What happens when you leave an abcess?

[Bugly]

I'm doing some more investigating regarding my youngster.

I have just found out that when she was turned away as a 3/4 Y.O she developed an abscess in one of her back feet which was not detected. It got so big that they had to xray her to find the end of the abscess. It blew out in her coronet band. I dont know how long she had it but possibly a few months.

I'm linking her poor rear end carriage to her possible compensating for the pain in her foot and going badly....and although the abscess is long gone she's still walking incorrectly on it. We cant get to the bottom of her back pain and i'm now thinking its leg pain related to the abscess.


She must have been in agony poor thing- if an abscess is left to fester like that what are the long term consequences? can the poison in the abscess cause degeneration in the foot/leg?

 

[Llwyncwn]

My first question is have you had her hocks nerve blocked and x-rayed? Is she broken and riding out, if so does she labour downhill and have trouble picking her back feet up?

 

[kellyeaton]

it could easliy travell up the leg!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

I'm pretty sure Bugly that if the remnants of the original abscess had taken hold as a systemic infection, your ned would be a lot sicker than you describe. What does your vet say?

 

[lauraandjack]

Generally if not drained by vet/ farrier a foot abscess will find its way out through the path of least resistance, usually the coronary band. They can be slow to heal naturally in this way though, as obviously the drainage is not great.

In a bad scenario you could get osteomyelitis of the pedal bone or the infection could spread further up the leg.

 

[Tnavas]

They can take months to move up - one of my yearlings would look unsound occaisionally but we could never find ouot why - In the end I had him X rayed - almost a year after I'd first seen him turn unlevel - there was an abscess just about to pop out the coronary band.

Are her back feet different in shape - the sound one may be wider than the other as a result of shifting weight over to the sound foot.

Have you had a chiropractor to her as yooungsters are very good at slipping over and doing dumb things inthe field.

 

[hairycob]

I know nothing about abcesses in horses but I do know that a work collegue nearly died after an abcess in his groin was misdiagnosed as a hernia. As a result I am totally neurotic about anything that might be an abcess.

 

[Bugly]

I've got a second vet coming to see her next Friday.

She is not lame behind but is carrying herself oddly; I'm convinced she has an underlying pain issue from her loin backwards.

The vet has diagnosed shivers but that doesn't cause pain parse......the chiro wants me to get a second vet opinion before she starts doing anything.

"Are her back feet different in shape - the sound one may be wider than the other as a result of shifting weight over to the sound foot."

That's interesting- yes the 'bad' leg hoof is an odd shape and the hoof is turning out to the right.........my train of thought is that she's compensated for the abscessed foot and put more weight and used the good leg more- so as a consequence she's all out of sync and that's causing the issues in her back end.

I'm going to bute test her next week as well (i.e pump her full of bute over 2/3 days and see if the weird behaviour subsides).

There is no infection left from the abscess: just movement issues.

 

[kick_On]

Pus in foot if not sorted properly can damage the bones with the foot. The only true way to see if there as be damage to pedal bone etc is to xray.

Hopefully vet will be able to help, 90% of lameness is in foot and if and untreated abcess i would be wanting xray and nerve blocking

 

[alsxx]

I've had various issues with my mare, however she was sound at the end of january, and then three weeks later was lame again...turned out she had a very deep seated abscess in the cleft of her frog (the RVC had her for a week and missed it, even referred her for an MRI to diagnose her foot pain). Although the abscess is long resolved, she is even now 3/10ths lame on lunge on hard and I do find it strange that prior to this abscess she was sound. Makes me wonder what damage to the structures in the foot it caused. Her MRI showed only mild changes in the foot that haven't been attributed to the pain by 3 vets that have looked at her.

 

[bailey14]

The abcess that you describe is called Quittor which is caused due to escaping pus from an abcess which cannot for some reason find a way out of the foot downwards so will find a path upwards instead and eventually breakthrough the coronet bandand. Quittor is an old fashioned term that you never seem to hear these days, probably because it is quite rare, but I have a much treasured old fashioned vet book that has given me some really interesting reading and information in the past. The following link explains quittor in more detail, but note that it does say the abcess can reoccur which can cause lameness, and this can happen a long time after the original abcess has burst. http://keenanmcalister.com/Quittor.pdf

 

[Donkeymad]

Unfortunately, breaking through the coronary band is still very common.