Poulticing and Hot tubbing poor feet??

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connie1288

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We think one of my horses may have puss in his foot somewhere, even though vet coudlnt find anything, having gone very lame on monday.
So we are poulticing it and hot tubbing it with epsom salts, but he has very poor TB feet and i am worried that this is just going to destroy his feet entirely?!!
He gets biotin, is it just a case of i have to poultice and hot tub it and worry about foot quality later or do i do something different now??
 
My TB got a stab wound to her sole last year out hunting, and spent five weeks in a hoof eeze poultice boot being poulticed/tubbed and dressed every day.

It didn't make a difference to the actual hoof quality compared to the other front foot, and once we got the drainage right, and stopped the sensitive sole trying to grow out through the drainage hole (long story..) the actual 1cm hole completely healed over extremely quickly ie about ten days.

Fiona
 
Thankyou Fiona, that is good to hear, i was just worried that keeping it moist (like a plaster on us) was going to make the hoof even more soft and more crumbly that it is already)
Yes, the farrier will be spoken to, but atm he wont be able to come to us and the horse is too lame to travel.
 
If you continually poltice and tub you will draw the flesh out the foot and end up with proud flesh and an even lamer horse.

Only put a poltice on (a wet one) for a few days but no more.
 
I always call out the farrier first as he is far better at finding an abscess - I'm surprised that your farrier won't come out to you ASAP - mine does when I've had a lame horse.

If there is an open wound then over poulticing can be a problem. If no open wound then encouraging the abscess to take the easiest route is good. Be carefull not to soak the coronary band as it is better for the abscess to drain downwards rather than upwards.
 
Sorry Marymoo - re 'The Farrier''s response....

I wet poulticed for a few days, tubbed for 20 min every night, and dry dressing (a nappy) the rest of the time.

Hope that has cleared up any confusion. I realise that my first post it sounded like Flo's foot was constantly wet.

Fiona
 
my old french trotter mare has suffered corronette band abscesses for almost 9 months now, while she recovered from a diseased side bone.
she had 2X daily bleach and salt baths for 15 min, i dry the foot with a towel and then wrap a small towel around with a very light bandage to soak away as much moisture as possible before any dressings.
to try to keep her foot something like OK i used kaolin poultice on a small bit of cloth just where she needed it, with electricians tape over this & with a small piece of bubble wrap to retain the heat, and electricians insulating tape to hold that on, i covered the whole with a small piece of cotton bandage,
that way most of her foot was dry and open to some air even when poulticed,
when she improved i reduced the poultice to 12hours on 12 off,
for an under the sole injury a strong piece of tractor/truck inner tube is very good to protect the dressing site from damage as they move about, fingers crossed all goes well bye
 
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