Just curious other people’s experience with stone bruises. Have a horse that appears to have a stone bruise and absolutely reacted to hoof testers when the farrier was here. Farrier recommended pads and we did that. It’s been nearly 2 weeks and no improvement. Vet is scheduled to come out this week. I’m just curious other people’s experience with stone bruises, because this one feels like it’s been here for over 4 weeks and despite rest and pads is not improving.
I’ve had two different horses get a stone bruise each; both went sound immediately after shoeing with pads. Had one x-rayed before shoeing, and found out she had thinnish soles. Neither one abscessed, so dodged that bullet, and no long-term consequences, either. Both were able to go back to being barefoot after recovery (I was cautious, and kept the shoes on, without pads, for a second cycle).
First one, I saw it happen – mare ran down the gravel driveway and stepped on a rock; second one happened after we had a bunch of rain – the vet told me he’d seen five stone bruises that day (and that one of them was his own horse), due to the sudden change in conditions.
Is your vet equipped to do radiographs at your barn?
Yes, vet can and I anticipate doing them. I’m mostly worried it is something worse than a stone bruise since it has been going on for seemingly so long. Horse is TB and has thin soles for sure. So, hoping for some other people to tell me stories of how a bad stone bruise took awhile to heal. Issue is that horse is not mine, came to me like this and had been out in very rocky pasture, so I assume that is where it occurred. Horse is currently on way better footing and in pads.
{knocking wood} That you don’t share my experience.
20+yo TB bruised his heel.
Saw it happen as he was running from one of those #@*! B52 Bomber flies.
He went very lame in that foot.
So bad that vet did rads that showed no fracture, so we treated as if abcess was probable, soak & bute.
Abcess did form & track ran from heel to toe, resulting in a subsolar abcess that caused 1/2 his sole to slough off.
I knew we were in deep when I picked the foot & drew blood from the sulcus.
Took me 8mos of soaking, medicating, packing & wrapping - twice a day.
When enough sole grew back we progressed to 3 rounds of glue-on shoes, redone at the 4-week mark.
The Good News:
Horse returned to full work with no lingering aftereffects.
I, OTOH, may have gone grayer :rolleyes:
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Ooph, 8 months sounds terrible! Thing is with this guy is that he isn’t terribly lame, he is just tender footed. No head bobbing.
Just finished a good 6 weeks of dealing with a likely bruise to abscess situation in a hind foot. No heat. No reaction to vet using hoof testers. Very, very slight temperature. Vet was convinced of abscess even though no reaction. The rest of us (including 2 good farriers) were freaking out because it looked like high up lameness and The Drama Llama was all “You will not touch that leg. Not any part of it!!!” 3-legged lame. Soul destroying. Took 2 people and a whip to get her out of her stall to check her over.
Farrier came out about 4 hours after the vet. Boom, heat, reaction to hoof testers and a nice drainage hole was dug. It took forever to drain, but it did and it is now done and she has been trimmed enough that the drainage hole is shallow enough she no longer needs to wear a boot on that foot. The
So, I’m going to say hold out hope for a bruise to abscess and a fairly easy, if onerous, resolution. Good luck!
P.s. the 2 people and a whip thing lasted through a few days of soaking and wrapping and booting until the dang thing drained enough to give her relief. Yes, she was on painkillers from the first lame step. Drama. Llama.
Thank you - I am beginning to wonder if it was a deep abscess. Still no heat. Sort of hoping when the vet pulls off the pads, you can see obvious signs of abscess and it drains and he heals up quickly.
I’m going to bet the padding is too much pressure on the bottom of the foot therefore not relieving the pain from the bruise and maybe the bruise has turned into an abscess.
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Thanks - I was also wondering that. The farrier, who I trust, thought pads would be the quickest way to relieve his discomfort but he was actually the worse the day he got shod, although improved after that. The vet cannot come fast enough!!!
I really am hoping for the fastest resolution possible…rather than something far worse like a cracked coffin bone.
Does this horse have thin soles?
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sounds more like an abscess to me.
