Beats the heck out of having to do a full course when the guts flare up. BTDT and learnt my lesson and just hope to save someone else the same financial and emotional strain! 
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I’ve been following your mare’s saga because it was so peculiar and I felt so sorry for her. And empathized with your frustration.
Glad you got some pro-active vet action. I’m sure opening up and draining the abscesses brought your mare great relief. ((( Jingling ))) for a full recovery!
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@endlessclimb would love to not lose these rads in the discussion. Maybe start another thread with them? Are her hind feet approaching negative Palmer angle ? Esp the left ? I am a hoof junkie. When my amazing farrier comes every 4 weeks (his wife is a veterinarian) he shares pics and cases and I find it fascinating. I call it hoof porn lol
So glad your horse is doing better!!
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They look like it to me! I mentioned frog support pads to my farrier last time he was out and I got poo pooed. Now I have rads to back it up.
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Good for you. You’re a wonderful advocate for your horse. Nothing wrong with that !
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I’d say she’s… 20% better tonight. She seems totally fine otherwise.
I gave up on the microwave hotpack and bought a plug in one. My God that thing is the cats pajamas. Shayney seemed to really enjoy it, too! Wonder if I could strap it to my Old Man’s hocks…
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Labs came back - negative for strangles. WHEW.
The swelling below the “hole” is entirely gone. There is still an egg sized swelling above the “hole” that won’t seem to break loose. I’m guessing the body has it so walled off that the antibiotics can’t get in? I’ve been moist-hot compressing it for 20 mins 2x a day, but no improvement.
Meanwhile my very fit 5 year old getting time off is an absolute hooligan so she’s feeling totally fine otherwise.
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The top blew open yesterday. I was all excited, hooray I might get to ride her soon… and then she sprung a shoe. I removed the shoe and texted the farrier. Sometimes if you don’t laugh you’ll cry…
Top is the new hole, bottom is the one we started with. Continuing with the hot compresses, now with a square of animalintex pad instead of the Epsom salt. Sticking a syringe up there and rinsing for the next couple days, then letting it close.
Oh Shayney.
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That is really strange but glad she’s getting better. I’d be tempted to put a lil chlorohexdine or diluted betadine in the syringe when irrigating the wound.
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I squirted some hydrogen peroxide up there to start, same as the clinic did when they rodded out the lower one. Some diluted chlorhexidine isn’t a bad idea, there’s already a jug of it at the barn.
I’m surprised they used hydrogen peroxide. Yes it can kill bad stuff, but it’s not good for wound healing.
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Yay for it blowing out!
Since it wasn’t strangles, did the culture not show anything else, or did I miss it?
They did strangles PCR rather than a culture. Results were posted.
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Thanks!
A pus pocket isn’t really a wound though. My protocol has always been that once the peroxide comes out clear and not frothy (I’ve done this a LOT with cattle hock abscesses), then you stop. If you’re still concerned, maybe saline for a day or two and that’s it. The nice thing about peroxide is you can be pretty much 100% sure you’ve got everything out and aren’t going to let the cavity close with remaining gunk in it that may grow and fester again. $.02 from someone who has healed some really disgusting and giant abscesses.
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Where you don’t want to use hydrogen peroxide is on a “fresh” wound. It will lyse (kill) healthy tissue. But on an infected wound or something with a lot of damaged/dead flesh and bacterial growth, the foaming action will help to carry out all the muck, infection and detritus.
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It continues to drain. I’m doing two rounds a day of hot compressing, with a wet towel and a square of animalintex pad on the wound.
She will be back to riding-fit here in a couple days, I hope.
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Rode her lightly tonight. She was shaking her head quite a bit and I got worried thinking maybe I jumped the gun… then I got to thinking - I trimmed her mane during one of her 20 minute hot compresses. Banded the mane back away from her ears and voila. No more head shaking.
Here’s where we stand…
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