Frog Abscess

[Bertie]

I've had the the farrier out this morning for my new shares routine shoeing, he is an excellent farrier, he mentioned that during now and her last shoeing the horse has suffered from an abscess in the frog of one of her hind legs. He said it was all now completely healed and OK but that this could have been the cause of the intermmitant lameness, fluid in lower hind leg and general footiness and stiffness when being walked.

I have only been doing this mare for a couple of weeks now and had honestly not noticed anything unusual. I was therefore wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction of some images of a abscessed frog, so I know what to look out for, general advice on how to avoid this in the future, treatment should it happen again etc.

She is fully shod now she's back in work and believe that she has suffered from lami in the past.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

[MelanieD]

Frog abcesses can pop without ever making the horse sore, or can make them a bit footy. Can be from standing on something that goes into the frog or bruising leading to infection in the frog. Like other abcesses they are higher risk of happening if the horse has laminitis recently, even really mildly.

There's usually a little hole in the frog when they first pop then as the frog grows you eventually have the pocket where the abcesses was reach the surface so there's a layer on top then a pocket where the abcess was and healthy frog underneath. Sometimes a chunk of frog missing for a bit as the place where the abcess was grows out. If you're 'lucky' enough to find one before it pops there might be a slightly raised digital pulse and a squishy bit in the frog that can be really minging if you poke at it and make it pop :)

Unless horse is sore I just let them pop by themselves, and often haven't had a choice since finding a hole was the first I knew about it. They usually aren't anywhere near as bad as an abcess in the harder parts of the foot.