Another abstract one...Foot Abscesses

Monty

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Nov 16, 2001
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Loooooverly! Very tasteful. Pony has foot abscess following nail puncture injury. Nail enters sole of foot near heel and close to hoof wall. Leaves through front hoof wall. Sinus right through. Did have pus at coronet band etc. Had antibiotics and bute for 5 days, and was heavy poulticed. Blacksmith does not trim hoof short on that side as rather close to hole, doesn't want to make him even more sore , and also doesn't want to encourage a seedy toe. Fair enough, I suppose.

No further drainage or nasty smells. No heat in foot or swelling to be seen. Still 'footy' on that foot even with shoe on. That was a month ago.

I've been very lucky in that respect and never had any foot problems or lameness with my horses. (plenty of other problems, mind!!)

So....is it normal for it to take this length of time?? Should I be worried/ calling vet to review. The hoof now looks a different shape to the other. Partly because of the slightly longer horn that the blacksmith didn't want to trim away, and partly sort of concave at the front of the hoof. Don't know how to explain properly.

Anyone seen anything like this properly.
 
Have you got piccies?

Hoof abscesses should clear quickly once they've burst, a week at the most I would think.

I would be worried about foot balance if the farrier has left one side higher than the other, not as bad if he's left both longer. But having one foot longer than the other 3 will also not be good for him mechanically.
 
If its any consolation my horse had a really nasty absess, got the phone call every owner dreads saying horse was standing on 3 legs and couldn't walk :eek: He had 2 visits from the vet + antibiotics + poulticing + several visits from the farrier and even after the shoe went back on I'd say he was foot sore on tarmac for at least 6 weeks. It got slightly better each week but he was sore for a while.

I can't remember if I saw any changes to the hoof shape tho sorry.
 
Hi Monty, I have not seen you around for a while:) Did you find a horse in the end? Sorry if that is too nosey:eek::)

I have not had any experience with foot abccesses, but I also heard that they clear up pretty quick after they have burst. I bought a horse last year who had them and my farrier pointed out where the abccess was, the abcess left a dent in the sole and on the outside the hoof wall had a lump, but one year on it is not present.

Perhaps calling the vet if he is being footy would be a good idea:)
 
i had a mare that had a foot abcess.she was on injectable antibiotics for 2 weeks and poltices for 6 weeks,if it wasnt for my nifty farrier and my hard work and strong stomach the vet said she would be dead.:eek:
 
Why is it that the horses that suit me best, are always old or have problems of some kind?? Do they become more tolerant and kind because of their age/problems or something???:confused:

Found gorgeous ned, but have horrible feeling about this foot of his, could of course just be my ignorance though. My blacksmith has looked at him today, and said, no, -one foot isn't trimmed longer than the other, it just looks that way because of the concavity of the hoof wall. He thinks there has been more than one abscess over the years, and that the holes are gradually growing out. He thinks it's a vet job, and that he can't advise me re buying him or not.

Big Sigh! Here we go again. I wasn't entirely convinced by blacksmith's account, he didn't seem confident in what he was saying. Vet will look at his foot on Friday and tell me what she thinks. I'll do some photos in the morning, in daylight. That might tell you something. Thank you.
 
Aaaah Monty, you are not having much luck with horses. Good luck with the vet.

I can tell you though is that Mu had those concaves which have all grown out in the 18 months that I have had him, they have not caused any problems and touch wood he has not had another abccess since being with me - this might have something to do with the type of ground I have. I do have to feed him a hoof supplement like biotin to harden his feet up - this is TB and has TB feet. When I first bought him I had him on a supplement that helps repair feet damage. It was called Hoof and Foot Repair, one of the main ingredients was biotin but there was other stuff in it as well.
 
We had a number of the (nearly 200) polo ponies on their winter break last year that suffered with a poisoned foot at one stage or another because of the crappy wet weather. :mad: Some of them cleared up pretty quickly, others took alot longer. I poulticed them everyday and also scrubbed the foot with an iodine solution, and if the foot was really bad, used hydrogen peroxide. The farrier was amazed at how well the iodine worked and toughened up the feet, however there were a couple of pones that got nasty holes from the absyss and he actually filled it with a special putty of some sort (sorry i can't remember the name of it!? :rolleyes: ), but will try and find out for you.

I would speak to your farrier as well as your vet and see if he could recommend usind a pad under the shoe on that foot (and ideally fill the hole with the putty) just to stop anything else getting in there and causing more probs. We have another pony with a terrible foot and she actually has a large ceratoma (sp?) in there that will need operating on, but she wore a pad in there all for the whole polo season and was as sound as a pound all summer.:)

Reading back, i don't know whether my post will be of help, i'm so tired and not sure if i'm making sense... maybe i'm asleep?! So big apologies if it's of no use to you!! :eek: :D All the best! :)
 
OK, so here's the offending foot. I'm sorry it's a bit fuzzy, but I don't do bending very well, at all. Any seen it before please? I am taking him to see my vet tomorrow morning, and we'll take it from there, but would be interested to know if any of you have seen 'feet' like this before...it's only the one btw, and what happened to them.:confused:
Thank you.;)
 

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Monty I have not seen anthing like that but I do have a mare that had an injury to her coronet band and as the hoof has grown she has a dent/scar that looks like the top one. I should imagine that will grown out and not cause too many problems. However I must admit I am not a foot expert at all:eek:

Good luck at the vet:)
 
That looks like an old abcess hole, possibly two can't work out if there's another smaller one higher up or if its just some little mark, any problems from an abcess that old should be long gone. Unless there's some really funny camera angle thing going on then that is not an especially lovely shoeing job.
 
