Abscess, then trimmed too short

[hwake]

Pony has historically been barefoot/booted for trails, with decent little feet. Trimmed every 4wks. We were training for our first endurance ride this summer, and as part of our prep I decided to go with nailed-on shoes a month ahead of our ride. She stood nicely for the farrier, no issues with having the shoes put on.

Two weeks later – very riding-light, due to my work schedule – she came in walking lame with some soft swelling above the RF fetlock. Farrier pulled shoes the next day. No digital pulse, no heat, and the lameness improved a bit in the next couple days to where she was sound at the walk and trotting to the left, but head-bobbing lame trotting to the right. Vet managed to dig out an abscess just medial to the white line. Drained, flushed, wrapped.

Four days later, improved but still lame. Vet came back out, flushed and wrapped the hoof again.

Four days after that, still lame - no worse but not much better. Vet found no sensitivity to hoof testers. Packed the tract with iodine and cotton. Said that her toes were too long on all four (only 2.5 weeks after her last trim) but especially the abscessed hoof, and that pony might just be tender after being in shoes for 2 weeks. Cleared to return to work.

That was 10 days ago. I’ve done some hand walking and two short (<5mi) hacks since then, mostly at a walk. She’s serviceable on trails with boots but still off trotting to the right on a circle. I decided to hold off on another vet call until the farrier came out to see if the trim would improve things at all. Farrier came out yesterday and took off more toe, along with more hoof wall, and now instead of being lame on one foot pony is sore/lame all around because she’s lost so much concavity.

I have her booted for turnout now, but it’s super frustrating - until the soreness from the trim improves, it doesn’t seem worth calling out the vet to work up the ongoing lameness. Other than boots and Magic Cushion, what can I do to make pony more comfortable? What do you do when the vet-recommended trim makes the pony more lame than whatever was going on before? How much more hair will I need to pull out before I can get this little mare sound and working again?

[Bogey2]

paint the bottoms and edges with durasole or keratex or farriers formula…something that will toughen it up until it grows out

[barnesthenoble]

Has she ever been shod before? The trim to apply a shoe vs the trim to leave a horse comfortably barefoot are different. Will your farrier do glue ons, or can she live in her boots and add some pads for awhile? You will likely be fighting bruising and trying to grow this out for awhile.

[EmilyM]

Give her some bute to help with the pain.

[candyappy]

@hwake

what can I do to make pony more comfortable?

Stop trimming her at 4 weeks if she was trimmed too short to begin with? Sounds like your farrier doesn’t know when enough is enough…

An abscess can drain but still be painful and the draining doesn’t mean that the abscess was resolved.
I had one mare who had a recurring abscess in her back left for over a year. She would be hopping lame one day, drain some, be better for a while and then repeat all over again until it finally blew out never to return again.

[hwake]

She has never been shod before this. I’m kicking myself a bit over all this - I’ve had her nearly 2 years and she’s never been lame, and then 2 weeks after I get her shod it all goes downhill! I know the abscess isn’t necessarily due to the shoes and nails but it’s hard for brain not to correlate the two.
Farrier will not do glue-ons (claims to have seen a horse whose entire hoof capsule was pulled off). If I can’t get the pony comfortable in boots, I might try something like Easycare Octos which glue to the hoof wall and can be DIYed.

[Alterwho]

@hwake

Farrier will not do glue-ons (claims to have seen a horse whose entire hoof capsule was pulled off)

Um, what??? I’ve never heard of this happening. I don’t even see how that would be possible. Sounds like he made it up as an excuse not to do them

[hwake]

She’s never had an issue with the 4wk trim schedule before. If anything, the farrier has erred on the side of trimming not enough - occasionally just runs a rasp around the toe - but the vet saw the pony 2.5 weeks into her trim and said her toes were way too long and suggested that might be why she was still lame. Farrier came out 10 days after that, at which point the toes definitely hadn’t gotten any shorter, so I relayed the vet’s feedback and farrier expressed some skepticism but took off the toe as requested.
Guess I won’t be doing that again. Just frustrated and unsure how to best advocate for the pony, when the vet and farrier seem to disagree with each other’s assessments.
WIll xray show a recurring abscess?

[hwake]

I didn’t think it was possible either, but I figured i was in everyone’s best interests not to go down that rabbit hole, LOL. No point in asking him to apply glue-ons if that’s his experience level.

[Alterwho]

@hwake

No point in asking him to apply glue-ons if that’s his experience level

Definitely!

[IPEsq]

I’d give some Bute for the pain for now as well as packing or painting the soles. Take a look at Rebound hoof pack for something not as messy as Magic Cushion. One of my vets also swears by the old school Forshner’s as well.

I assume at some point you will have a recheck with the vet. I would just xray all of the feet. The lame one you might be able to see a pocket or something if the abscess is still brewing. Maybe not. But X-rays should help your farrier situation by really seeing what’s going on with the feet. You may also ask your vet to do some blocks to confirm if the lameness (if still there) is coming from the foot or if you might have had an abscess plus some other injury up higher.

[Larbear]

Something else to consider are the bars. If your farrier wasn’t trimming enough toe, chances are he’s not trimming the bars adequately either. If the bars are overgrown/too long horse will feel the effects of that now that the toes and the hoof wall are trimmed more. No pictures to go by obviously but something to look at.

[candyappy]

@hwake

She has never been shod before this. I’m kicking myself a bit over all this - I’ve had her nearly 2 years and she’s never been lame, and then 2 weeks after I get her shod it all goes downhill! I know the abscess isn’t necessarily due to the shoes and nails but it’s hard for brain not to correlate the two.

Were you there when she was being shod? Sometimes the farrier can get a nail wrong( then pull it out) and that could result in an abscess a bit later.

I wouldn’t blame her being in shoes for her injury since you rode for several weeks with a sound horse.
I would be really curious to see what her feet look like because if she was routinely left with long toes/ low heels that can over time cause lameness and easily be the cause of an abscess.

@hwake

WIll xray show a recurring abscess?

I do believe they can x-ray the foot and see where the abscess is? I’ve never done it but I " think" it is possible.