When your horse has an abscess, and you’ve been wrapping the foot, do you always see the evidence of the blowout in the packing?
See it, no. Smell it, most times.
Mostly I know it because -SHAZAM- they’re sound again 
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No. Horse had one about 2 years ago that I don’t think ever properly erupted. Felt like we waited forever on that one. Very deep in the foot. Farrier had to make a hole so it would drain, which relieved the horse a lot because it eased the pressure. Not a fun time for anyone, especially the horse.
Almost never. ChocoMare nails it.
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I’ve only ever personally dealt with 4 abscesses. Real abscesses, not “oh it’s an abscess no it’s a stick shoved into the back of the foot”.
All 4 were very obvious that they “blew”. Only 1 was “OMG GAG that smell!!”
But I have seen a whole lot more where the owner didn’t know the horse even had one, until the tell-tale horizonal line showed up below the coronet band, or the farrier said “ok look, he had an abscess”
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I’ve had some that have very clearly blown out on their own, which can be gross, fascinating and satisfying all at the same time. And then a few that were far less dramatic but the stinky-poo drainage in the animal lintex pad was pretty obvious. And yup, suddenly they’re sound!
We had a horse with an abscess that needed to be opened but the vet didn’t go deep enough to get to the pocket. Took him back to the vet a couple of days later and had a different vet work on him. He found the abscess, popped it, and the horse was so relieved you could see it on his face.
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Agreeing with ChocoMare as well—my horse is the type to have no heat or pulse when he has an abscess and 90% of the time he doesn’t show any lameness either. To JB’s point, most of the times that he has had one, we didn’t even know until either I or the farrier spotted the signs as his feet were growing out because he very rarely reacts to them in any way (and he’s prone to acting like he’s dying when he gets a tiny rock stuck in his shoe, so go figure).
The one that he did time show lameness he was three-legged lame, I was half-convinced he was going to fall over any time he moved, and the only reason why I knew the abscess had blown was because it was massive, blew out of his coronet band so was easy to spot, and (to ChocoMare’s point) it reeked and he was miraculously sound again. Of course it blew as the vet was on the way to come open it up, because horses, but I was just glad it wasn’t something worse and it grew out well even though his foot was hideous to look at for a solid year.
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I had a boarder whose two horses went through a couple years of regular abscesses. Sometimes it took a couple weeks for them to blow and you couldn’t always tell exactly where they blew, but they were instantly almost sound. Sometimes they smelled really bad.
Like others said, there have been a couple times where my horse was off for a few days, then fine, then that blowout line appeared in his hoof.
Oh I forgot to share this story … I had a wonderful OTTB who abscessed like crazy. I was at a relatively new barn, and the barn owner didn’t believe it was an abscess when he came up sore. She went to my vet and said that he had a broken leg and needed to be euthanized. Of course that didn’t happen, and she was appropriately mortified when the abscess opened. And then there was the day both front feet had abscesses. That was awful.
But the craziest thing is one day, the same barn owner thought she’d teach him a lesson because he wouldn’t always come to the gate. She took his friends and left him. After galloping around a bit, he came to her at the gate, knocked her down, and galloped around for about an hour, including leaving the farm and going over a pedestrian bridge over a major roadway.
I was furious … and he was finally caught and was okay … but never abscessed again. Isn’t that weird?
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I had a horse who regularly did the abscess thing. Very frequently my only clue that it had popped was the horse was now sound.
When you (general) use Ichthammol as your drawing agent there is no way to smell the popped abscess over the gross smell of the ichthammol.
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My TB was King of the Subtle Abcess 
Abcessed roughly every 2yrs or so.
He’d be 3-legged lame, obvious as to what foot was involved.
But vet would probe, we’d both lean away, expecting a fount of pus…
And only ever get a little dark drainage with a mere hint of stink.
Even when vet left a hole I had to pack with betadine-soaked cotton as it closed (a month, IIRC) never any stench.
And no, I never saw it blow.
@trubandloki Odd, but I don’t mind the ichthammol smell.
Reminds me of the hot tar used for street repair. When I was a kid we’d chew it like gum 
If I use an Animalintex pad I usually see it…if I catch it before the wrapping falls off in the pasture. LOL
If I can tell it is bulging at the coronary band, I tend to just slather it with Icthmathol instead and in that case, no, I can never tell it has ruptured EXCEPT once I wash off the black gunk, I can see the open slit on the coronary band once it has blown. This is how I tell if it is done. Once I see the slit, I keep applying black gunk for a couple more days and then I stop so it can dry back up.
As others have said… sometimes the abscess is so small that you only know it’s popped because horse is sound.
Other times, it explodes like a volcano, out the cornet band, and the horse doesn’t even seem to mind it as every step he takes black pus squirts across the field.
That was a fun day.
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Never.
I always have the vet out for an abscess, and he drains it
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Have dealt with a number of abscesses over the years. All but one have blown out and it has been obvious. The unique one blew out once at the coronary band, but continued to develop under the sole. Horse was only lightly lame after trimming, with no noticeable heat. When it (finally!!) blew, it blew out the back at the coronary band, leaving the hoof separated. Took a couple of very careful trims, a lot of soaking, and LOTs of iodine, but sole and hoof have healed, and horse is sound.
I’m on day 11 of soaking and wrapping, pulled the shoe. Playing the waiting game and the 1 million guesses if its an abscess or not. Foot is warm, but you just feel bad for them, I feel helpless.
He’s mostly had abscesses that I didn’t know about that blow and there is a crack on his hoof that takes forever to grow down. Then there is the other kind where he’s on his death bed and can’t walk, we wait awhile and eventually it pops. Can’t say I’ve had the satisfaction of seeing one blow, would be nice to have that happen right now. Sadly this is caused by farrier this time around 
