Hoof abscess that doesn't burst

[btswass]

This is the second abscess I’ve had with my horse and it seems to be taking the same course as the last one. Slowly improving but not bursting…

First one was over the winter when I wasn’t riding so wasn’t terribly concerned about speeding up the process. A couple months later the pocket from where the abscess had been surfaced.

This time horse decides to abscess when I finally have horse shows lined up after 2 years. So I’ve tried everything to get this thing to hurry up and burst and instead he just seems to slowly get sounder but we haven’t been able to find the abscess. Is this common? Anyone else experience something similar? Can they just go away?

[Scribbler]

They can be resorbed. They can leak out the frog where you don’t really notice them. They can linger on coming and going for a while. Also other injuries can be mistaken for abscesses.

[kashmere]

One of our local vets always says “all lameness is an abscess until proven otherwise” - and he’s generally right - so I totally get why you would go with an abscess diagnosis as the first thought. Buuuuut, since this is the second instance of an abscess-style lameness with no actual abscess confirmed, I’d start looking a little deeper:

• What makes you think abscess? Any heat in the hoof? Digital pulse evident?
• Same foot both times or different? Front? Hind?
• How lame at the lamest and how long til sound again?
• Where was he in his trim/shoeing cycle this time? What about last time?
• Anything going on with his feet in general? Issues your farrier is managing, etc?

I have a now-retired mare who I went through something similar with: Super duper 5/5 lame up front, no sign of anything, assume abscess. Wrap, poultice, no big dramatic burst but like Scribbler said sometimes they can just leak out through the frog. Horse comes sound again. Lather, rinse repeat. By the 3rd time I had the vet out for some diagnostics - culprit was navicular.

Not trying to sound the alarm bells for you (and in any case, we were able to manage this mare quite well with corrective shoeing) - but in my experience most abscesses don’t present this way. Every now and then, sure - but twice for one horse in a matter of months would make me look further.

[btswass]

Heat plus digital pulse. Went from 100% sound the night before to lame at the trot the next morning and 3 legged lame the day after. Same foot both times. This is his bad foot. He’s super sensitive to the slightest bruise or sole pressure. Goes in frog support pads. He was a week overdue. He was diagnosed with pedal osteitis in that foot 5 years ago and radiographs also showed slight navicular changes. So its a tricky foot to start with. Also the first abscess was over winter around January so 10 months ago.

[Postandrails]

I’ve only dealt with 3 abscesses over 30 years and multiple horses, and none of them burst. All resolved within 1-2 weeks and never re-occurred. Sometimes though the horse can become sound for a while but the abscess wasn’t fully healed and it becomes “active” again later on.

[btswass]

@Postandrails

I’ve only dealt with 3 abscesses over 30 years and multiple horses, and none of them burst. All resolved within 1-2 weeks and never re-occurred. Sometimes though the horse can become sound for a while but the abscess wasn’t fully healed and it becomes “active” again later on.

This is only my second abscess in 20 years with horses but everything I’ve read makes it sound like they always burst. Though doesn’t look like he’ll be sound for the show this weekend

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

@btswass

This is only my second abscess in 20 years with horses but everything I’ve read makes it sound like they always burst. Though doesn’t look like he’ll be sound for the show this weekend

The literature about abscesses is very discouraging in this respect. It is incredibly satisfying to see an abscess burst or to find a fresh exit hole in the heel bulb with discharge evident. However, it doesn’t always happen that way in my experience.

I have an abscess prone retired horse. His right front is his “pancake” foot. His abscesses seem to come in cycles every 3 or so years. A few have burst, some (probably most) have not. Sometimes the farrier finds the tracts later.

[Janet_Conway]

I have a mare that started developing repeat abscesses last fall in front left foot. In January, I was able to get a specialist farrier to come out. I had my vet take xrays for the specialist farrier, who was able to easily see in xrays where the tracts were off, and he corrected angles with one trim. She hasn’t had an abscess since. I also switched farriers after that.

[16_Hands]

You can have your vet use hoof testers to locate the abscess and he can open it for you instead of waiting for it to burst on its own. Your horse will probably thank you for relieving the pressure and pain. We did that with one horse and the relief on his face was so evident we were sorry we didn’t do it sooner. My husband padded him up with oakum and put a shoe on and he was sound.

