GGTowers
New User
Hi there, I was wondering if any of you out there could shed any light on my pony who is hopping lame.
Brief (ish) history .... 22 days ago said pony was not showing any signs of lameness when I gave him his morning feed. We have had him since September and he has always been sound. Went about my day and was just going out to get my son from nursery when I noticed pony was lying down, which he never does. Mild panic (it's what I do), picked up son, pony still down. Went to check him and he was properly lame. Got him in somehow, major panic by now, phoned vet. Kept pony in overnight. Gut feeling was abscess and treated it as such but wanted to keep him in, just in case.
Vet came out next morning. Diagnosed as textbook abscess, slight relief for me, she did a bit of digging round his sole (nothing) gave me danilon and told me to keep tubbing/poulticing. I did this, no change after 5 days so got my farrier out. Pony didn't react to hoof testers (panic overload), the pain seemed to be in his heel, so farrier wouldn't dig any further.
Vet out again, X-rays (nothing), too lame for tendons, gave him a nerve block in his foot and he went sound. Keep poulticing I was told.
Then, we had 2-3 days of improvement, and he managed a trot to the gate. Whoopeee I thought, but then he was hopping again and has been since.
Routine is as follows: a.m bring in (he really does try to get to the gate before me bless him but can't always manage), breakfast while he has his soaking boot on (warm water, Epsom salts, filled to the top of the boot, 30 mins), then hot poultice on his whole foot (animalintex or epsom salt paste .. I fear there will be a world shortage of animalintex if this goes on for much longer) nappy, then poultice boot and back out in field. He's not on danilon any more, I really couldn't see any difference.
When he's 4 legged he favours his toe to bear weight. Hoof is warm, heel and fetlock are warm and swollen. He's a chunky 11.2 wpb, 18 years old, so I've been very careful with his weight since he arrived. He gets 1 meal a day, hifi lite and a lite balancer. He's not fat. Spoke to his previous owners and he's never been lame with them.
Sorry for the long post. I'm kind of hoping that someone out there knows of a similar scenario, and the outcome (good or bad). The more I google the more I worry. And now I'm worrying about how much soaking a hoof can actually take before it turns into a sponge. He does have exceptionally hard feet though.
Please help if you can. I hate to see him in pain but really don't know what to do next !!
Brief (ish) history .... 22 days ago said pony was not showing any signs of lameness when I gave him his morning feed. We have had him since September and he has always been sound. Went about my day and was just going out to get my son from nursery when I noticed pony was lying down, which he never does. Mild panic (it's what I do), picked up son, pony still down. Went to check him and he was properly lame. Got him in somehow, major panic by now, phoned vet. Kept pony in overnight. Gut feeling was abscess and treated it as such but wanted to keep him in, just in case.
Vet came out next morning. Diagnosed as textbook abscess, slight relief for me, she did a bit of digging round his sole (nothing) gave me danilon and told me to keep tubbing/poulticing. I did this, no change after 5 days so got my farrier out. Pony didn't react to hoof testers (panic overload), the pain seemed to be in his heel, so farrier wouldn't dig any further.
Vet out again, X-rays (nothing), too lame for tendons, gave him a nerve block in his foot and he went sound. Keep poulticing I was told.
Then, we had 2-3 days of improvement, and he managed a trot to the gate. Whoopeee I thought, but then he was hopping again and has been since.
Routine is as follows: a.m bring in (he really does try to get to the gate before me bless him but can't always manage), breakfast while he has his soaking boot on (warm water, Epsom salts, filled to the top of the boot, 30 mins), then hot poultice on his whole foot (animalintex or epsom salt paste .. I fear there will be a world shortage of animalintex if this goes on for much longer) nappy, then poultice boot and back out in field. He's not on danilon any more, I really couldn't see any difference.
When he's 4 legged he favours his toe to bear weight. Hoof is warm, heel and fetlock are warm and swollen. He's a chunky 11.2 wpb, 18 years old, so I've been very careful with his weight since he arrived. He gets 1 meal a day, hifi lite and a lite balancer. He's not fat. Spoke to his previous owners and he's never been lame with them.
Sorry for the long post. I'm kind of hoping that someone out there knows of a similar scenario, and the outcome (good or bad). The more I google the more I worry. And now I'm worrying about how much soaking a hoof can actually take before it turns into a sponge. He does have exceptionally hard feet though.
Please help if you can. I hate to see him in pain but really don't know what to do next !!