Sorry for all the questions people! But this is a great place to get info. So yesterday the vet came out and found an abscess on the bottom of my QH’s foot. He is on stall rest and bute for a week. This is my first time dealing with abscesses and I didn’t realize what a pain in the butt they are.
My farrier came out about a couple weeks ago and didn’t notice the abscess on my QH’s foot but he did notice my OTTB has an abscess on his back leg on the coronary band. My OTTB doesn’t act like he is in pain what so ever and the abscess hasn’t popped yet.
What should I do? Just let it do it’s thing until it pops?
What do you mean by an abscess on the coronary band?
Typically an abscess forms inside the hoof and takes the path of least resistance to pop. If you soak and poultuce you can encourage it to drain through the frog or pop out the heel bulbs. If through the heels it leaves a characteristc slit that eventually grows out down the frog.
Otherwise it can travel up the hoof wall and pop out the coronary band. It will leave a bit of a slit up there but less defined than the heel bulb burst. This exit point is not as desirable because the abscess tracking up the hoof wall causes damage that will take up to a year to grow out.
I expect that your farrier saw the exit tracks of an abscess on the back.foot, which means the problem came and went before you noticed or treated it. I doubt he has an abscess on his coronet band and it sounds like farrier was unconcerned. So the back.foot has probably resolved itself just fine.
He didn’t see the abscess in the front foot because it wasn’t there two weeks ago or was just brewing.
It’s the front foot you need to soak and wrap. Until you see evidence of the dark matter oozing into your animal lintex poultice.
Also 2 abscesses on 2 different feet should be a wake-up call about something, whether it is footing, hoof care, or nutrition.
Where I come from, an abscess that heads out the coronary band is called a gravel. They are generally infinitely more painful, because the suckers travel the length of the hoof in order to get to the coronary band. Then, they leave you with a great gift- a defect in the hoof wall until it grows down. You want to keep the coronary band soft, if you think that they are headed that way. We used to use what were called “swabs”; material draped over the coronary band and kept wet, to encourage the darn things to burst more quickly.
Good luck! I have a horse growing out one right now. Fortunately, he has generally awesome bare feet!
Yeah my farrier just felt a soft spot around the coronary band and said it was an abscess. It’s so weird my OTTB seems totally fine and doesn’t seem in pain at all. I hope it isn’t a long process to heal but sounds like it might be
Double check what your farrier meant.
However I am 99% sure that what he found was the hole left by a migrating hoof abscess. It was burst and all over so he didn’t give you any instructions to treat.
It might have been over for days or weeks when the farrier found the hole.
With abscesses you just let the horse tell you how he feels. In my experience they are usually fine a week after it bursts. Obviously the internal damage would take longer to grow out.
As you’ve seen now, an abscess can burst before you notice it, or can present as major lameness.
He probably meant: “This WAS an abscess.” It started as an abscess somewhere in the hoof, but exited through the coronary band. It is not an abscess anymore, and your horse won’t be in pain and can be ridden as usual.
Now, it is nothing but a disruption to the hoof wall.
There isn’t anything to do for this except just watch it as it grows out and make sure it doesn’t pick up debris, etc if it is a large hole. Sometimes as it gets close to the ground some of the hoof can break off. If your farrier watches it they can usually keep it from being too problematic.
As an aside, though: not sure you need to keep the horse on stall rest for an abscess, and most vets don’t give bute for an abscess either. The only solution for an abscess is for it to burst; and bute can prolong that process. It won’t hurt to keep your horse in, especially if they are really lame. But many people turn out horses with abscesses if the footing is good because it can speed up the process.
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Yes, poultuce up the foot and let the horse move around as much as he wants. This helps the abscess drain. Bute reduces inflammation and can make the abscess linger longer.
A good poultuce wrsp with lots of duct tape or a soaking boot should stay on a quiet horse.
Do however make sure horse has comfortable access to food and water. The very first abscess I ever treated, maresy wouldn’t come into her hard rubber mat stall out of her soft runout paddock. She just stood in the doorway and looked at the water tub inside.
Fortunately I figured out what she wanted and took out a small bucket. She drained about 5 gallons in one gulp, I guess she hadn’t drunk all night. Then I gave her a bucket outside.
Soaking and poultucing really help speed things up.
Maresy now has better stall mats and will walk on them with an abscess
I have also never heard a vet prescribe stall rest and bute for an abscess. Typically, moving around helps the abscess find a track through the hoof to come out, and the inflammation that makes them sore helps build the pressure to burst it. Restricting movement and giving anti-inflammatories prolongs the process. I’ve seen abscesses seem like they were coming to a head only to frustratingly reroute and come out weeks later – without bute! I would be so annoyed to give bute and make this process take longer. Yes, they might look ouchy, but they’re usually better out than in.
I agree to keep the foot soft. Soaking once or twice a day and wrapping with animalintex poultice, epsom salt poultice, or ichthamol all help. If it’s coming out the sole, get size 2 or 3 baby diapers, pack the foot, wrap with a diaper, then vetrap, then a duct tape bottom to help keep it on in turnout.
Abscesses can come from a variety of things but the most likely culprit is footing. Hard, rocky footing, or a big change in footing like going from dry ground to sopping mud can brew an abscess. Because it’s two horses getting them, it’s likely environmental rather than dietary, but some illnesses can also cause abscesses. Double check with your vet and farrier about how you can deter abscesses in the future.
I do know people who do stall rest and Bute for abscesses, and look askance at us who hand walk slightly ouchy horses during recovery. I feel that the recovery rate for the handwalkers is faster. If my horse doesn’t feel up to walking down the concrete barn aisle and won’t leave her stall, fine.
On the other hand, I once left her stall door open thinking she didn’t want out, and turned my back. And she went lurching down the aisle 3 legged lame like someone’s senile grandma making a jail break out of intensive care. So I think they can appreciate movement in the healing stage!
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This visual has me cracking up! :lol:
Years ago my horse had an abscess on his front hoof, and was very lame. I soaked his foot and poulticed, with no Bute. I sectioned off a portion of the field for him to have his own area so he wouldn’t be bothered by others and move around more than he needed to. He was fine with being separated. One day I looked over and he wasn’t in his portion of the field. He had jumped the fence and was now happily running through the main field, no longer lame. So I suppose he had to tell me he was fine :rolleyes: I really should have tapped into that horse’s jumping abilities because it was also known that he jumped out of a very tall gate to an indoor arena when free jumping. Yes, the full doors should have been fully closed, but no one suspected this butt high borderline conformation train-wreck could jump. A cautionary tale. :winkgrin:
So I’d treat (soak and wrap) and wait for the one horse. I too do some hand walking to encourage circulation and allow appropriate turnout (on good ground) as they wish. No Bute.
Regarding the coronary band, my other horse stepped on/hit himself on his coronary band creating a hole of sorts which kind of looked like when an abscess comes out there. It’s been about 8 months and it is almost completely grown out. It never posed a problem, but I make sure his hoof walls don’t get too dry to encourage more cracking. He is prone to dry hooves.