[kashmere]

@btswass

Heat plus digital pulse. Went from 100% sound the night before to lame at the trot the next morning and 3 legged lame the day after. Same foot both times. This is his bad foot. He’s super sensitive to the slightest bruise or sole pressure. Goes in frog support pads. He was a week overdue. He was diagnosed with pedal osteitis in that foot 5 years ago and radiographs also showed slight navicular changes. So its a tricky foot to start with. Also the first abscess was over winter around January so 10 months ago.

Oy. I know of “the tricky foot.” YMMV, but the mare I mentioned above - who did not do well with pads - made huge improvements when we put her in a custom built shoe on both fronts that my farrier welded for us:

Just a typical steel shoe but the back half of the branches (from about the quarter all the way to the heel) were built up like a platform. Basically, take the back portion of the branches off of one shoe and weld them onto the branches of another shoe. No sole pressure, lots of heel support to manage the caudal pain of navicular. The difference in my mare with these was wild.

Sounds like you have a handle on this horse’s issues, but thought I’d toss out the idea. These worked well for us while she was still in work.

[btswass]

@16 Hands

You can have your vet use hoof testers to locate the abscess and he can open it for you instead of waiting for it to burst on its own. Your horse will probably thank you for relieving the pressure and pain. We did that with one horse and the relief on his face was so evident we were sorry we didn’t do it sooner. My husband padded him up with oakum and put a shoe on and he was sound.

Farrier was out. Negative to hoof testers. Dug around a little in the region where his seemed to be slightly sorer but didn’t find anything. This was on the day he was 3 legged lame. Now that he’s almost sound at the walk I doubt we’ll find anything.

[btswass]

@kashmere

Oy. I know of “the tricky foot.” YMMV, but the mare I mentioned above - who did not do well with pads - made huge improvements when we put her in a custom built shoe on both fronts that my farrier welded for us:

Just a typical steel shoe but the back half of the branches (from about the quarter all the way to the heel) were built up like a platform. Basically, take the back portion of the branches off of one shoe and weld them onto the branches of another shoe. No sole pressure, lots of heel support to manage the caudal pain of navicular. The difference in my mare with these was wild.

Sounds like you have a handle on this horse’s issues, but thought I’d toss out the idea. These worked well for us while she was still in work.

The frog support pads have worked really well for the last 5 years but we might need to change things up a bit. Especially as we’ve been able to slowly change the hoof angle and finally get rid of the flare he’s had since I bought him at 3. It’s just a wonky shaped foot in general and he’s always had it. I wondered if it never developed properly before he was born.

[btswass]

Update:
So on Wednesday I had the farrier come out to put his shoe back on and when he did he found the abscess had popped. Used magic cushion under his frog support pads and by Friday he was 100% sound to the left and 95% sound to the right (just a slight lameness at the trot). Since he wasn’t 100% I decided to forgo the horse show I had planned for the weekend and he’s just been hanging out since then.

Well today I notice that the same leg as the abscess is swollen mostly on the inside of the leg all the way up to his knee (but not an even swelling almost like a couple pockets of swelling going up) and he’s quite lame at the trot. I’ve already texted my farrier and waiting to hear back. He conveniently lives down the road from me so I’m sure he’ll be by on his way home tonight.

Should I panic and call the vet out? Is this most likely the abscess coming back and traveling up the leg? I’m trying not to think worst case scenario of tendon injury…

[joiedevie99]

Yes, I would still be thinking abscess. That said, I would have the vet out asap to shoot an x-ray of that foot. Now that I’ve seen an abscess go wrong and result in an infected coffin bone, I have little tolerance for waiting out an abscess without monitoring for more than a week.

[Jealoushe]

@btswass

Update:
So on Wednesday I had the farrier come out to put his shoe back on and when he did he found the abscess had popped. Used magic cushion under his frog support pads and by Friday he was 100% sound to the left and 95% sound to the right (just a slight lameness at the trot). Since he wasn’t 100% I decided to forgo the horse show I had planned for the weekend and he’s just been hanging out since then.

Well today I notice that the same leg as the abscess is swollen mostly on the inside of the leg all the way up to his knee (but not an even swelling almost like a couple pockets of swelling going up) and he’s quite lame at the trot. I’ve already texted my farrier and waiting to hear back. He conveniently lives down the road from me so I’m sure he’ll be by on his way home tonight.

