Recurrent Abscesses

only_me

only_me

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Hi all, have you had a horse with re-current abscesses?

Billy seems prone to them atm, he's been resting his hind for a few days now and had a dig around with knife/testers but nothing specific, so pleased to see this evening once has popped out at the heel. He’s never really lame with one (except for the massive one he had around Easter took 6 weeks of daily poultice &tubbing - no wonder the poor sod could barely walk) and usually the only sign I know he has one is if it either pops out or I notice him resting one leg more than the other.
He lives out and has just gone over to winter field so really reluctant to bring him in for poulticing anyway so usually I have a check with testers & then have a dig, if I can find it and release fab, can then flush with peroxide. It’s not the same foot each time either!

Is there anything that I can feed him or do to help his feet?
He’s been on the same feed (low starch)& joint supplement for the last 4 years lol. Summer/winter field is same area (across the road) and both are dry enough, the winter one has hard standing at the gate and is the driest field. Fair enough it does have a water jump in it which Billy regularly plays in so it’s as dry as I can make it lol. He has good feet & frogs, shod regularly with a fantastic farrier and basically lives the life lol. Lives out all year with access to a yard and stable as he pleases. His feet are picked out every (or nearly every) evening when he’s getting fed.

Farrier is out on Friday anyway but have you guys any advice or ideas that might help?
Thanks :)
 
How old is he? My 23 yr old mare wasn't showing many signs of Cushings, except a recurrent hoof abscess (always the same foot) which lasted on and off for 4+ months. It only cleared up - and has stayed away for a year now - when the Prascend kicked in. I would ask your vet to do a Cushings test, even if he you think he isn't old enough, some horses do get it before they age.
 
a friends horse kept getting recurrent abcesses and it turned out to be an issue with her grazing, combined with her feeding - the horse was getting too much iron overall i think. she got a specialist in and when they analysed the forage, grass and what she was feeding, something (i think it was iron!) was way off
 
He’s 11, and in different feet. Never the same foot twice in a row lol.

I don’t think he has Cushings, another horse on the yard has it and Billy has no other signs, has a good quality coat and no other issues with his health. Pretty hardy as well, useful with a horse who plays with anything he can get a hold of and usually ends up in a few cuts/scrapes. Hoof quality is excellent with good growth as well.

Might be worth getting the soil checked, that’s a good one. We’re in an area low on selenium so worth getting a supplement to see if that helps for a while. Easy to do anyway!
 
It would seem something is going on internally. He doesn't strike me as that likely to have anything metabolic going on so I think I'd get your grazing tested as a first call (I think ycbm gets blood tests to check for deficiences instead too).
 
I would supplement copper and zinc in the quantities that you will find in the ingredients list for the supplements sold by Progressive Earth and Forage plus. My suspicion is that high iron is your problem, and that will combat it.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
How old is he? My 23 yr old mare wasn't showing many signs of Cushings, except a recurrent hoof abscess (always the same foot) which lasted on and off for 4+ months. It only cleared up - and has stayed away for a year now - when the Prascend kicked in. I would ask your vet to do a Cushings test, even if he you think he isn't old enough, some horses do get it before they age.
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this except mine was 8 - 11 years with abscesses in different feet. Significant difference after prascend.
 
paddy555 said:
this except mine was 8 - 11 years with abscesses in different feet. Significant difference after prascend.
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I highly doubt he has Cushing, he has no other issues with his health. Everything else is very healthy :)
I think I’ll start him on copper/zinc supplements to see if they help first.
 
only_me said:
I highly doubt he has Cushing, he has no other issues with his health. Everything else is very healthy :)
I think I’ll start him on copper/zinc supplements to see if they help first.
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My farrier suggested. I had our anglo arab tested for Cushings after persistant abcesses in different feet .The vet when he came out to take bloods said exactly what you have said thst he would be absolutely staggered if he had Cushings as nothing about him indicated Cushings NO symptoms and a picture of health. He rang with the results a reading of 280.The vet said he would advise any owner withpersistant abscesses to do a Cushings test
 
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Yep, five abscesses in 2015-2016 and always at least two per year in all the time I've had him (12 years) until this time last year when he went onto half a Prascend per day, then up to one in April.

