horse went from fine to hopping lame overnight on her left front. Had the farrier come out and he found a deep abscess in the heel region up by the coronat band (but not quite there) he opened it up to drain. Is there anything I need to keep an eye out for now or do?
Ask your vet to explain how to soak and wrap. If your vet cut into the sole or hoof you will need to keep that covered until it heals. I am surprised your vet did not discuss this with you and you did not ask him.
How did your farrier open it? A small, pin hole in the white line or fleshy part of the frog is not going to need much long term care. But a hole in the sole is going to need to stay clean until it closes. There is a corner of h*ll for people who open abscesses up with large holes in the sole. They are super highways for infection.
In many places, vets defer abscesses to farriers, so I’m not “surprised” like Scribbler.
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Can’t say it enough ---- keep the hole clean and keep it COVERED!
agree that hopefully the hole isn’t huge. I thankfully have only dealt with one abscess in my lifetime and it was in the sole. I had soaked it every day in Epsom salts but it wasn’t opening so I called the vet, who thanked me profusely for making his job so easy (a quick poke and out shot the crap).
his instructions in this case was to continue to soak in Epsom salts and keep the hoof covered u til the hole healed SHUT.
back then I Lived in SoCal’s Low Desert with no barn and there weren’t any sort of hoof covers available. I used baby diapers and duct tape,which worked wonderfully.
I wish I could say I’ve only dealt with one abscess in my lifetime! :lol:
Luckily today we have a wide variety of hoof boots on the market that make these things easier to deal with. You can usually get away with a light bandage and a boot, which will hold up to weather and turnout much better than diapers and duct tape.
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It’s just a tiny little pin hole that he opened up. Enough to let it start to drain but that’s about it. It is in the sole though.
Please have your vet take a look.
I don’t mean to scare you, but my TB bruised his sole near the heel bulb & although it presented as an abcess - gimpy & drained at the coronet - & we soaked to help it drain, the track eventually affected the entire sole & he sloughed half of it off.
I had thought we were on the road to recovery when I went to pick the hoof & saw blood from the frog area.
Vet told me it looked like a surgical resection :eek:
I thought his career as a riding horse was done - he was in his early 20s at the time but still very fit.
It took 8 MONTHS to resolve. With soaking, cleaning, wrapping twice a day for the 1st 4 months after the sole came off.
Horse got so used to the routine I could pull him out of his stall to eat his grain standing loose in the aisle (my own farm) while I dealt with soak/clean/pack/rewrap routine.
I got pretty proficient at creating a duct tape boot over betadine-soaked diaper for him to go out in.
After 4 mos we graduated to 3 rounds of glue-on shoes.
Cha-Ching$$
When they came off horse returned to full use.
My point is do not assume the pinhole is the only part of the foot involved.
Better to get the vet out, get some ABX into him if prescribed & a plan of care so you don’t end up like I did.
FWIW: this horse had abcessed before, a couple times in several years, & never had anything resembling this disaster occur.
I don’t understand - the farrier found the abscess in the back of the foot, up near the coronet, but opened things up on the sole? Why?? Tiny little pinholes are rarely the answer either, unless that’s really not an accurate description. They don’t have to be giant holes, but a teeny tiny hole often doesn’t allow quick enough drainage.
If he really did open up the sole, now you’ve got more work than if something had come out at/near the coronet.
Because you’ve got an artificial path to the sole, and what will probably be the path of choice at the coronet, I’d probably go the diaper route, filled with an epsom salt paste, vet wrapped on for the first layer, then duct taped for durability. The hole in sole has to be protected,and ideally the paste will keep the heel region soft enough it will truly come out there, sooner rather than later.
Pin hole or not, if it’s in the sole you need to keep that clean until it is closed. The only saving grace is a pin hole closes faster than a large hole… but you’re still looking at a few weeks of keeping dirt off the sole.
If the abscess is done draining, my preferred method to handle the hole is to clean the area daily with a mild antiseptic (chlorohexidine), cover the hole with something antimicrobial- ichthamol & gauze, epsom paste, iodine, hoof packing, etc. then do a light bandage with a durable boot over top. Soft rides or Easy Boot Rxs can work well. If you don’t have a boot, diapers and duct tape will suffice.
The “bubble test” is usually a good indicator if the hole is open- when scrubbing the area to clean, press down around the hole with your thumbs. If you see bubbles, there is still an opening to the hoof cavity. Works for most horses unless their sole is unusually thick and rigid.
I probably didn’t explain it right. It’s like near the heel bulb and closer to the coronet band then the bottom part of the foot but the way to access it was through the sole. I don’t know it confusing trying to explain lol
I got what you were saying 
But my issue is that if the farrier could “see” it near the coronet band, there was no reason to make a hole farther away. By the time you can see/feel an abscess about to burst up top, it’s much closer to the top, than the sole, so going at it through the sole makes no sense. Unless he also found a squishy spot, he had no idea where on the sole this thing was also tracking.
I agree with Tex - now that you’ve got a hole in the sole, and still don’t have resolution, it needs to be packed and wrapped for an active abscess, and hope you get it draining somewhere soon, top or bottom. Then that hole in the sole, either what’s there now, or bigger if that’s where the abscess really bursts through, has to be treated until it heals such that nothing can pack in there to keep it clean and protected.
Ok I missed that it was farrier not vet.
I’ve treated 4 abscesses in 8 years, and my farrier won’t cut in. We just wrap and soak until the abscess bursts out the heel bulb or frog. We have never had complications and recovery time is fast.
Animalintex poultice pads are what I use for an abscess. Slightly wet it then put it on the hoof, cover with a diaper then vet wrap. Duct tape all of that if you don’t have boots to protect the bandaging. This is what my vet recommends and it works. You should be able to see on the pad where the abscess is draining.
Our vet’s recommendation: Soak 1-2 times a day in a bath of Epsom salts with Betadine to look like weak tea. Put Magna Paste on sole (encourages draining while wrapped) then cover. If you’re not sure on how to keep it wrapped, there are videos out there that show the duct tape method. Just finished this with my donkey. Important to keep it clean. Our vet also gives SMZ for 7 days (I know some vets don’t) and Bute for a few days.
I do the same with an active abscess until it is done draining. I love the Animalintex poultice. I buy the sheets, then cut them into three pieces along the folds. That size seems to be perfect for my horses’ hooves, and it stretches my dollar.
I may or may not soak with epsom salts daily, too, depending on the situation.
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Thanks so much everyone!! Just wanted to update this thread and say that Diamond (the horse) is doing great and pretty much walking normally again.
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