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Yes, I’d be inclined to think this, as well. I’ve had good luck managing a nasty stone bruise by narrowing down the sore area via hoof testers, and cutting a corresponding area out of a pad to put in hoof boots - provides protection from hard ground and relieves pressure by elevating the sore slightly.
Stone bruises can for sure go on for a while, but I think you’ve got the right idea to grab radiographs and see what’s going on.
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Makes sense… like cutting a hole in a piece mole skin over a heel blister on your foot relieves the pain.
Thank you - this is making me feel way better and I wish the vet could come out sooner! Per the farrier, he does have thin soles.
Okay… so what do you think is contributing to the thin soles? IME, long toes and low underrun heels come with thin soles, is this the issue? Does the farrier ever pare away sole during a reset?
Need to work on building sole. Diet and a balanced trim before applying shoes will help the most. You can also use things like Keratex, Durasole or Hoof Armor (even shod) to help build sole as well.
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Not sure - I always had heard TBs had thin soles and people keep telling me he just has TB feet. Since I’ve had him, I’ve put him on a ration balancer (he is actually an easy keeper) but no supplements. How do you build sole if he needs pads? I understand he used to have pads, they were removed, and I have put them back on. It was only the first time my farrier had seen him and I got the sense he didn’t love how the last farrier had done his feet.
It’s really hard to give any advice without seeing the feet and knowing diet, turnout, exercise details. I don’t buy the typical TB feet argument anymore after seeing the improvements in mine just with the right trim and diet.
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Pretty much :lol:
I also do this when I need to try and get even somewhat heel-first landings on horses with atrocious central-sulcus thrush - cut out a frog-shaped hole so they’re less reluctant to weight the caudal part of the foot, and then get to clean-traxing and clay-packing the thrush.
OP: When you get radiographs, it would likely be super helpful for you to ask your vet for a set of Podiatry/Farrier view rads (lateral and DP or even just lateral) along with any views necessary to diagnose the problem you’re currently having. Basically you want the horse as square as possible (meaning BOTH feet of a pair - fronts or hinds - on blocks), with the beam of the x-ray pointed perpendicular to the coffin joint. Mark the cornet band with a radio-opaque marker (a piece of wire taped on will do!) and make sure you have a scale reference - an easy way to do this is cut your wire to a known length, e.g. 10mm. This will let you see sole thickness for 100% certain - as well as palmar angle, sneaky excess toe length, etc.
Pads are, in my experience, pretty critical for building sole thickness. They provide comfortable stimulation without constant pressure. Diet, trim, and type of shoeing/booting set up are equally important, as @BoyleHeightsKid says.
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Thanks. I have also been talking to someone with a lot of experience with OTTB’s on nutrition for feet. So, at the very least, it sounds like biotin and flax for nutrition could help coupled with proper shoeing. Appreciate all of the responses. It’s hard to just sit and stress, waiting for the vet to come. 1 more day. Part of me is sort of hoping when they take the pads off, they see signs that is actually an abscess after all and it can be drained and treated. But it’s also 2020 so who knows what the outcome will be.
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My OTTB has very thin soles. You wouldn’t know to look at him and it was an issue we dealt with after one particularly soggy spring we ended up getting X-rays because we were stumped. He wasn’t abcessing but was constantly tender footed. Xrays dish in fact show he just has a very thin sole. He feet are excellent quality and should be a candidate for not needing shoes. But we end up having to pad him in the front and this last spring did shoes bedding because he didn’t want to go down the road bare behind.
we have been using the natural balance form pads up from with much success. And when he seems to be festering an abscess or a stone bruise we have actually put him in an aluminum pad. Sound crazy and not ideal but it crave him lots of comfort and relief and he was sound and happy. This past summer my carrier had a lot of horses in the aluminum pad. And usually only for a shoe cycle or two. Maybe look into that as an option so he is able to move around. It’s been my experience if it’s a deep festering abscess that getting them
moving around really helped bring it to the surface so to speak. And our experience has been the aluminum pad helps make them comfortable enough to I do that and helps elevate them not moving around due to pain. Good luck. I know how frustrating it can be.
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