Abscess - a nightmare!

[Chestnutter]

Hi all.

I hope that someone can help me! My daughter's pony had an abscess that refused to shift (not helped by the fact that he couldn't be stabled as he goes bananas!), and after the farrier had been treating it for a few weeks he eventually went totally lame and I had to call out the vet. To cut a long story short the vet eventually said that the hoof would need drilling out otherwise he'd keep getting reinfected (the farrier who was there at the time shoeing another horse privately disagreed and said that it would sort itself out). I went ahead and had the treatment done and the vet said that it should sort itself out and he could be ridden "soon". That was 6 weeks ago! He's still lame, has hardly enough foot for a shoe to be put on and my farrier has advised me to start taking photos in case of a possible loss of use claim (although he's stressed this is worse case scenario). I'm absolutely gutted and wonder if anyone has been through a similar ordeal. The vet really didn't say it was such a serious procedure and it now seems that at best we're looking at a six month rest. He's got a shoe on the "poorly" foot with an Easyboot over it. I'm giving him Biotin and rubbing Cornicressing (think that's how it's spelt!) on it daily.

Ideas please!!

[Roofio]

oh dear poor pony... obviously without seeing photos its difficult to comment but when my horse had an abcess which then recurred, he spent about 3 weeks on box rest without a shoe after it had been dug out. I had to make sure he always had company and gave him some ACP to take the edge off his stress.


Considering loss of use seems a bit extreme. Where has the vet dug away? has he taken wall and sole out?

[Chestnutter]

yes He's dug out the wall and sole - if you imagine a great big v shape going from sole to coronary band. We did try to keep him in initially, and he broke down about 5 different stable doors - he's a real stress bunny! I'm so upset as he's such a lovely pony and feel like I'm in the middle of vet and farrier.

[Roofio]

oh dear thats a lot of hoof to have taken away :o

you could try farriers formula or formula for feet... farriers formula didnt do much for my lad but others have had a great deal of success with it.

there are people on here who are a lot more knowledgeable about feet than me, hopefully they will see your thread soon enough :)

i hope it works out well for you and the little pony :)

[Chestnutter]

Thanks - I'll keep you posted.

PS - I too cannot use tape measure and have had to take Easyboot back to exchange! (Their sizing is a bit hit and miss I think!)

[Roofio]

i'm glad its not just me!

hows he doing? :)

[Denbenj]

Have you poulticed it atall? Might be worth a try to see if theres anything coming out atall...especially if hes had a dig out. I can understand how hard it must be if hes a stress head inside... does he settle with company by way of a stable neighbour?

I would be tempted to have some x-rays to see whats going on in there to..

what a mess! I hope you horse becomes better soon x

[eml]

I tend to trust farriers advice on feet more than vets!!

I am puzzled why he has a shoe on the foot with an abcess...generally procedure is shoe off, expose abcess as much as possible and poultice. We seldom box rest at this stage but make a field proof boot with nylon tarpaulin fabric (Ikea bags are good) and tape and change the poultice regularly.

Obviously now your vet has taken out a major section infection could be an issue so turning out is unlikey to be an option.

I would be asking for a referal to a university center or other experience horse hospital if you are insured.

[Denbenj]

I am puzzled why he has a shoe on the foot with an abcess....

Ditto this to I was thinking that!:confused:

[Roofio]

Ditto this to I was thinking that!:confused:

maybe because of the amount of hoof that has been taken away? :confused: to offer some support to the remains of the foot maybe?! :confused:

[Sarah-B]

I am puzzled why he has a shoe on the foot with an abcess...generally procedure is shoe off, expose abcess as much as possible and poultice.

Once "hoof wall abridement" has been performed a horse needs to be shod to support the horn that is left.

TC (who is barefoot) has had two abscesses in six months, the first time the vet was very keen to perform hoof wall abridement and get a remedial farrier out to shoe but I refused and after vet liaised with my EP he agreed to try my EP's approach - Cleantraxing and plugging the hole. It worked.

