Bad Abcess - (graphic)

[Spoof]

During a really wet week my guy went horribly lame for five days. Day six he was spot on, and the last five days he has been gimp-free and full of himself.

Today I brought him in and noticed this 2"+ line on his heel. I'd never seen this before and talked to the manager. She told me it was a ruptured abscess, and that they'd had a similar one last week on another horse. So soak it, and let it dry out. He is in turnout 24-7 so we found him a dry pen to stay for a bit.

While I was getting salts and such ready I let him loose in the pen, and he ran around, kicked up his heels and was looking good. Until I noticed the spray of blood on the wall and all over him. :eek: He is white this time of year, so very dramatic.

Anyhow, before and after photos. Anyone ever seen one this bad? Vet says to keep it dry and clean, so will be doing that.

[Spoof]

Guess I should have said this bad in this area. I've seen some nasties... but never on the heel. :confused:

[Skippys Mum]

closest I've had is under pads. Abcess went from sole right through to heel. When blacksmith came back to put shoe on, he started nailing and blood started going everywhere. It healed eventually though.

Not nearly as grotty as yours. Thats pretty damn spectacular!! Hope it all sorts out.

[Skye08]

owchies :eek:

[MelanieD]

That's a pretty impressive one! I've seen one quite similar where the entire heel went wobbly as it grew out and the whole bar and large chunk of sole came right off. That one had tracked under the sole and popped out along the bar as well as at the heel, so probably a bit nastier to grow out than yours. Horse seemed utterly unbothered by the wobble and missing bit and recovered fine. Keep clean for a while and disinfect occasionally as it grows out so you don't get white line disease/thrush taking hold in the old abcess track and otherwise just wait for it to grow out.

[Denbenj]

Crikey that has to be the worst one Ive seen!!

Must of looked 10 tens worse spurting up a Grey to!!

[Wally]

That is a real rip snorter, going to take a while to heal up is that.

I'd poultincing for a good long while, and ask the vet's opinion of flushing the hole with sterile soulution from out of a drip bag.

At least it's open and draining.

[Spoof]

The vet that looked at it this morning said to clean it twice a day, and if I can't keep debris out of it put a little vet wrap on. She even said he could go back out in the field if it was dry (of course it is not).

Everyone here is really pushing to let it dry out and not wrap it, I felt bad putting water on it this morning to clean it. It seems to make him more tender in that area. I didn't get any pictures of it dry, it is already scabbing over.

First is of last night, other two this morning after some cleaning. Hopefully it hardens quickly, he does not like stall life. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain today and tomorrow, so no turnout. :(

He is still not lame on it, no heat, no smell, but he does not like it poked. How much work should I allow him to do? I walked and jogged him in hand for 20 minutes or so, but he wants to do more, and I know what will happen if I let him loose!

[tasha]

I knew it! Tali has one last summer, the vet couldnt find a tract so said it wasnt one. But it looked just like that, only not as bad. We pouliced for a bit, then I decided I'd had enough of poulticing (Kally had an incident with a nail the week before and this was Tali's 2nd abcess that year :rolleyes: thought my back was going to disintegrate), kept cleaning it and putting cream on it and it healed in 3 weeks. Her foot was a funny shape for a bit but with a sympathetic bit of farriery tis all fine now.

[Lili & Morgan]

OMG!
Do you know what?

My mare had a similar cut ... the first pic before the blood. I could not work out for the her sake what on Earth it was! No heat but slightly swollen pastern.

It must have been an abcess. It would be correct because it was 4 weeks after taking her shoes off. She is barefoot now for 8 weeks.

Thanks so much for posting your pics. very enlightening!

[Spoof]

Pics from the last two days. It is drying up really well. Thankfully the barn manager let me use the stall of a horse away at show.

He is out for his first day of turnout today, and it is really swampy wet. Will go check on him tonight, he has a couple more nights of dry stall life, but will have to be out 24-7 again Tues.

You can really see the bruising when his hoof is wet. His left hind is also quite bruised.

First two pics are yesterday, second three today.

I think the abscess is gone entirely, in the last pic I've drawn lines so you can see how much his heel has collapsed. What is healing now is the part he tore up when he forged.

Edited to say that the farrier is out Wed, will get some advice on how to deal with this. I'm a little worried, as none of them do good barefoot trims, but it certainly can't hurt to ask. :)

[Skippys Mum]

I'd be inclined to get a dry dressing on it to keep specks of mud and flies (is it warm in Louisiana just now?) out of it. You really wouldnt be wanting any additional infection in there.

[Spoof]

There is no way to keep a dry anything right now, it is very wet and warming up, 60-80 degrees. The 6-acre pasture is mostly under water (1-7") with a few higher spots, fortunately no mud. It will rain again in the next day or two. While this horse has grown up with these conditions, I believe this is the wettest winter they have had here in a long time. It doesn't help that he likes to wade around in the water for the 'good grass'.

No flies yet, but the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance yesterday.

Apparently swiss is the new style, I checked on him before bringing him into the stall and this little beauty had finally opened all the way up. Oh yay.

We packed the hole and wrapped the foot, but left the previously damaged part open.

This is turning out to be quite the adventure. :)

[Skippys Mum]

OMG good luck, you are needing it right now!

[Wally]

It's looking much better.

[Spoof]

Thanks Wally, my boy is doing pretty good now. :)

I tried him back out in the pasture on the 19th, and within 24 hours he was horrible couldn't-barely-walk lame.

Rented a stall and put him up, and as soon as his feet dried he was good to go. His poor feets were just in too bad of condition to handle the wet. I feel really bad, I had a hunch it would happen, but could only try.

The only bad thing that came of it was more severe bruising in all four feet, which you can see in these pics.

His abscess(es?) cleaned up nicely, and the first farrier didn't show (wife went into labor) so I had a different one give a look. He unfortunately whittled down his frog(!) before I could bat an eye, chipped off some of the heel and explained that I needed to keep the sunken-in heel lower. Poor Kermit doesn't have any padding from the frog now as it is 1/4-1/2" below his heel bars. He doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, but it looks odd to me, and it makes his foot sound extra loud on the cement. You can see how bruised it was now too.

He's living the high life now, I don't know how much your stalls run there, but here it is $500 (~255₤) which is more than my housing! :p

[Skippys Mum]

keep us posted as it heals please
xxx

[Grace O'Malley]

Any update on his progress? I hope he's much better now.

[Spoof]

Three week mark here, and he is doing really well.

On the trimming side of things, I feel his white line is stretching? on the one side, but to keep him level after this blowout I have to leave that wall long.

I have a lead on a new farrier, so keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm nervous to take off any more foot, his walls are as wide as my finger now, and used to be twice that. I've seen some people trim all the way back to the line to correct this? I'm still battling the toe fungus crack on both fronts, they are coming along well.

[KarinUS]

Wow. That made my feet hurt just looking at it. Glad he's better though!

[Denbenj]

Crikey look at the size of that hole !!!

Youve done a great job, not sure how well I could cope with all that gore! :eek:

[Skippys Mum]

How's Kermit getting along?

[Spoof]

Gave him a full trim yesterday, he's doing really good.

I also soak his feet before trimming as they are extremely hard, which makes for very 'juicy' yellow looking photos. :rolleyes:

Been cleaning out the pocket in the bottom but had no idea how large it really was until I got brave enough to trim it all out.