Abscess burst on Tuesday, soaked and wrapped daily. Nothing else is draining but there is still a smell and she is still a little sore. Should I keep wrapping? There are a few exit holes…
Typical treatment of abscess is to soak 2x day with warm water, epsom salt & Betadine, 20m each.
For up to 3 weeks.
Other folks lean more toward watchful neglect and just slather on ichthalmol daily-- no wrap.
Others still keep the area covered and use magna paste.
Since it’s still smelly and she’s still sore, I"d have the vet out to see that there’s nothing else going on.
At the very least, continue to soak 2x day for another 2 weeks. I’d also put Hetacin K or similar “Today” or “Tomorrow” mastitis cream in the hole created from the burst abscess.
I stop wrapping once there is no more black gunk coming out. Continuing to soak does mean softening the whole foot and I figure once there’s an exit channel I don’t need to continue softening the foot.
Movement is good to get things worked out of the foot so as soon as horse is able to walk ok I go for handwalks and quiet turnout in the hogfuel ring. Generally I can see she’s feeling better when she does some buck n run.
I have had good luck with abscesses, typically going from three legged lame to riding sound in about a week, so I feel confident recommending not over treating and causing new problems.
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Do you do anything about the hole that is left, like flush it out? Or just let the horse heal?
When my pony blew his abscess, it blew out his toe. I only wrapped until it quit draining and then I cleaned it well, put some Sav-A-Hoof in the hole and a little bit of Keratex hoof putty to keep the Sav A Hoof from falling out. I changed it out every 2-3 days and soaked the foot weekly with White Lightning to kill anything. I quit packing it once grown out.
Mine blew out part of his white line so I used a bit more caution.
Just let it heal. The hole in the heel will grow down and finally just be a loose tab on the frog in a month or two.
Keep it clean and dry. Avoid even morning dew. Treat with furacin to keep proud fresh from forming.
Animalintex works well for abscesses that may still need some poulticing. And it doesn’t affect/soften the whole hoof.
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Im not sure proud flesh is an issue for a heel blowout as there is no granulating tissue. The heel tissue seems to grow out rather than actually heal.
wrap for a few more days at least. sometimes not all the gunk comes out right away. I soak a small cotton ball in betadine and force it into the hole so its fills the hole. If you push it in hard enough it will stay in till you do it again. good luck.
depends where it actually blew out. Won’t hurt and should help with healing.
My horse’s one abscess (thus far:nonchalance:), blew out the heel and I wrapped exactly one day. I was crippled at the time and on crutches. Horse was terrified of my crutches. She saw me and got lots of movement:lol:. Once I caught her (that could take 10 minutes because of the crutches), I just could not handle wrapping a foot while balancing on one leg by myself. It was unusually dry at the time and the wound was up at the top of her heel so she went without. I did soak it by using a big IV bag and used apple cider vinegar in the water and I did that’s for about 3 days and that was it. She healed up quickly. I think the movement is what helped get all the gunk out fairly rapidly.
Susan
Hmmm. One-rat study: as one who accidentally bought a thin-soled Arabian (a rare thing in an Arabian) who suffered from monthly abscesses for a couple years before we figured out the right shoeing protocol (1% wedge pads all the way around, forever), I learned to leave abscesses alone. No soaking, no poultices, no wrapping. Working theory according to our veterinarian and farrier: 1) Our wet climate makes soft feet a problem already so any soaking would further weaken the hooves and set them up for more abscesses. 2) Horses are incredibly good at fighting infection if one doesn’t interfere by wrapping and thereby trapping bacteria in the wound. 3) there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that soaking leads to any lessening of pain or hastening of resolving the abscess. 4) the Horse is suffering from pain already and doesn’t need more disturbance from one messing with the afflicted foot. Off-topic: once this same vet/farrier team came up with a sensible shoeing protocol “Lame Leo” has not had an abscess in 8 years!
