Turnout Boots Suggestions - Recovery From Abscess

[DougalJ]

My lovely big boy has just got over a long winded abscess with quite a channel cut away from his sole to relieve and cure a hoof abscess. It has now healed as he has been on box rest with minimal turnout on the yard area and is now ready to turnout. The vet and I want to make sure its kept super clean (shoes are off at the moment) while he is in the field. He will have to keep this covered for quite a while. I have gone down the route of buying an expensive hoof ease boot - trashed and broken after wearing it three times and Ive got a canvas boot but dont think its sturdy enough for the field. Ive tried a rubble sack with tape - comes in with foot through the bottom of it. Has anyone got any winning suggestions with this as he is desparate to go and play with him chums!

 

[Haniki]

I have a horse who is also recovering from a foot abscess but she goes out daily. I cover the hole in her hoof with dry animalintex (I used wet initially when the abscess was first dug out). I then use a Vetwrap (or rather the rambo version) all over the hoof and finally wrap the foot in 'Gaffer' (duct) tape. This works fine and keeps her foot dry. I tried an easi-boot but it is lost in the mud somewhere!

 

[Cello_song]

This is exactly what I had come on here to post!

My horse was found standing on 3 legs in the field on Thursday, poor boy was so sore! Vet has had to burst the abscess and like your horse, it's left a sizable hole in his sole. I am still at the stage of getting all the gunk out by poulticing but am wondering how I'll manage to get him turned out again ASAP. He has arthritis and is already VERY stiff after 3 days box rest so I'll be following your thread with interest! He lives out 24/7, because of the arthritis and I wondered if anyone had any advice or suggestions of how I could safely get him back out 24/7 as quick as possible? Can they wear turnout boots or boa boots in the field if they are checked twice a day or is this a total no-no?

Sorry for hi-jacking your thread Haniki!

xx

 

[Bojangles]

I used loads of tape,feed sacks and nappies lol!!! Put the poultice on,gamage or cotton wool,bit of a sack tape then two nappies or was it one nappie on top of the poulicte before tape I cant rem as I went though different ways before getting it right!!!

I did mange to make a boot out of fed sacks and a nappie all in different layers, which help with the soreness. I manged to cut down the bulb of the heel to save the boot and able to re use it. I made sure he had complety clean stuff on loads of tape then the boot that I made.

Just make sure you support the whole foot I didnt at first which made it worse as it made him unbalanced. Make sure the toe part got plenty of tape on it that where the space boot came handle as I didnt have to use too much tape all over again!!

This was in the summer where he had 2 in one foot and one in a hind foot!!! God should have shares in gaffa tape,nappies!!!

 

[dixie]

My horse is an expert of long drawn out abscesses. I've found the Boa boot works very well and have never lost one - yet.

 

[Brandy]

I have a horse who is also recovering from a foot abscess but she goes out daily. I cover the hole in her hoof with dry animalintex (I used wet initially when the abscess was first dug out). I then use a Vetwrap (or rather the rambo version) all over the hoof and finally wrap the foot in 'Gaffer' (duct) tape. This works fine and keeps her foot dry. I tried an easi-boot but it is lost in the mud somewhere!

This ^^^^^^ works a treat. Just make sure you don;t get the vet wrap too tight around the coronet area, and keep the duct tape to just hoof rather than hair.

I tend to put the animalintex on, then vet wrap round to secure.

I then make a 'pad' out of duck tape - cut/tear about 15 strips about 8 inchs long, talke 5, stick one at a time across my thigh to make a square (all overlapping), take 5 more and do the same only top to bottom rather than side to side. etc. (hope that makes sense)

You can then stick this to the bottom of hoof, and fold excess over and stick. Finish off by wrapping a bit more round and round.

Oh to be able to draw it, so much easier!!

 

[katherine1975]

When my horse has an abcess and wanted to turn her out we put nappies on her feet, then gaffa tape and then a canvas boot which worked well. We did go through a couple of the canvas boots but the foot stayed clean and dry because of the nappies. Another good idea (from farrier) is to go to a tyre place and get an old inner tube, you can cut this to size and pull over the foot, it worked really well.