Do they always respond to hoof testers?
My horse came out of the stall on 3 legs today but no response to hoof testers, no heat in the foot. Vet did radiographs on the fetlock and saw nothing remarkable there. Any ideas?
Any digital pulse in that leg? I’ve had a horse that was 3 legged lame and later blew a solar abscess whose only sign was an increased DP.
None- that my vet found, anyway. :-/
The DP that I felt wasn’t bounding, it was just appreciable while his other 3 legs had none. I figured abscess. It was the same day he was to be shod. Pulled that shoe, no real reaction to hoof testers so farrier trimmed the foot, drove the first nail and blew the abscess. He said he couldn’t do that again if he tried. Left the shoe off and soaked it / wrapped it out over the next few days. Abscesses suck. Hope your horse feels better soon.
Wow, that’s crazy! I appreciate it. I hope he feels better soon, too! I hate seeing him hurting!
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If they get drastically 3 legged lame that fast and there’s no catastrophic obvious accident or nail in the foot, it’s almost always an abscess. I don’t think they wats react to hoof testers, probably depends where the abscess is. They don’t always have much heat or pulse. I would treat as abscess.
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I’ve had one under the frog that my farrier couldn’t find with hoof testers. He actually came back when I let him know the horse was still off because he was annoyed he had missed it 
Mine wasn’t 3-legged lame though. I’ve found that if you have an abscess in the heel or frog, the heat is in the centre of the hoof, not up at the coronary band (not sure where you were checking for heat).
I agree with checking the digital pulse as this is usually stronger in the leg with an abscess.
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I had one last year in an aged gelding. He presented like a classic abscess, but had no response at all to hoof testers. He was no more lame on concrete than in the snow. After three days of trying to locate what had to be an abscess we x-rayed his foot. The abscess was tiny, and located in the middle of the hoof - we would never have found it without the x-rays. I then had some idea where to poultice him, and three days later the abscess blew. He was sound immediately and back at work in another couple of days.
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No! Let me tell you a short story.
My mare came in a tiny bit sore one day. She had heat in her dixital flexor tendon and also a little swelling in the low pastern. Not much, but I notice everything. Her one hoof was warm from the outside and the other cold. So right away I knew there was something going on.
I cold hosed and wrapped her and thought for sure she blew some sort of tendon/suspensory and was a bit stressed. The next day, she severed her tongue and required stitches and lots of time off. So it worked out that she was already going to be off ironically.
Anyways, I decided to wait it out and just monitor the foot and soundness. The farrier came a day later and did the hoof testers, nothing. I was freaked because I figured that meant it wasn’t an abscess. I was checking and there was heat every day still in her foot. I was Back on tracking her legs at night and cold hosing. She wasn’t really lame at this point anymore but there was still heat in the back of the pastern.
About three weeks of this, and then a huge abscess blew out of her heel. It was a huge relief! No more heat swelling or warm hoof. It took a good three weeks at least to heal though, it was a big bruise deep in her heel and the hole from the abscess was so big I could stick my finger in it. Shes all good now though and is back in work!
Hopefully you have a similar situation. Check the heel and the coronet band!
