Pedigree Query

I have a mare that had gotten a stone bruise, I had the farrier come open it up, trim her feet etc.. She has been on bute & antibiotics since she had gotten it (about 4-5 days now) farrier told me she may open up at the hair line of her hoof if the swelling/fluid doesnt go down. and that is what happened! can anyone tell me the best way to care for this? she is walking much better, but it opened up at the hairline about 1 inch. i have been keeping it clean, cold hoseing any suggestions?

If you can soak her whole foot in Epsom Salts and water it will help to draw out the abcess much more quickly. The stone bruise caused an abcess. Also, Valley Vet now have something like an Air Nike pad for under a shoe. It is not expensive and you inflate it to the desired cushioning once it is in place.

to add to what madelyn said, there's difference between a bruise and an abscess though bruises occasionally develop into abscesses.

what puzzles on this one is the puss (apparently) at the coronary band. This happens rarely and always a good long while after the abscess would first develop.

Thus, what you saw come through at the coronary band would be an old abscess or something else.

If your horse shows a lot of lameness and there's no other cause, abscess is the good guess, which you can generally verify with hoof testers.

If (and only if) the abscess has had at least 48 hours to drop from the laminae to the sole (and thus develop to the point it can be located), you do a little knife work in an attempt to locate it. If you do locate it, you get lucky and can commence epsom salt paste treatment in a rubber boot, which 75% of the time will resolve things. Even if you're unable to locate, the rubber boot-epsom salt paste will resolve about 50% of the time.

If you're unable to locate--then it's up to you--you can either let it fester or you can get aggressive, put her under anethetics and your farrier or vet removes enough sole to locate. I'm agressive in treatment of abscess with performance horse. Seems less important with mare.

Suspicious here on events and course of treatment. Sounds as if something more serious going on in the hoof than mere abscess or bruise!

I would do the same soak in warm water epsom , then keep it packed with iodine , wrap it up change daily. Thats what we do . Keep your head up and I wish you my best. They are a pain to deal with.

ratherrapid wrote:to add to what madelyn said, there's difference between a bruise and an abscess though bruises occasionally develop into abscesses.

what puzzles on this one is the puss (apparently) at the coronary band. This happens rarely and always a good long while after the abscess would first develop.

Thus, what you saw come through at the coronary band would be an old abscess or something else.

If your horse shows a lot of lameness and there's no other cause, abscess is the good guess, which you can generally verify with hoof testers.

If (and only if) the abscess has had at least 48 hours to drop from the laminae to the sole (and thus develop to the point it can be located), you do a little knife work in an attempt to locate it. If you do locate it, you get lucky and can commence epsom salt paste treatment in a rubber boot, which 75% of the time will resolve things. Even if you're unable to locate, the rubber boot-epsom salt paste will resolve about 50% of the time.

If you're unable to locate--then it's up to you--you can either let it fester or you can get aggressive, put her under anethetics and your farrier or vet removes enough sole to locate. I'm agressive in treatment of abscess with performance horse. Seems less important with mare.

Suspicious here on events and course of treatment. Sounds as if something more serious going on in the hoof than mere abscess or bruise!

I've seen a lot of abscesses burst from the coronary band, it's not that uncommon or something to be very worried about.

I tried an iodine/salt paste once and it worked really well.

thank you! the farrier did dig it out he said it was a stone bruise that absessed. he did get fluid with the hoof tester. when he came she had already been on antibiotics ans bute..and still is! it did break open at the coranary band as my farrier warned me that could happen. I have been cold hosing and cleaning the hoof 2-3 times per day. I will start soaking in epsom salt in the morning! she was horibly lame but is walking much better, her other leg has a old knee injury that has been taken care of after i purchased her. my fear was bearing the weight on the other and ending up with more problems! she seems to be doing better is there anything i can apply at the coranary band where the abses opened up? or should i let it drain for a while longer? thank you everyone.

After you soak in salt water I would pack w/iodine and make sure it stays wrapped to keep foreign matter from entering. with my horses wherever the ab' busted at we'd soak , pack , wrap! Good luck

I had used an easyboot packed with Ichthamol after soaking my horse's foot in Epsom salts, but she wasn't as bad... only a mild abscess that had a small drain hole on the bottom. The boot helped keep the dirt out & formed a seal with the Ichthamol. Good luck, hope she heals soon!

Many of the top farriers and vets no longer recommend soaking the hoof, as it can lead to a soft hoof that is more likely to harbor bacteria. For abcesses we are also agressive, we immediately try to open them up, many horses will walk off almost sound after the pressure has been released. Once open, we use a syringe to squirt iodine up into the hole, then pack and wrap the hoof in Icthamol, cotton and vet wrap. We have had horses come to the farm with abcesses that have not been treated, they typically do open at the coronary band and tend to heal well, the same treatment can be used. As long as the absess does open, you are usually fairly safe, it is the ones that do not open and travel up into the hoof and eventually into the pastern and ankle that are dangerous.

thank you! what is/ & where can I find Icthamol? I will soak in the morning after cleaning and wrap with iodine. keep her on bute for a few more days, and antibiotics for at least 5 more days she does have some swelling in the ankle but it is draining well from the hoof and where it opened up.once again thank you evryone!

Icthammol is a drawing salve. You can achieve the same effect by mixing Furazone with sugar, it will draw out the pus. Ichthammol is nasty black gooey stuff and hard to clean up where the Furazone draw with sugar is much easier to clean off the leg.

Icthammol = I know this is an old thread but I had to reply, susey had a HORRIBLE absess this past week, first her ankle was swollen about twice it's normal size and then nothing, no mark no swelling, well yesterday there was a small hole behind and above her frog at the back of her hoof and it was draining and the whole back part of her hoof was soft and had watery puss coming out of it(sorry for the graffic detail) anyway I put this Icthammol (tar) stuff on it yesterday morning and by last night there was this peachy colored glob of stuff sticking out of the hole which I scraped off and cleaned with epsoms, it's still draining but she seems MUCH better. She was even running on it. Just wanted to say that this stuff works wonders!!!!!!!!!!! Any tips on keeping it clean and infection free? Everythings froze right now and she's not in any place with manure or mud.

Ive used icthammol with good results for hoof absess. It's a real puss magnet but messy as Madelyn stated.

robbinsapple wrote:Any tips on keeping it clean and infection free?

I liked using the Easyboot, but also have a larger medicine boot (which might be good for places higher up on the hoof) that I also used which worked well. The top was hard to tighten to her leg, so I used a little bit of Vetwrap and padding to keep it secure. Kept everything from sticking to the Ichthammol.

i have a mare that used to absess frequently and i always used icthamol to draw the infection and wrapped the hoof in a disposible diaper. worked quite well.

my mother used icthamol on everything when we were growing up - we used to call it the black icky.