I was always taught to pull shoes to soak a for for an abscess, but why? The water is getting everywhere, it’s not like the shoe is sealed to the foot. Having a hard time getting a farrier out this morning. I know I can just soak anyway and it won’t hurt, but it got me wondering what the current thought is.
I’ve only pulled shoes for an abscess if the abscess is from a hot nail. The farrier needs to pull the shoe to reset the close nail.
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I’ve never heard of pulling a shoe to soak an abscess. Doesn’t mean anything, I guess, but I can’t see a real reason that would be necessary.
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I guess I’ve been lied to forever (never was told it’s into for a hot nail)? 
I’ve never heard of pulling the shoe specifically for soaking. But pulling the shoe so you can see more of the sole, clean up the foot, and/or get a more accurate picture with hoof testers? yes.
And if it ends up being a very stubborn abscess that needs x-rays to double check that you are in fact dealing with an abscess, having the shoe off makes things easier. I recently went through this. Abscess finally blew out the white line at the medial heel, five weeks after initially coming up sore.
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Ugh 5 weeks. That’s awful. 
I’ve been very lucky so far that most of mine have been quick! 
Same as beowulf, never pulled the shoe unless I suspected a hot nail.
Also, if you don’t already have them, Davis soaking boots are the cat’s pajamas for abcess soaking.
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I’ve only pulled a shoe if it was necessary to get to the site of the abscess, to open it up to drain.
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I don’t but that’s a great idea. I usually use a rubber feed tub. Guess I’ll have to scour the interwebs for one 
ETA are they normally $70 or is this an infamous amazon markup? https://a.co/d/huYHnnv
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Just literally dealt with a heel abscess, horse was lame and not getting better so off to the vet we went. Vet could see it on x-ray, blocked the heel so he’d load his foot normally for a couple hours, and voila, the abscess burst that night. Sound the next day. Nice trick! (didn’t pull shoe).
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Yup, it was very frustrating. Through the entire process he was sound at the walk on a straight line, just ouchy trotting or turning a circle. I’ve had this horse for almost 14 years. He’s only ever had two abscesses that I know of, this one (hind left), that dragged out over a month, resulted in a vet visit and x-rays, and I had to scratch from a show. The other time he abscessed (front left) the second week of a trip to WEC Ohio, which again resulted in a vet visit and x-rays, and had to scratch from the rest of the show.
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It depends on what you’re soaking in. Some of the chemicals used will react negatively with metal.
But also, there’s no need to soak in most cases. Just pack and wrap
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We also blocked the heel and hoped that would be enough to get it to pop. No dice. He was pretty sound walking in a straight line through the whole ordeal. We could see the abscess on the x-ray and it was running a long the white line. It has since popped and he’s back to work with a shoe on. By the next trim it will have grown out.
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Terrible. They always do it before a show, don’t they?
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I’ve had a shoe pulled a couple of times for an abscess. Not to soak easier, but actually because my gelding’s leg swells up insanely badly up to his knee when he gets an abscess. Removing the shoe removes a bit of extra pressure on the foot, so the swelling goes away within a day once it’s pulled. I’ve also had a shoe pulled to get a better look with hoof testers and to dig out the abscess if that’s possible.
My preference generally though is not to pull it if I don’t absolutely have to.
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She actually wears nail on composites. I soak with epsom salts and very hot water, and I also pack with animalintex or epsom salt paste. These shoes do have a plug in the sole, so I wouldn’t be able to pack unless I pull the shoe. But I was wondering more generally, even with regular metal shoes, what people do. Thanks!
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I hauled my first horse to show and kept him there overnight since it was a very early start for us to have hauled same day. He was sound the day I hauled him in, stepped out of the stall ouchy the next morning, and was three-legged by the time I walked him out to the trailer to groom him 
It was a very short show for us. Abscess resolved a couple of days later.
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the worst.
This one was 2/5 last night at night check and I thought she maybe tweaked something being silly on the longe yesterday but was 4/5 this morning. Luckily she’s NOT on the list to show next week!
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I’ve used the Davis soaking boot and I agree that they’re great.
They should cost in the $40 to $45 dollar range.
Dover and Smartpak both carry them.
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If you’re packing, I just wouldn’t bother soaking. And, enough repeated epsom salt soaks can harden things. Magnesium sulfate is good at drawing water to it, which means out of the foot which means a harder foot.
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