Horse won't heal

[wetfootwilly]

Hi

We are new to horses. Recently purchased 3 year old part quarter/throurbred mare. Started limping on back leg/hoof. Vet diagnosis was laminitis in all 4 hoofs. We treat the horse with pain killer and anti inflamitories while keeping her in stall. Horse does not get better on back leg. Vet comes out again and x-rays hoof/leg and everything shows good. He finds abscess on back hoof and treats. Horse receives antibiotics and Epson salts soak, poultice pads for 1 ½ weeks. Hoof is getting better until we let her out in the paddock (somewhat wet/muddy/cool) for 1 day and she starts limping badly right away. We figured perhaps abscess got re infected or aggravated so we start a 2nd round of antibiotics (8/9 days) along with daily poultice pad and Epson salts for about 3 weeks. Horse is now walking pretty well, but we notice a very slight favoring of the back leg/hoof still (90% healed but not 100% yet). We let her out of the stall, into the paddock and she kicked up her back legs and ran around with no signs of discomfort. She would still exhibit the very slight favoring of her back hoof/leg while walking though. We know she wasn’t quite fully healed but were very hopeful. Continued poultice pads/no salts for another few days and then took her out and put her on lunge line. She showed signs of increased limping so we discontinued. Our daughter tried riding her in the coral but immediately dismounted as the horse showed even more sign of limping. Next day horse is kept out in paddock and when walked shows slight favoring of leg/hoof. We plan on having the vet come out again. Any advice on what to do next would be greatly appreciated.

The Pettigrew

[calshoer]

How unfortuate for you to be new to horses and to have to deal with this. It is extremely unusual for a horse that young to get lminitis, and even more unusual for lingering lameness to be in a hind foot rather than a front.
Unfortunately there is too much missing information to help you. Such as the vet report, current hoof X-rays, what caused the laminitis, what the feet look like now, what has been done to the feet, etc etc etc. I could only guess as to one of many reasons .I know it would be difficult for you to describe in detail all the needed information because you are new to horses, so all I can say is to keep conversation open with your vet and farrier and let that "team" do the best they can.

[Phil Armitage]

Do you know what laminitis is and does your Vet have any idea of what caused it? It is important that you have an understanding of laminitis and that your Vet figures out the cause. This site has good info about Laminits or you could google it.

[hotrodiesel]

Which part of the foot is the abcess in? If it is the heel, I would check for either a moist or supparating corn. Just a thought. Is the horse shod?

[wetfootwilly]

Thankyou everyone for your comments and time spent on our problem. I perhaps jumped the gun by posting on the web site looking for help. I had a Farrier come look at the horse and I just got back. He examined the hoof and found the abcess still present and soft but not infected. The abcess had been covered over through natural healing process. This prevented our
salt bath and poultice pads from working. He scraped the hoof exposing the abcess. We are now going to treat with salt water bath and poultice pads until we can feel this area start to toughen up. Hopefully we will have a healed horse soon. Thanks again for your help. The internet is a wonderful
place for people to help other people in need.

Thanks

The Pettigrews