help horse foundered - need easy way to soak hoof in ice

[blueribbonpanel]

I’ve been soaking horses foot in a shallow rubber bucket filled with ice. At first she stood in the bucket fine. Now she’s trying to dump it all the time, leading to much frustration on my part.

I read there is a way to do this with a used inner tube. Does anyone have pictures or video of this. Or any other ways to do with without her standing in a bucket and dumping the ice all the .time. Did it 6 times this morning!

Was told to ice foot as many times as possible, 24 hrs! That’s kind of impossible

What I don’t understand is the vet took xrays and it shows there is no rotation, but she sure is sore. Had vet out numerous tmes already. Giving “pentoxifilene” bute and icing foot. Any other suggestions. Had to give banamine at first cuz she was in so much pain. Don’t even know what brought this on. This is an older horse and has been on pergolide for years. Did blood test already.

Any other hints about this? Thanking you in advance.

[dungrulla]

Get two used IV bags from your vet and cut the tops off. Put them around the horse’s foot, then fill with ice and vetwrap/duct tape around the ankles. We used this when my horse had front hoof lameness on the recommendation of BO, to great success. Luckily it turned out he hadn’t actually foundered and just had really thin soles with bilateral abscesses. It was a fun few days.

Is it real wet where you are? That can make horses–especially barefoot horses–ouchy in short order, sometimes dramatically so if they tend toward crappy feet. When it happened to my guy we 100% thought he had foundered.

We packed his crap soles with magic cushion this year when it started to get wet and haven’t had as many issues.

[GetSpotted]

I’ve used frozen pea bags (2 per hoof) and wrapped with 8" ace bandage to keep on. Then wrapped frozen otter pops around cannon bones, and wrapped with polos to help even more (cold travels down my vet told me).

We’ve tried iv bags too. They work really well, just harder to get ice all the time when you only have a small freezer at the barn.

Sending you jingles for quick recovery!

[Bluey]

Get a regular car tire inner tube.
Cut it so you have a length that is about twice what you want to cover, generally from the ground to right under the knee.

Put the leg in the inner tube, hoof about the middle.
Dump ice and water at will in there and tape at the top.

Some horses do fine with ice, others it seem to be hurting them and will fight it.

One friend had a mare foundering after foaling that would fight icing.
When let go she would limp over to a sand pile in the sun to get her sore feet warm.
She stood there all day if she could.
They figured she knew best, quit icing and she was fine after a couple weeks.
Will never know what helped, others do best with icing.

[Scribbler]

Laminitis is the acute inflammation and founder is the long term structural change to the hoof/coffin bone angle that can result from laminitis.

If you treat the laminitis phase promptly and appropriatley you may prevent founder from developing.

If you have questions ask your vet. I hope you have taken horse off all feed except low sugar hay and are soaking the hay if you have doubts.

Laminitis usually affects both front feet at once so if the problem is just one foot, its likely an abscess. Unless that one foot is structurally wierd like its a club foot.

[Haylter]

get small trash bags, fill one partially with ice, put it inside a few more for some added “strength” tie off the open end then tie or tape bag around the leg/hoof. Basically you are making like a tube full of ice wrapping it around as low as you can and securing it. like an ice bag anklet

[walkinthewalk]

@Scribbler

Laminitis is the acute inflammation and founder is the long term structural change to the hoof/coffin bone angle that can result from laminitis.

If you treat the laminitis phase promptly and appropriatley you may prevent founder from developing.

If you have questions ask your vet. I hope you have taken horse off all feed except low sugar hay and are soaking the hay if you have doubts.

Laminitis usually affects both front feet at once so if the problem is just one foot, its likely an abscess. Unless that one foot is structurally wierd like its a club foot.

1. Read this ^^^^ until you see it in your sleep every night:)

2. The horse has probably reached the point to where it does not want the ice around the live portions of its hoof and fetlock.

Provided this is laminitis and not an abscess, as someone ele suggested, by bags of cheap frozen peas and duct tape them on. You can generally get 2-4 times out of one bag of peas.

or, if you can afford to, Google “hoof ice boots” and buy a pair. They aren’t cheap but they are a great investment. I’m willing to bet this will not be your only episode of inflamed hooves — if it’s due to metabolic issues, one time is seldom the only time:)

3. If it is an abscess, then it needs soaked in Epsom salts/water.

best at wishes for a full recovery:)

[Critter]

When my guy foundered, I took some rubber velcro bell boots, cut the toe end off and old sock and put that over the bell boot. Then I took the frozen ice packs (rectangular shape…like you use for athletes) and put them on the inside of the bell boot (held in place by the sock). They actually stayed in place right over the front of the hoof…I just would rotate out a new ice pack every few hours. I don’t think it gets them as cold as standing in the ice…but it worked to keep the cooling process continuous throughout the day.

Be careful assuming abscess…when my guy first presented it looked like a classic abscess (not anything like founder). We did the hot soak with epsom salts and foot poultice. When it didn’t improve…my vet came out to xray to find the abscess…you can imagine the shock for all of us when there was a 10* rotation (8* on the other foot). I still wonder had I put him ice those first few days instead of abscess treating if the end result would have been different (we had to euthanize after 2 months of failing to get him comfortable).

[Scribbler]

Soaking in hot water and poultices could be disastrous for a laminitis/founder case as it softens the already weakened hoof wall and could increase the rotation. Whereas icing an abscess maybe isn’t helpful, but it is not going to increase any kind of structural damage.

My point was that if it was only one foot, I would suspect abscess unless that one foot was structurally compromised like a club foot. If it was both feet I would think laminitis.