Pus in foot or bruise - Help needed please

Quarrybank

Quarrybank

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For those who have read my far to regular veterinary postings due to my horses trying to bankrupt me!
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Firstly Q has been home a week & is back to normal. I started riding him on Wednesday, he went out in the field Thursday & we are hopefully going to hack out over the weekend. Thanks for all the vibes
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However there is never a dull moment with Spider. I'd entered him for his first dressage in 6 months last Sunday. A walk trot test & P18. He was shod the day before & as background he has had low heels so has pads to give him frog support & help the heels grow (which they have)
I did my W/T test & he was fine, but as I was going through my P18 he seemed to be getting slightly unlevel. we finished the test, but by the time I'd walked him back to the lorry he was def lame
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& by the time he was home he was fairly badly lame.
We initially thought he must have knocked into himself, but when it didn't improve I phoned the farrier on Monday to see if he thought it might be after he was shod. He thought it all sounded like nail bind & he would be able to come out Tuesday.
I kept Spider on box rest & gave him some bute.
Farrier came & said not nail bind, but found a sore spot on the sole about an inch from his heel between the frog & hoof wall. It was a bit black & so he pared it away & said to hot poultice. First 2 days there was nothing, but a clear gel like stuff which I think was the poultice.
However tonight there was some light brown gunk, which doesn't smell, on the poultice and around where the sore spot is. He also now seems sound, although I can only walk him in a poultice boot but he hasn't had bute since thursday night. I have re poulticed him tonight with a hot poultice to see what I have in the morning

My question is......... Does this sound like an absess even though there is no smell & the stuff doesn't look foul, or is it more likely a bruise & this is the bruise coming out.

Any help or thoughts gratefully received before I run up even more vets bills
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Our yard had a horse with a problem that sounds like yours, it happened after shoeing and had gunk but the wound smelt digustsing it was an absess, it was poulticed but took more time than usual to heal as the horse would not box and if she was she pulled the poultice off. The lack of smell would make me think otherwise may be best to get it checked by a vet if it doesn't seem any better otherwise it could easily get worse.
 
I was told to expect grey gunk if it was an abscess.
I have in the last few weeks had one with a bruised sole, but hot poulticed to begin with when the vet thought it was an abscess, but there was no smell in the poultice, just gelly like stuff.
My other lame pony DID have an abscess, with grey gunk and a disgusting smell when I changed the poultice.

Hope yours is better soon.
 
My horse had an abcess a few weeks ago and I didn't see much pus although it burst whilst she was turned out and I only politiced it afterwards. (The vet had thought it was something else......)
 
My boy is just getting over an abscess which didn't come to light for 6 weeks! Initially it was diagnosed as deep bruising as no sensitivity to hoof testers, no heat etc etc. Was turned out with a boot on for protection and given bute as an antiinflammatory for a while but still no improvement. Finallty after six weeks the lameness got much worse, there was a little bit of heat (though still not much) and my farrier came back and there was a huge deep nasty abscess which he reckons had been building for weeks and weeks. My boy has really good soles and obviously a very high pain threshold it seems, which unfortunately delayed the problem being located. The vets assured me it was very unlikely to find pus after a few weeks, let alone six but was possible and low and behold it appeared. Interestingly, like you, when I poulticed it at the beginning and when I put a bit of gauze inside the Hoofeeze boot to protect the suspected bruising, a bit of brownish gunge appeared intermittently, every second or third day, my farrier suggested that what may have been happening is some of the pus was being drawn out and then would fill again which would take a day or so.

I hope this makes you a little more positive, the good thing is that the treatment for both is similar so my advice is to protect the foot and go with the fact that hopefully it is bruising or pus waiting to appear!

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
 
Thank you all. That's made me feel much better.
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He seems sound. I've changed the poultice again this morning & more brown'ish gunk, so put on another hot poultice. I'll go up later & change it again. My only worry is keep putting a wet poultice on, so I might put another wet/hot one on tonight & change to dry ones tomorrow.
Any thoughts on whether the dry one will do the same thing or whether I should keep going with the hot/wet ones until there is no more gunk???
 
It sounds like an abcess because he is sound since the gunk has come out, but I knew a horse that had an abcess and ht absolutely stunk! Why don't you ring the vet and have a chat about the stuff coming out of his foot instead of a call out, thats what I do :3!
 
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