It sounds like a persistent abscess but those can get out of control and infecr the coffin bone. It does not sound like navicular syndrome but still something that needs acute care. Navicular as a slow progressing degeneration doesn’t need acute care.
There are tranquilizers that can be administered orally. No need for needles.
I have seen abscesses drain, then the horse was put on antibiotics looked sound, few days to two weeks after the antibiotics finished the abscess came back. One case the mare was kept on antibiotics about 2x the average length of time. Another after trying different antibiotics the abscess was cultured to find what it was sensitive to. Yet another what stopped the abscesss was getting the horse treated for cushings.
The key to resolving each case was the owners working with their vet farrier and barn staff to get the correct diagnosis and treatment
We’ve had the same problem here. A lot of very wet weather followed by a lot of freezing. This has resulted in very bad ground conditions in the areas they frequent a lot. Mud, followed by totally frozen round with deep hoof ruts, etc. So yeah, I think you are right that it’s the perfect storm for abscesses.
I suppose my big concern here is that my other horse, housed in the same area, has had no problems at all. Where as this one had had this problem 3 times in 2 months.
Thanks, Scribbler. With this particular horse, it’s actually easier to stick a needle into her than it is to give something orally. She’s very difficult to worm. I suspect getting Dormosedan under her tongue would be almost impossible. So honestly, I’d prefer something I can give IM. She’s actually better with IM injections than she is with someone trying to stick a syringe in her mouth.
Brown Derby-ditto here on the antibiotics.
This horse needs to get to a clinic ASAP, hopefully with a veterinarian on staff capable
of properly reading radiographs. Recurrent abscesses have many causes, and need proper Dx and Rx…
Both Dormosedan and Xylazine can be given IM.
Thanks, Highflyer. I’ll get some IM Dormosedan from my vet first thing in the morning and then try to get her to the vet the same day.
Good news, is that as of tonight, she’s not pointing anymore. So I’m a bit more inclined to agree with the farrier that this is an abscess. I called the vet again as well, and he advised me that I can give up to four grams of bute as a loading dose. So I did that tonight. But again, I’ll run to my vet first thing in the morning and get some IM Dormosedan and then trailer her there.
I’m gonna do my best to get her there tomorrow. I’d take her tonight if I could. But almost no large animal vets around here offer emergency services for anything other than colic or other life-threatening problems. So the best I can do until tomorrow is call the vet for advice (which I already did) follow his advice, and then take her to the vet tomorrow during normal business hours.
This 100%. It doesn’t sound like navicular to me (too off again on again and she is sound sound in between instances of lameness) but it does sound like some persistent internal abscess beyond treatment as you have done so far. Perhaps the vet can come out and give dorm and help you load even if s/he can’t do films in the field? We had a very very lame horse and we were going to have the vet come out and both sedate and block him so we could transport him to the clinic (ultimately he had to be put down so that plan was never put into place).
That seems like a reasonable plan (and I agree that this isn’t an emergency, just something that needs to be checked out soon). Good luck!
I agree with this. I’ve had three horses in my care point in the last year. One had a collateral ligament injury in the foot he pointed most often, plus DSLD. One is old and arthritic and has an old shoulder injury on the leg he points and a lot of other medical history. One looked so lame the vet and I thought he might have broken his shoulder :eek: – yup, it was an abscess. The abscessed one improved after about 3 weeks but the lameness returned again after another 3 weeks or so. Thankfully that was the only relapse, but it definitely happens.
Nothing you are saying makes me think navicular, but I’m glad you have a plan to get it evaluated regardless. Let us know what they find!
I’m always apprehensive about a farrier who says a hoof is “too dry” and recommends something to add moisture. Hooves are supposed to be dry. Cracking is usually more indicative of flares or other underlying issues. If the hoof is beautifully balanced and still crumbling, then I’d be much more inclined to look at metabolic issues or dietary deficiencies leading to poor hoof quality than a topical dressing.
Best of luck getting the horse sedated and seen by a vet. I’d definitely get solar and lateral x-rays of the feet to have a baseline.
There are a lot of good eyes on this forum. They typically will tell you what you least want but most need to hear. There are past posts on how to properly take hoof photographs and you will get really good insight into how the trim may be contributing to chronic abscesses.
