Ever had one stand on a nail/screw

[MrA]

Poor Brodie yesterday manage to stand on a huge screw in the school. It embedded a couple of cm between his frog and sole. Ouch he was understandably instantly very lame. They managed to careful remove although not easy. Hoof was soaked and scrubbed till spotless and poulticed.
No sign of any pus this morning but hoof very warm and absolutely crippled lame as in would barely stand on it.

So farrier out to trim away a little. Hot soaking with salts and hot poultice. All keeping a very close eye on him and vet will be rung tomorrow if no improvement for advice.

But anyone had similar?

 

[chunky monkey]

Chunky once had a nail wedged in the grove of the frog and sole. Fortunately it was in parallel so no damage done. It was the day the farrier came so when he picked the foot up to trim, he immediately found it.

 

[Mossy]

Personally I’d never remove a screw from an equine foot. There’s too many vital structures in there. Connie stepped on one some years ago. Instant vet call and it was removed under X-ray cover. Cleaned packed and IV antibiotics.

 

[Jessey]

Yes, ideally you shouldn't remove it until an x-ray has been done so you can tell if any damage has been done to bone/soft tissues, unfortunately once it's out there is no way to image it. Hopefully with keeping it super clean that will stop any infection

 

[MrA]

I didn't know that at all about removing after xray! I didn't take it out myself as wasn't there but in the same situation would have done. Now I know better. It's ridiculously sore still so starting to panic about it now.

 

[Jessey]

From the bottom of the collateral groove to the pedal bone is only 9mm on your average horse, so you can see why it's important to know what may have been involved so you can get a jump start on treatment if necessary, TBH if he's really sore I would encourage the owner to call the vet asap.

 

[MrA]

From the bottom of the collateral groove to the pedal bone is only 9mm on your average horse, so you can see why it's important to know what may have been involved so you can get a jump start on treatment if necessary, TBH if he's really sore I would encourage the owner to call the vet asap.

I believe they have, just waiting to hear back from her but if not I will. Fingers crossed it'll all go smoothly and not too serious and injury but worried.

 

[carthorse]

Personally I’d never remove a screw from an equine foot. There’s too many vital structures in there. Connie stepped on one some years ago. Instant vet call and it was removed under X-ray cover. Cleaned packed and IV antibiotics.

This, totally, but done is done and hopefully if there's a next time they'll know better.

As others have said I'd be getting the vet out asap since he's lame and there's heat. If an infection gets hold inside the hoof capsule it can be very difficult to treat since there isn't a high blood flow so any drugs given often don't reach there in useful strengths, so it's even more important to catch it early.

I've seen a few cases of horses treading on nails, some recovered quickly but for others it was a very lengthy process and one never did come back fully sound. There is an element of luck - how deep, what angle and what structures are involved - but also the ones that did better got immediate treatment.

 

[MrA]

Stop scaring me guys! But actually it does go to show where my knowledge is lacking in certain areas. I usually ring my vet for advice if I'm not sure and they are contactable. Good to learn for any future incidences. It's like with eyes, lots of people leave eyes to see if they get better, I get vet straight away having known a horse who had to have a corneal transplant.

Anyway fingers crossed he's going to be okay, I'll keep you all updated!

 

[carthorse]

@Ale , sorry I wasn't trying to scare you. I'd love to say leave it a few days and see how it goes, but that would be completely irresponsible of me. To be fair I didn't realise how important it was to leave it in place until a friend's cob trod on one while a farrier was on the yard - while he was holding the foot up waiting for a vet he explained to us all in great depth just why he was making such a fuss. He also showed us a useful tip for us weaker souls (I couldn't have held a foot that long!) if there isn't too much nail protruding and that was to tape blocks of some type either side of the nail so that if the horse did put it's foot down it wasn't driving it deeper.

Everything crossed that he'll be fine x

 

[carthorse]

@Ale how is he today?

 

[MrA]

I'm worried about jinxing it by speaking too soon but alot better. He had vet and farrier out. They cut away and found a large abscess. Vet doesn't think any major damage done but of course like you all said an X-ray would have been a far better idea when it first happened. He's weight bearing again on it, continuing with politicing and fingers crossed he will be okay.