Posted by Ray Miller on August 29, 2002 at 23:05:52:
In Reply to: Re: nail in the frog area posted by Gary on August 28, 2002 at 14:41:51:
: : we had noticed that our 20 yr old pregnant mare was limping and my husband had found a nail in the frog area and he pulled it out. he told me that the nail was in there side ways and that it wasnt in there very deep. so we just figured that she would be sore for a couple of days. well after days went back we noticed that she was still in pain so i took her to the vet. when i took her to the vet they did xrays and told me that it was good news and that it didnt get into the bursal and that she would be fine. she would show inprovements in 3 days and she would be completely healed up by 7 days. well 7 days went by and when i decided to clean out her hoof i notice blood coming out of the puncture wound so i called the vet and he told me to bring her in that they just needed to clean it out some more. but needless to say when i took he in i heard some horrifying news. the vet told me that she should have gotten better and not worse. he told me that more in likely the infection went into her bursal and that when he pressed where the nail wound was she didnt respond in pain but when they pressed on the bursal area she started to be in pain. so he told me that he wanted to keep her for 3 days and some antibiotics and drain the infection out of her bursal.but what i dont understand is that he told me that she would be lame. and that he is going to try to make her brood mare sound. but my question is? has anybodys horse recovered over this without any lameness? she is my 10 yr old sons horse and i dont know how to tell him that his horse is lame when there could be some chance that she would pull out of this.i just dont understand that last week she would be fine because the nail wound didnt damage the bursal. and now im facing that she wouldnt ever be able to be ridden anymore. so if somebody would please answer this i would really appreciate it.
: Basic horsecare 101, anytime a nail gets stepped on needs to be treated as if it was a gapping wound. There's this stuff called Bacteria that is in the ground and grows in dirty little places like nail hole punchers. Reminds me of a horse trainer that called me and said his horse was lame, I told him it would be three days before I could see him so he waited three days and sure enough when I got there and he pulled the horse out of the stall, the horse was three legging around and I picked up the bad foot and guess what was sticking right in the bottom of the foot? Yep, a 16 penny nail! TRUE story! Please!
Nail In Hoof 102
Don't pull nail out until an xray has been taken.
Ray Miller