Nothing more to add in the abscess vs. navicular debate–I fall firmly on the reoccurring abscess camp as well–but if this horse is really that adverse to having a vet get close without being sedated, it is probably worth learning to give IV injections, OP. It is a really good skill to have and if this horse needs something in the future given IV, especially in an emergency situation, you want that knowledge.
It isn’t as hard as you think. My vet, who is the most wonderful vet on the planet, patiently taught me how. I am not the most practiced at it, but I gave my own horse Legend IV for a couple show seasons.
If it’s in the hoof and not somewhere else, I wonder if she has a broken coffin bone? My mare had a clean break a few years ago. Happened in the snow, weirdly enough. She was fine when I first got home but dead lame only 30 minutes later when I went to bring her in for dinner. I had three vets out over the course of the first couple of weeks, my usual vet, her contact w/ a portable x-ray machine, and a third vet for another set of x-rays and a second opinion on best course of treatment.
On the other hand, my old QH had arthritic hocks. I knew when they were bothering him because he would be slightly lame in one front leg. Pain is funny and it can be hard to figure where it is exactly.
I know that x-rays will be a pain but they may be really beneficial in this case.
Thanks for all the helpful responses.
Both the vet and farrier are firmly convinced it’s an abscess, and both of them are in agreement that x-rays would be a waste of time, money, and probably just put additional stress on her she doesn’t need right now. They are both of the opinion that we should just repeat the course of antibiotics and see how she’s doing in a few days, then go from there.
She’s already doing much better. She’s still sore, but it’s no longer non-weight bearing, and I even saw her trotting a bit yesterday, albeit with a limp. But she’s definitely walking much better, and putting a normal amount of weight on it. And she’s not pointing anymore either.
That said, once she’s walking normally, I probably will take her to the vet for x-rays. We have a lameness specialist about 35 miles away. Everyone I’ve talked to, including the farrier and vet are in agreement that it’s an abscess, and the fact that she is recovering so quickly tends to make be agree with them. (And it has been a very bad autumn for abscesses here because of horrible weather. The vet and farrier have told me they’ve seen a lot of them.) But since she’s had three since September in the same leg, I still want x-rays and I want the lameness specialist to take a look at her to rule out any underlying pathology that’s making it a recurring problem. Even if just for my own piece of mind.
Ouch 
I hope your mare recovered okay.
Both the vet and the farrier insist abscess. I asked both of them about x-rays and both said it would be a waste of time and money at this point, as well as just put unnecessary additional stress on her. They both recommended antibiotics and a wait and see how she’s doing in 3 or 4 days approach.
Fortunately, she’s recovering quickly now that she’s back on antibiotics. So I don’t think anything is broken. The path it is following is the classic abscess pattern at this point. Grade 4 lameness of sudden onset, followed by a very quick recovery. She’s not pointing anymore, and I don’t even have her on bute anymore. Just antibiotics. I even saw her trotting for a bit yesterday of her own ambition. She was limping in the trot, but not horribly badly.
That said, I’m still going to take her in for x-rays once she is recovered and get an opinion from a lameness expert who lives about 35 miles away. If nothing else, for my own piece of mind that there’s no underlying problem that is causing the recurring abscesses other than horrible autumn weather we’ve had this year, and the fact that both the farrier and the vet have seen a lot of abscesses in a lot of horses this year.
Thanks. I’ll see if I can find a vet to teach me how to do it. I suppose my own experiences of having bad nurses poke me 3 times, dig around in my arm, and then trying to tell me that my veins are hard to find, has made me think giving IV injections or drawing blood is hard. (Other nurses have no problem finding my vein on the first try.)
I agree that good farriers are hard to find. There aren’t that many farriers around here to begin with, which is kind of surprising given I live in a pretty big horse area. One of them I tried I will never use again because neither I or my horse liked him and he didn’t do a very good job trimming her. Another one I did like, and so did my horse. But he’s notoriously unreliable, doesn’t return voice messages, even when urgent, etc. The farrier I’m using right now has the advantage of being very reliable, my horse likes him and will actually let him work on her hooves, and my vet likes him too. And it’s always good to have a vet and farrier who have a good and close working relationship. He’s also semi-retired, so he’s willing to spend the time to gain the trust of an uncooperative horse. Some other farriers I’ve tried just seem to be in it for the money. And so they run their schedules so tight and schedule so many clients in one day that they have no patience for working with “problem” horses.
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