Assumed Abscess That is Now a Lump on his Coronet Band

[trakehners]

The issue with antibiotics for abscesses (in horse, or human, or any other species) is that usually by the time the abscess has started causing pain, the body has already walled the infection off (which is what creates the pressure). If the infection is walled off, the likelihood of antibiotics getting into and fighting it is extremely low so you (or your horse) essentially end up taking antibiotics for no reason which can equal increased antibiotic resistance with no meaningful benefit. The only way to really treat it is to open it, drain it, and keep it clean until the tissue can granulate and the wound can heal.

Source: experienced a very painful abscess of my own that I had to have drained and packed. I’ve taken antibiotics to address two additional ones after the initial experience because it alerted me to what my symptoms were actually pointing to and I was consequently able to catch the later ones very early (before they walled off completely), but your horse doesn’t have the words to be able to tell you that.

[ndirish07]

My vet does not prescribe antibiotics for a hoof abscess. She explained, during the 12+ week hoof abscess from hell, that antibiotics don’t reach deep within the hoof as there isn’t enough blood supply to make any discernable difference. She would only prescribe antibiotics if there was any other swelling/cellulitis further up the leg. And I asked for antibiotics…almost weekly in the hopes something would speed up the abscess that eventually drained from 4 locations in his foot. I also ran it by two other vets who agreed.

[joiedevie99]

If you are desperate to try antibiotics, a regional limb perfusion is a better bet than oral.

[jvanrens]

@hj.eq.xc

Does anyone know why vets its seems across the board actually prescribe antibiotics for abscesses or assumed abscesses?

FWIW, I’ve never had a vet prescribe antibiotics for abscesses, assumed or otherwise.

[hj.eq.xc]

I’m not desperate to try antibiotics, I hope I didn’t give that impression at all, I was just wondering on their efficacy and if they can result in elongating the overall process of the body healing it. Given the location and history of this situation, it seems through what I have heard and what others on here are responding that antibiotics aren’t going to actively kill the infection that is an abscess in the hoof. It was kind of a side track off the purpose of this thread but either way, I think it’s interesting to discuss and my horse was prescribed a lot of antibiotics through this process. However, I agree that regional limb perfusion would be more effective for treating the foot and my trimmer mentioned it as well which is what she did when her horse got a nail in its foot rather than oral

[hj.eq.xc]

do you know how they eventually found out about the corn stalk in his foot?

[ndirish07]

It eventually erupted out his fetlock. All they knew at the time was that he had a tendon sheath infection and they were doing antibiotic perfusions for several weeks and wrapping it. One day I went to change his wrap while the owners were out of town and found it in the wrap. It probably went in through the central sulcus and went up looking for a place to migrate out, but it took several weeks.

[IPEsq]

The human Equifit gel socks and the equine ones are not the same size. I’ve used both. If you got a too small one, the gel part will rip if not the whole thing. The horse one was hard enough to get over the foot, and this is not my horse with the extra large feet. Maybe there’s a dupe out there in a large size, but I dunno.

[Peggy]

Thanks. The ones I linked are the same size as the human ones and seem identical in all respects. I learned about them on an ice skating forum: however bad riding boots are to break in, ice skates are apparently way more painful.

[AW]

Ask your vet if it could be quittor. I can’t remember exactly how our vet diagnosed what we originally thought was an abscess at the coronet band, but it looked just like your horse.

[hj.eq.xc]

we did discuss quittor back around mid November when the lump appeared. My vet didn’t seem to think it was quittor because he said he would expect more heat, pain, and soft swelling around the spot if it were quittor but that if my horse got feverish or his leg swells, at that point it would be more reasonable to assume quittor or something more serious. He has presented with a fever a month previous, that only lasted about 12hrs and did not come back and has no corelation to the bump. That said, from the best of my knowledge, quittor can come about secondary to an abscess if the abscess travels up, which this one has. If the bump had appeared around the same time as the fever, I think maybe quittor would have been taken more seriously. We did ultrasound the bump about a week or so after it appeared and the vet said he did not see anything on the ultrasound. How can quittor be diagnosed via imaging? I thought it was radiographs and ultra sound but I am not sure as my vet said rads wouldn’t show it. I would not at all be surprised however if this was just a wacky presentation but I assume with quittor it is more acute and his lameness and symptoms would be more severe. Right now I am thinking it is more likely to be something like a piece of wood, glass, splinter, thorn etc and debridement would be the best move but I am waiting on a surgeons feedback (my vet shared the pics with a colleague)

[AW]

My quittor was in a 32yo TB who was very much not stoic, and he was never as lame as the swelling alone should have made him.

Any update?

[hj.eq.xc]

I sent the info off to a surgeon and his evaluation was quittor, at least that is what we are dealing with now it looks like but obviously something has gotten in there in order to infect the collateral cartilage to begin with, so it could be something like a thorn or splinter. We will be moving forward with further diagnostics before determining surgery for debridement or intense antibiotic therapy if surgery is too risky or something along those lines. It’s a bit take it as it comes right now but at least we have a path forward for now and keeping fingers crossed and praying it’s relatively straightforward and easy to deal with for a full recovery.

[AW]

He recovers as well as our old man did!