Should I panic and call the vet out? Is this most likely the abscess coming back and traveling up the leg? I’m trying not to think worst case scenario of tendon injury…

I wouldn’t magic cushion over an abscess. Have you been soaking, wrapping etc? You didn’t really outline your treatment. I always soak with epsom salt in warm water for 20-30 mins, then use poultice hoof pads, wrap with guaze then vetwrap and leave on. Change every 24 hrs until the abscess bursts and heals. If the leg is swelling, I would go over board and poultice and wrap the legs at night, to help any swelling and help the abscess back down the leg and out.

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

Based on the swelling, it sounds to me like the abscess tract was more complicated than what the farrier could see and wasn’t completely resolved when the shoes and pads went back on.

I tend to wait a little longer than @joiedevie99 before summoning the vet with the xray machine, but for a suspected abscess that lingers, it is good practice to make sure you are not dealing with something else. My understanding is that a broken coffin bone can present very similarly.

Oh, and we once x-rayed and found a rock under the pad. :eek:

[btswass]

To answer questions the first 24 hours shoe was removed and wrapped with magic cushion (saturday). No improvement so Sunday wrapped with Ichthammol. It didn’t seem to do much either so Monday I soaked with Epsom salts for 20 minutes am and pm and in between wrapped with the green epsom salt goo. Tuesday morning soaked in the morning and wrapped with epsom salt goo. Wednesday evening farrier was out. Abscess had popped. He was improving and since he has such a sensitive sole I was anxious to get his shoe back on. We always use magic cushion under his pads when he gets new shoes. When farrier unwrapped him he said the abscess had popped and he dug it out a little more. Since he improved so much after 2 days it seemed like everything was resolving. I’m not 100% sure when the swelling started since I didn’t do anything with him all weekend. As of Saturday morning he was 95% sound.

[horseshorseshorseshorses]

@btswass

To answer questions the first 24 hours shoe was removed and wrapped with magic cushion (saturday). No improvement so Sunday wrapped with Ichthammol. It didn’t seem to do much either so Monday I soaked with Epsom salts for 20 minutes am and pm and in between wrapped with the green epsom salt goo. Tuesday morning soaked in the morning and wrapped with epsom salt goo. Wednesday evening farrier was out. Abscess had popped. He was improving and since he has such a sensitive sole I was anxious to get his shoe back on. We always use magic cushion under his pads when he gets new shoes. When farrier unwrapped him he said the abscess had popped and he dug it out a little more. Since he improved so much after 2 days it seemed like everything was resolving. I’m not 100% sure when the swelling started since I didn’t do anything with him all weekend. As of Saturday morning he was 95% sound.

I have seen abscesses pop back up after the initial blow so I typically wait 3-4 days after the horse is sound to put shoes with pads back on. My current horse had an abscess that blew 3 times before it resolved last winter. I had the vet (who also used to be a farrier) look at it and he agreed with my treatment plan.

What I typically do is:

• Do the good old fashion epsom salt poultice and iodine with a baby diaper, than wrapped in red gauze and topped off with a duct tape boot. I might add an ounce or so of water and leave the boot on for no more than 2 days.
• Every day I hand walk to encourage the abscess to blow
• When I take boot I look for evidence of the abscess blowing and the integrity of the hoof and coronet band [LIST]
• If I feel the hoof or band are getting too wet I will wrap the hoof the same way but no water added
• If the hoof is ok but no blow I will do the same wrap again
• I never leave the wet boot on for more than 4 days in a row

After the abscess has blown or seems to be resolving I will do the boot with no water to give the hoof extra time to drain for a day or 2

If shoes are needed after the boot is removed I will put the horse in an easy boot or the like to protect the hoof and sole ti monitor the hoof for a re-occurrence.

• Depending on the horse I will ride/lunge/groundwork at this point

[/LIST] My poultice is SUPER old school and your experience may vary. I know people who swear by the green goo, black goo, and other things but adding a diaper in there helps contusion the sole no matter what you use. Best of luck!

[btswass]

Called the vet they cant come out until Friday. Still waiting to hear back from my farrier…commence week two of waiting and worrying