Another abscess in the same hoof (but different part) formed in June. My usual vet wasn't able to come out and again I had to *really* fight my corner to stop the vet digging a huge hole. The abscess healed after a few weeks.

Each time initially TC was wet poulticed and box rested. After a few days he was dry poulticed and turned out in a yard (the general consensus is that movement helps) and after the abscess stopped draining the hole was plugged with a special putty that has Manuka honey in (my EP gave it to me).

With hindsight it would have been better for you not to have allowed the abridement, but you weren't to know the seriousness of the procedure and I think you have a definate case for complaint. I suggest you arrange to speak to one of the partners - it's outrageous that the vet didn't spell out exactly what he was going to do and the fact that removing such a large amount of hoof was going to mean a long healing period.

[Chestnutter]

Hi all

thanks for your comments.

The reason he's had to have a shoe on is to give the foot some stability. Even with the shoe there was some movement in the crack every time he put weight on it - very painful for him. He's now had a plate fitted accross the crack, and an eggbar shoe more securely fitted. He's also had x rays showing there's no more infection there. The abscess has healed (a good while ago) and it's the mess we're left with that's the problem!

Has anyone else seen a pony with this degree of damage come sound?

I really wish i'd known the seriousness of the procedure because i would have been tempted to "wait and see" as farrier was sure it would come right on it's own. Oh well, too late now!

[Chestnutter]

Hi all

thanks for your comments.

The reason he's had to have a shoe on is to give the foot some stability. Even with the shoe there was some movement in the crack every time he put weight on it - very painful for him. He's now had a plate fitted accross the crack, and an eggbar shoe more securely fitted. He's also had x rays showing there's no more infection there. The abscess has healed (a good while ago) and it's the mess we're left with that's the problem!

Has anyone else seen a pony with this degree of damage come sound?

I really wish i'd known the seriousness of the procedure because i would have been tempted to "wait and see" as farrier was sure it would come right on it's own. Oh well, too late now!

[Roofio]

thanks for letting us know how hes getting on!

a friend of mine had a similar procedure done on her gelding, but so much wall was taken away he was just left with a 'triangle' of hoof at his toe... his hoof is now a normal hoof, but has unfortunately been retired as he had stress laminitis and a whole host of other hoof problems.

hope things are looking up :)

[Lucy J]

yes, i know of horses with severe things like that coming sound again, but it can take time. my old horse had a terrible time with abscesses. never had such drastic work done though.

i would keep a photo record its good even to track progress. i have to say though, these days i always go with what my farrier says on feet issues rather than the vet. for a start they see your horse more often.

what does the farrier say is causing the horse to be so sore? (in technical terms) do you have any pics you could post?

best of luck.

[rtk]

I wouldn't give up hope yet. We had a similar thing happen with an old pony we had years ago.

We had similar treatment but she was not really right months later.

Finally the abscess burst out of the coronary band. I was horrified but that seemed to do the trick and after a few days of poultice she came sound and never had anymore trouble.

[Scarlett 001]

Was there ever a followup to this thread. I am curious to see what the outcome was and how the pony is doing. I had a very similar thing with an idiot vet who pared off most of Skeet's sole digging for an abscess and made Skeeter severely lame - the boy had almost no sole left, but came sound again in a few months. I hope this horse is doing better now.

[Chestnutter]

Hello to everyone who's replied to this thread.

I'm thrilled to tell you that after 7 months out of work Chester is now back in ridden work and doing really well.

He was on Circulon paste (every day for a couple of months and then every other day for about 3 months) to improve the blood flow to his hoof and to help it to grow faster. This seemed to work well (he was being shod every four weeks instead of every six). The main issue in the first few months was keeping the eggbar shoe on as this was literally holding the foot together! We kept this on with the help of an Easiboot (which I'd highly recommend for staying put!). We were really lucky in that whilst the crack was still unstable the shoe stayed on. He did rip his shoe off about 4 months after he had the procedure done but thankfully there was no further movement.

The vet has now signed him off after a final xray to check there was no internal damage and my daughter got the best Christmas present ever - to ride her pony again!

[Roofio]

ahh great news!! so glad to hear things eventually worked out!