Systemic reaction and abscess....anyone?

[avthechav]

Mid jan gingie started showing the odd lame short step on his left fore....consulted vet, rested and started mooching again and all seemed good. About 3 weeks ago a swelling came up on the outside of the left leg below the knee, by the next morning the whole leg was big, so cold hosed and consulted vet. By the next morning his other front leg was big and by the evening his hinds had gone the same way. Back to vet who came out and said either a reaction to new hay or a virus. Bloods ran and no accelerated white blood cells found so vet said to bute for 3 days and when legs down reintroduce hay and see what happens....sometimes these things can be very random. So legs went down, hay reintroduced and then 2 days later he went from fine to abscess lame on the left foot in front of my eyes......vet again (I think that this horse is obsessed with my vet), found a maaaassssiiivvvveeee deep seated abscess which ran with pus. So soaked and poulticed until nothing came out, switched to dry iodine poultice but pulse still elevated so not convinced that we had fully cleared it up. That was 10 days ago, tonight he looks slightly off again and over the space of an hour the leg hs gone up again....there is a pain reaction in the same place where the original abcess was drained so have soaked and poulticed again.

I have not buted yet coz want to check that it is the same as before and not a new injury of some description, but will tomorrow if it how a the same way as last time...although in two minds as would rather not bute for abscess..

Anyway, well done if you have got this far, but has anyone experienced a multi leg swelling symptom alongside abscess?...personally I think that my horse is just in love with my vet!

 

[mightymammoth]

could it be either that the abscess has not entirely drained or has got reinfected again, this has happened to my poor horse on many occasions. I try and combat it by keeping the hoof covered in a poultice boot for at least a week after it has drained but this doesn't always work.

In my experience the leg swelling is common with an abscess, "they" say don't bute as it's an anti inflamatory and you want to encourage it out not retract it back although I tend to give bute.

 

[avthechav]

Cool, thanks Victoria. This morning the swelling has moved down the leg and hurrah there was finally a nice ooozzzyyyy poultice....so I feel like I'm on the right track. Do up plug the hole once you are confident that it's cleared up or leave it-this is my barefoot horses so I'm thinking that the foot is boring well but I don't know if the sole has the same approach?