It does look as if there has been some injury or infection at the coronet band which is working its way down the foot. We have one that looked like this for six months after standing on his own coronet when getting up!

This has been a really bad year for abcesses, ours often only came to light when horses had mild intermittent lameness but went sond virtually as soon as the abcess was drained. Is it possible he has another one developing?
 
It was taken at a funny angle. I can't crouch, so I had to bend down and aim camera sort of down at it from in front if that makes any sense. Oh well, we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Today, I thought I'd be optimistic and fit the bridle and saddle in preparation!! Went to put the bridle on...nope...he was having none of it. I was a bit surprised, because I tacked him up when Iwent to see him and I didn't have any problems. AW NOOOOOO! I thought to myself. Had several attempts, and he kep[t walking backwards. So, feeling rather foolish, I phoned the lady and asked if there was some secret to it,that I was missing. She did tell me to phone her any time if there was a problem. She laughed. And asked me: 'If you're only fitting the bridle and not going out to ride, are there any reins on the bridle??' 'Nope there aren't' says I 'Why??' She giggled and said that he was very much a creature of routine, and to put the reins on the bridle, try again, and ring her back. So I did. Got bridle on first time, with no hassle whatsoever. Felt a right twit ringing her back to tell her. Anyway, we had a good giggle about it, and she told me, that whatever I did, not to try putting the saddle on before the bridle, as I'd never manage:eek:!

Hee-hee!! :p Funny pony!!
 
i had a mare that had a foot abcess.she was on injectable antibiotics for 2 weeks and poltices for 6 weeks,if it wasnt for my nifty farrier and my hard work and strong stomach the vet said she would be dead.:eek:


add another 4 weeks of pain relief, poulticing and on/off anti biotic courses and you've got the situation I was in with my old horse Flash. If it hadn't been for my vets hard work and farriers determination she would never had been ridden again.

Around her coronet band was filled with about an inch and a half of pus which took weeks to completely come away, vet even had to insert nerve blocks into her leg, and practically pare away most of the sole of her foot which was then left open as abcess wouldn't drain, that had to be soaked, padded, poulticed twice a day for weeks. He saw her Christmas Eve, left me to it on Christmas Day, came out again on Boxing Day and that was D day, if things hadn't improved (this was 2 weeks in to treatment) she was to be PTS. Thankfully she improved and I had a further 5 happy years with her!
 
Aww Monty he sounds like a character:) I hope that the vetting goes well as I think you deserve to find the perfect pony after looking for so many months:)

Sending lots and lots of good luck your way:)
 
Good luck for today Monty.

Did the lady explain why he is runny about what order you tack him up? Did she tell you if he has any other odd issues?
 
Hi all! Today was a visit just to have vet look at his foot, as opposed to a pre-purchase vetting. I was concerned that it might not get enough attention if I just asked the examining vet to take a little look during a PPV, so I went to my own horse vet whom I trust implicitly; it also gave me an opportunity to load and travel neddy alone, for a twelve mile run.

Despite loading him single-handedly, and him travelling beautifully, the news isn't good. I'll tell all, because it might be an education to some of you, as it certainly has been to me! :rolleyes:

He has had no less than three abscesses in the last nine months or so according to the marks on his hooves, says the vet. At some point a large abscess has probably been neglected (not necessarily wilfully, perhaps not la ong enough course of anitibiotics was prescribed) and the infection has now become a low grade chronic one. His foot has been x-rayed, and the pedal bone is affected, hence the odd shape of the hoof. The only chance of his ever becoming sound is to operate and remove the dead bony bits, and wash out around the pedal bone, then specialist shoeing. It should settle, but there's always a danger it could re-ignite, or even not settle at all. I was never a veterinary nurse, just a bog standard human orthopaedic nurse -but I know that chronic osteomyelitis in people is bad news. I'm not entertaining the idea of carrying on with the purchase. He will be returned to his owner at the weekend. I'm already starting to bond with him, so the quicker I get him back home the better for everyone I think.:confused:

It has however, renewed my conviction that there are horses out there who will suit me, it isn't an impossible search....it's just finding them.........:eek:
 
It has however, renewed my conviction that there are horses out there who will suit me, it isn't an impossible search....it's just finding them.........:eek:

Then I am glad you had the chance with him, I'm sorry to hear his trouble, but as you say the search can continue now you know there are good ones out there for you :)
 
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