Not one in the last year. He is 24 now, but my vet suspects he has had PPID for quite some time, possibly from not long after I got him. He does have other symptoms too, but not all of them do and not all symptoms are obvious at the time.
 
ycbm said:
I would supplement copper and zinc in the quantities that you will find in the ingredients list for the supplements sold by Progressive Earth and Forage plus. My suspicion is that high iron is your problem, and that will combat it.
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This 100%. My horse went through two winters of reoccurring abscesses, tested negative for cushings (he was 16/17) so I looked into it and started feeding minerals. No abscesses since! Currently feed ProEarth Pro Balance +.
 
My filly had awful recurrent abcesses and someone suggested alfalfa intolerance. Switched to grass and no abscesses since and really good hooves.
 
horselib said:
My farrier suggested. I had our anglo arab tested for Cushings after persistant abcesses in different feet .The vet when he came out to take bloods said exactly what you have said thst he would be absolutely staggered if he had Cushings as nothing about him indicated Cushings NO symptoms and a picture of health. He rang with the results a reading of 280.The vet said he would advise any owner withpersistant abscesses to do a Cushings test
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like your vet i was staggered. I had no idea persistent abscesses could be anything to do with cushings. I wasted so very much time not knowing this.
 
I'd always test for Cushing's in a horse with persistent abscesses. My 11 yo tested +ve this year on a routine test.

Many a vet has been made to look foolish by declaring that a particular horse doesn't look cushinoid after the results come back +ve. The last day for downloading the voucher for the free screening test is tomorrow.
 
I'm another one with a horse whose recurrent abscesses turned out to be down to cushings. No other outward signs for her either. She hasn't had a single one since she started on cushings - and she once had abscesses in three feet at once!
 
Meanwhile I told a friend I was pretty sure her oldie had it about a year ago due to his symptoms and he just tested negative so I'm gutted as I thought I could pick them out quite well!
 
only_me said:
Hi all, have you had a horse with re-current abscesses?

Billy seems prone to them atm, he's been resting his hind for a few days now and had a dig around with knife/testers but nothing specific, so pleased to see this evening once has popped out at the heel. He’s never really lame with one (except for the massive one he had around Easter took 6 weeks of daily poultice &tubbing - no wonder the poor sod could barely walk) and usually the only sign I know he has one is if it either pops out or I notice him resting one leg more than the other.
He lives out and has just gone over to winter field so really reluctant to bring him in for poulticing anyway so usually I have a check with testers & then have a dig, if I can find it and release fab, can then flush with peroxide. It’s not the same foot each time either!

Is there anything that I can feed him or do to help his feet?
He’s been on the same feed (low starch)& joint supplement for the last 4 years lol. Summer/winter field is same area (across the road) and both are dry enough, the winter one has hard standing at the gate and is the driest field. Fair enough it does have a water jump in it which Billy regularly plays in so it’s as dry as I can make it lol. He has good feet & frogs, shod regularly with a fantastic farrier and basically lives the life lol. Lives out all year with access to a yard and stable as he pleases. His feet are picked out every (or nearly every) evening when he’s getting fed.

Farrier is out on Friday anyway but have you guys any advice or ideas that might help?
Thanks :)
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The only time I've had issues with recurrent abscesses is when easily had lami but wasn't showing traditional signs so sadly went untreated for a while. I now know that leaning on heels is not the most common or tell take sign and since age has now been micromanaged back to full health I have no issues with them. I note someone else has mentioned cushings and i highly recommend getting vet to take some bloods just to rule one of the awful diseases out
 
ester said:
Meanwhile I told a friend I was pretty sure her oldie had it about a year ago due to his symptoms and he just tested negative so I'm gutted as I thought I could pick them out quite well!
Click to expand...

One of ours tested negative on ACTH test, 3 times BUT we were pretty sure, and ACTH went up every time, so she had TRH test and that came back over 800 when normal reading is 110, so you could still be right.
 
We decided to test for Cushings just to rule it out as we were struggling to find out why we were having so many abscesses. 2 years on he has had NO abscess since and on 1 prascend a day he will not develop the terrible problems associated with untreated Cushings. Its easy enough to have the test done if only to rule it out.
 
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