Severe foot pain!

[Salty]

I’m hoping it’s an abscess and I’ve been treating it like one, with Epsom salts in the soaking boot followed by an icthammol pack. She’s sensitive everywhere to the hoof testers and doesn’t want to put her foot down at all. She’s in a huge stall with deep bedding.

This is a 19 year old with navicular syndrome, arthritis, and Cushing’s. She’s too sore to trailer to the vet for X rays. My mobile vet took a look and so did my farrier and they’ve got nothing. We have very limited choices for vet care where I live.

She’s worse since having the shoe removed and being in the pack. My only other idea is to make a pack with a foam pad in it but she really seems to hurt when anything touches her sole.

I think I really need X rays but since she can’t trailer, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!

[WavyRider]

Couple thoughts:
How long has the horse been lame? Did it come on quickly or slowly?
Are you sure it is the hoof? Have you blocked the lameness to that area?
Are there any vets in your area with a portable x ray machine? I agree that you really need x rays, but I don’t have any experience in transporting lame horses so I will leave that to other members.
Is there a strong digital pulse at that hoof?
Is the sole “soft” / squishy?
Is she on any pain meds?

Edit: if you are in the US, the group Horse Vet Corner on Facebook can sometimes help find vets in remote areas.

[NancyM]

With cushings already present, you may be looking at lamenitis. Can you see a bulge in the sole of the foot in front of the point of the frog? If you can, it is the coffin bone rotating, the tip pressing down on the top of the sole. Extremely painful. With an older horse with multiple health issues already in place, and if your vet availability is scant, this can be considered to be terminal. Xray can show the rotation, if your vet can xray where she is now. No, that sore a horse can not be transported IMO.
The problem is… if she is standing hard on the other leg to get off the sore one, it also will founder. Then she will have both feet that she can’t stand on. This is the heartbreak of founder. Other health issues due to pain and stress also develop, ulcers.
I also am remote, and have sketchy vet availability. So I know how you are feeling. You do your best, and make the best decisions you can for your horse.

Lamenitis and founder may be survivable with a younger horse, who is strong and healthy and has no other health issues. Less so with a horse who does not have these advantages.
Sorry.

[Small_Change]

Where are you, geographically? Could it be “winter laminitis” (somewhat of a misnomer, I think…) with her being Cushinoid? Painful, and doesn’t respond to analgesia the same way that laminitis does normally.

[IPEsq]

Even if it isn’t laminitis, being non weight bearing is a recipe for support limb laminitis on the other foot. Is she on any medication for the pain? How far do you have to trailer? You might just need to try to load her up with some drugs and hope that helps her trailer, if there is no one with a portable X-ray that can come to you. I’d try to do loose in a big box stall or stock trailer in case she wants to go down.

[Salty]

Thank you. There’s no one with a portable X ray machine around here-- in fact, the only mobile vet, who took a look at her, is mainly a dog and cat vet.

I haven’t heard of winter laminitis and I’ll look it up. Laminitis did occur to me but the vet and farrier didn’t think that was it. But it still could be. It’s extremely frustrating not to be able to get X rays.

There’s less heat than one would expect and no strong digital pulse.

I also worry about her other foot being affected, since it’s been going on for a week now. I know that I might need to euth but I hate to do it if it’s indeed an abscess, but I also hate seeing her in so much pain.

I’m on the southern Oregon coast and would have to get a rancher to euthanize her. I hate this so much

[Salty]

Oh, and she’s on daily pain medication. We had to stop the Pergolide, though, because it made her anorexic.

[IPEsq]

What is she on for pain and how much?

[WavyRider]

Unfortunately I recently went through a situation where both a farrier and vet did not identify laminitis - twice. Lesson learned there

I am also curious what she is on for pain medication. If I had a horse in that situation (others please feel free to correct me if this is completely the wrong path) I would give a large dose of bute and trailer to the vet.

By the way, which hoof is it?

[Salty]

She’s on Equiox and has been for years. I can give her the high dose Bute, though. I’ve had to do it before. It’s probably worth any stomach upset to be able to get to the vet.

It’s the right front.

[WavyRider]

My thinking exactly. Not something you want to use long term, though people do successfully by also managing the stomach upset. But I think worth it in this case to get the imaging.

Could you leave her loose in the trailer so she could lie down if she wanted?

[lenapesadie]

Pull the Equioxx, dose her up on Bute and get her to the vet!

[Salty]

Thank again, everyone. She’s going to the vet next week, which is the soonest I could get an appointment, and it’s a “work in.”

The good news is that I got on my baby horse for the first time today and she acted as if she’d been ridden for years.