:confused: abcess

[rockingjay]

You will be able to tell in my post that I don't know much about horses but my husband has a horse that I want to save from him selling! Maybe it is all the money we have already put in her or just the simple fact I can't give up on her yet. If anyone can suggest some help I would very much appreciate it. My husband bought a mare several months ago to train and soon after she was starting to limp and lame. We took her to the vet and he did some xrays for founder and other things. The vet told us the xrays did not show any signs of founder or rotation. He later said the horse had an abscess on the front foot. We gave her antibiotics and pain medication. she wore pads on the foot and it was cleaned with betadine and so forth. After about 15 days she showed signs of improvement. The abscess was on the bottom of her toe. She was fine for about a week and then her foot was again sore and she was limping all over. The abscess was dug out on the bottom of her foot where it was abscessed before. We had her trimmed a few days ago and a portion of her sole came off but there was a visible new growth under it. She is still tender footed. I am not sure if I have given enough info or not but if anyone has any suggestions I am open to try anything for her. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Mrs. Rockingjay,

We're glad to help, as much as we can from our ends but we need more info.

First of all pictures!! X rays were made you said, please post them. Take pics with your cameras, from the side and front, (you need to get on the floor to do that) and the sole. Help us with nice clear pictures of clean feet. Get as much of the foot in the screen as you can. Don't overdo the pixel deal since you only have 35 kB per picture to upload.

Did the vet come up with any thoughts what could cause the abcesses, after he ruled out founder?



Ronald Aalders

[cynthia-jay]

My thoughts are she is unbalanced

Since you have ruled out Founder

By working her it brought it out and a new Farrier

(which is the one now) may be able to rebalance her to sound working

condition with some time

Ask the Farrier what her angles are and if he sees any balance problems

Also : How hard was your husband wiorking this new horse?

The old abcess may have never been properly addressed

best to you
as always
Jay

[rockingjay]

Thank you so much for offering to help. I will take pictures as soon as I can so you can view those. In reference to the vet, all he said was that it was abcessed. I do remember when we went to pick her up from the vet the second time, he cleaned her foot and there was a bad smell and he said that was from the abcess. I asked why she had one or if it would come back and he said he couldn't answer that for me.

[rockingjay]

Jay,

Thank you also for your input. My husband ropes and was going to work with this horse. However, he never really did anything with her because she started having trouble as soon as we bought her. I am trying to think of everything I can so that maybe someone can help me out. My husband did tell me last night that he could see where on her foot she was abcessed and it was just under her toe. According to him and the vet that abcess did drain and that is about the time she started showing some improvement. Not for long though maybe 10-15 days and after that though she started having the limping and so forth again. The barn where we had her was very muddy and I know not long after we bought her a young girl ran through our fence. We did consider that maybe she had stepped on something. Would the vet not be able to see anything like that in a xray though? Like I mentioned before I do not know much about horses period but after reading for 3 hours last night on here I think I actually learned a few things. ha anyway I do remember ready about what you mentioned and wondered if that would cause the abcess? Thanks again.

[cynthia-jay]

There are a number of causes to an abcess

an old puncture wound imbalance ect

now that you have identified the problem the next issue is to address it and ask your Farrier who is attending and any other questions you can think of

if you can post photos here you'll get alot of very informative advice and input from alot of experianced Farriers

you can soak the hoof in 5 parts water to one part epsom salts to see if that helps and polticing it as well

Keep up on your reading it will help you out

At times an antibiotic is used as well for an abcess depending on the situation

You may be dealing with pain and medication may be needed to address that situation

So get your Farrier and Vet together on this

best of luck
as always
Jay