amount of pus in a hoof abscess?

[jamsinthecat]

Hi there, whilst i realise that there have been quite a lot of posts about abscesses i would really appreciate it if someone would give me the benefit of their experience. I'm dealing with my first hoof abscess and not sure if what i'm seeing is 'right'. the vet came out on tues after 2 weeks of intermittent lameness and on/off heat in the foot, she diagnosed a bruised sole and possible subsolar abscess. i have been wet poulticing since then and my mare is on box rest until the vet checks her again next week. she is weightbearing on the foot and seems quite happy in herself but every poultice i take of seems to have large amounts of grey/black watery slime in that absolutely stinks! the quantity isn't lessening at all. is this usual? it seems like an awful lot of yuck for one little hoof to hold! at a guesstimate i would say there is about a dessert spoon full in each poultice. i didn't have to wait for it to burst as even the first poultice was full of stinky stuff. i will ring my vet in the morning to check but in the meantime i would really appreciate your opinions. also how long does it normally take for the fluid to start running clear?
thanks you so much for your help guys
annabel:)

[coyote]

zallaq my t/b mare had an open absess in her foot,when i went to pick her up(was fine when i went to see her):eek::eek: the black stuff is totally normal (makes you heave) i had to hot poltice for 4 wks and dry for another 2wks before it was all out and she was on injectable antibiotics,she was very close to being PTS, after the 6wks she was sound and and as soon as the hole had started to heal over she was allowed out into the field,with good feed and tlc the hoof healed back to nearly normal,only slightly malformed,she then went on to be re-broken(was not ridden from 3-7yrs,broodmare) and is now happily hacking with her new owner.:D

[capalldubh]

I would say it depends on the size of the hole. The black stuff is effectively liquid sole :eek: - when infection gets in, the tissue starts to break down, called necrotising - and when hoof and sole is affected, it comes out as black slime. This is a good thing, because if the abscess affected higher up tissues, it would be a different colour (and sometimes bloody ugh). So if the hole is open and draining, the amount that comes out depends on whether the hole was big (so ran under the sole a lot) or still infected (so lots of antiseptic squirted in if possible...).

So, er, I suppose I'm saying it depends. My horse had a bigish subsolar abscess, vet said to hot poultice for 7 days but black stuff stopped after 5. We think it had been brewing for about 4 weeks... Once black stuff has stopped, you can dry poultice for a bit(nappies very useful at this stage) , then you can move on to packing it with iodine soaked cotton wool basically until there is enough sole or frog or whatever's affected to support the horse again... HTH :)

[CurlyWurlyRach]

blergh - hoof ick!
just wanted to add my sympathy for your horsey! :)

last abcess i had to deal with was a racer, YO squeezed her hoof between his knees and the sole exploded everywhere and splattered us all with goo :o
Horse seemed most relieved after.

[jamsinthecat]

thanks for the advice, i feel a lot less stressed about it now i know that is what is supposed to be coming out! soaked her foot in cider vinegar and warm water this evening which cleaned it up nicely. she is walking much better and trots up sound so she is obviously feeling much better. todays poultice had about half the amount of last nights so i think i might be getting near to the end of it, thank goodness:) there really is no smell quite like it :D
thanks again
annabel