Poultice Advice please?

[Cornish Lass]

Bella our Shetland has suddenly gone lame in the last couple of days. Vet came out yesterday and cannot decide whether its a touch of laminitis, or puncture in her foot so is treating for both. She is only showing lameness on one foreleg, although he said there is a raised pulse and slight heat in both, hence the confusion.

She is on anti-inflamatory powder for a week and restricted grazing, but he has also suggested I poultice her foot every day, incase there is anything in there we cannot see. I have never done this before, and was quite impressed with my results yesterday - a nice neat bandage over the poultice dressing, and I used some waterproof tape over the front and base to help keep it clean/dry (originally tried a plastic bag, but she wouldn't walk on it at all!).

I checked on her last thing last night, and it was all still in place, but this morning although the bandage was still there, her hoof had cut through the bottom and the dressing had come off. I have done another dressing this morning, and wrapped more bandage over it, but has anyone any suggestions on how to make it stay on? She is unshod, but gets stressed being kept in, so is confined to a small paddock and shelter. I know you can get special poultice boots but she has such tiny feet, I think they would be too big!

Thanks in advance, Lesley

:)

[galadriel]

If it will last from morning to evening, then you could just change it twice a day.

Otherwise, you can use about half of a roll of duct tape, and wrap it multiple times to make it tougher.

You *could* also try looking for a teeny sized poultice boot...if nothing else, I think easyboots come in teeny, and you could maybe adapt one of those for poulticing.

[ros]

Frank used to get abcesses for a pastime, and I always found a good layer of that silver "duck tape" (the stuff you get at DIY stores) was brilliant. It's got fibres running through it so it doesn't wear through like ordinary waterproof tape, and it sticks like crazy. Frank had huge feet and was very heavy-footed, so I can't imagine it wouldn't work for a little pony :)

[Bebe]

If you can find any hessian type sacking, that would work well and last longer than the duck tape. I'd do as you're doing now, put a square of sacking over the poultice and then tape that up so it looks like a hoofboot. Otherwise, I'd just use tons of duck tape as has already been suggested.

[artemis]

Like Bebe I use the hessian sack method, it lasts longer, even on horses that are shod. I keeb the bandage in place with an old sock.