Posted by Rick Burten on September 30, 2002 at 10:31:59:
In Reply to: Hot Nail - Abcess - Sensitive Feet posted by Lara on September 29, 2002 at 21:43:21:
: About 12 days ago my horse was diagnosed with a hot nail and minor abcess. Our vet opened up the abcess, but my horse has very thin soles and the vet hit soft tissue. We kept the foot wrapped with guaze/iodine and vet wrap with duct tape over it until the soft tissue hardened. Now that the soft tissue has hardened, our vet has told us to keep the bandage off. My horse is still ouchy on hard ground when I take him out to hand graze. There is no longer any heat in his foot and he is not sensitive anywhere on his sole or frog. The vet feels that it is possible that he has a secondary abcess which is causing him to be ouchy on the hard ground. Here is the delema; my horse normally has sensitive feet (cannot go barefoot w/o shoes, he just will not stay sound even though he has clean x-rays), the vet does not want us to have the farrier put a shoe back on him because of the possible secondary abcess. We seem to be stuck between a rock and an abcess/hard place :) Is there anyway to determine if there is a secondary abcess other than waiting for it to gravel out? Or does anyone think that putting a shoe back on his foot to see if he will sound up is a bad idea? Or is it possible for him to still be sore from the close nail 12 days later? And if he is stills sore from the close nail, what is the normal recovery time? Thank you for any help/advice.
You can use a removeable hoof boot such as the Davis Boot or the equivelent during those times you have him out on hard ground. While another abcess is a possibility, my preference with these cases is to use a shoe and a hospital plate, especially considering that your horse is so thin soled. How large a hole did the vet open in the sole. The larger the hole, the longer it takes to heal, the greater the chances of a prolapsed sole, especially considering that your horse does not seem to grow a lot of sole or have a great deal of sole depth. Since there is no heat nor soreness or sensitivity apparent in either the sole or frog, I am going to (sigh)presume that this is all related to the initial problem and the resultant insult to tissue both from the infection and the surgery. If a shoe can safely be ammended to the hoof either with nails or by glueing it in place, then, again, that is how I would go. Along with the hospital plate.
Rick