Very low pain threshold? Foot abcess...

[kirstie]

My horse had been very slightly intermittently lame for about a week, near hind. No heat, swelling or anything else, so I guessed that she had probably bruised her sole and box rested her for a few days. She was just resting that particular leg a lot and looked uncomfortable on concrete but was fine and happy to weight bear evenly in her stable on rubber matting.

She came sound after a few days box rest, so I just popped her back out in the field for a few hours, two days in a row and theh she was favouring that leg again, but wasn't actually lame.
I felt that although she wasn't actually lame, I wanted the vet to come and check it out, it was niggling at me.
The vet found a bit of pus in that foot, and also a small pus off fore as well that she wasn't lame on but slightly dished when normally she is straight moving.
She trotted up sound on concrete, sound on the lunge in the menage although was resting her near hind as soon as she stopped and very slightly lame on concrete after being lunged. (she has been out of work for 6 months due to an injury to me)
Hot poulticed, shoe can go back on next week sometime... great.

She very gradually seemed to be in more pain, only slightly. Walked out sound but was spending more time than normal laying down. Thats not normal for her, so I called the vet again.
She was referred immediately to the royal vet college and they found a HUGE abcess. In that a good half a cup of pus splurted out, they had to dig a huge hole, it has errupted through her coronet band.
The hole is actually so big that now the sole of her foot has started to prolapse and she has to go back to the rvc on Monday as they are very concerned about her

How could she have had such a huge abcess and not even been properly lame? She must have such a high pain threshold. If she was normal, the abcess would never have got that big and we wouldn't be having all the worry now.
Has anyone else known a horse like this? The vets were baffled at the lack of lameness compared to the size of the abcess and how much it should have hurt.
I feel bad in that I wish I'd realised sooner, am quite worried about her really.
Has anyone known of a horse like this?

 

[Petalpoos]

Wow! That is strange. When my mare had an abscess that ended up coming out of her coronet she had to go to the vet hospital as she had been standing in one position in the field all night, swivelling on her bad foot, and was incredibly distressed in the morning. That was when she was dosed up with painkillers as the vet originally thought she had hurt her pelvis, but four days after she was in the hospital the pus came out of her coronet. The vet had to almost knock her out completely with more painkillers and sedatives to get her to move and into the horsebox. Not at all consistent with your experience.

It seems strange that yours has had so many abscesses all in a row. Bad luck maybe or was this all in the same foot so it was perhaps the same infection that never went away?

 

[kirstie]

I've owned her for 3 years and she has never had a pus before. It is really really strange that she has had two at once. Th one in front was really tiny, nothing to worry about, cleared up in a few days.

The one behind was just massive. She had to have xrays to check that it wasn't a fracture or a tumour in the foot to cause such a massive abcess, luckily they were clear.

Just cannot understand why she wasn't hopping lame...