Abscess ruptured in the middle of the frog?

[Jaideux]

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I’ve dealt with abscesses all over the sole, the toe line, the heel, the cornet band… but never the center of the frog. Despite initially doing epsom soaks and animalintex packs daily (and then 3 days of boiled flax seed soaks with animalintex packs), it brewed for 2 weeks, possibly a little bit longer, before finally rupturing. It didn’t even drain anything and it took me a little while to find the tunnel underneath the flap. It seems to be healing nicely- the next day it was closed enough that trying to flush the hole would have meant damaging some healing tissue. Hopefully a secondary infection doesn’t occur.

Now it makes sense why the farrier couldn’t really localize the lameness in what otherwise was a very classic presentation of an abscess. Somewhat regretting the x-rays we did, but hey, at least I knew it wasn’t broken eh?

[JB]

I had xrays done after the middle frog abscess seemed to resolve, then returned, and nothing was seen (so we assumed “just” an abscess, if a stubborn one), and not too many days later I pulled a stick out of his foot which had jammed in there horizontally. Of course xrays couldn’t see that.

So yeah, I’ve have the hole rupture in the middle of the frog :lol:

[FirstChance]

My guy blew the back half of his frog off last August. Trainers, farrier, vet had debated which foot the abscess was in for weeks. Thus, I ended up treating all of them and then focusing on his right side. I didn’t end up with a hole. The back half of his frog was gone to about 3/4" deep. It’s been a year and it’s still growing in. I had him shod for about 7 months due to heel soreness in that foot and kept it clean. Otherwise after initial treatment for the abscess we left it alone. It’s been a year now and the frog is nearly grown back in and he’s been barefoot again for just over a month. I’ve dealt with a lot of abscesses over the years, but this was my first frog blowout. Hopefully I won’t ever have another!

[SLW]

Yeah for the abscess blowing out! I was taught do not let the opening of an abscess heal over/wall off right away because it can re-cook. Let it heal like the puncture type wound that it is, from the inside out with salt water or betadine flushing for a few days, maybe longer, depending on the size.

Good luck!

[jawa]

Is it possible for you or your farrier to cut away the excess flap so that the abscess can heal correctly?

I would also worry/wonder about a foreign body in the frog.

Jingles.