almost the exact same thing you describe and she was able to go out with a plate on her foot (I made her a duct tape slipper kind of thing to protect the bolts on what I called her Frankenfoot) She healed uneventfully and has never had any trouble since :)
I've got some great xrays :D
 
Brought him home yesterday thankfully first dressing change for me to do tonight hopefully all will go well! Vets coming back on Thursday so hopefully they will be happy with how its healing
 
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