Dear All,
My horse got a clipped farrier’s nail in the sole of his foot-good thoughts please for recovery. The vet recommended soaking for 20 min in an Epsom salt bath, which I’ve done like all of us 1000 times. However I started thinking-though scrubbed out, the bucket isn’t sterilized. The water isn’t sterile. I did read up on Epsom salts and see that they are anti-microbial, BUT are we all just soaking our horse’s feet in more bacteria? Would a poultice of salts be better?
What do y’all think?
Thanks!
Regards,
Huntin’Fool
For the reasons you cited, the equine practice I use recommends Animalintax for sole abscesses and not an Epsom salt soak.
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My vet recommends a betadine scrub followed by a paste of Epsom salt and then a diaper boot.
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Seconding this for the reason why I shifted from soaking hoof abscesses (or hot nails) in hot water/boots to using an Animalintex pad.
You can also make an offbrand Animalintex pad yourself. Mix epsom salt with betadine until it’s a paste-like consistency - the ratios depend the epsom salt’s coarseness. Place on sole, cover with a diaper, then wrap as usual.
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I’m dealing with a stubborn abscess right now. Found him in the field with a loose hind shoe, he was stepping on the clip. No obvious puncture, he was sound for about a week, then went lame. Suspected abscess and starting poulticing. Started getting nervous when nothing was resolving so had the vet out last week for x-rays. Abscess isn’t huge, and is running along the white line. Horse has thin soles and chronically soft feet (you can see the sole of the abscess foot flexing with hoof testers) so we’re a little baffled that it doesn’t want to pop and drain. We’re almost at four weeks now.
Anyway, I’ve been hosing the foot clean. Followed by either the green goo, or a homemade epsom salt paste. Followed by a warm/damp animalintex pad. Then a wet diaper, big enough that it goes up over the coronet band. Couple wraps of vetwrap to secure. Then a boot. Horse is out 24/7 to walk around, foot is usually still pretty clean when I take everything off.
I asked the vet if I should switch to soaking. She said that if the diaper is still damp when I take it off after 24 hrs that it’s probably doing more than a 20 minute soak would do.
Once it pops I’ll switch to a dry poultice. We’ll probably hold off putting the shoe back on, assuming that it pops and drains along the white line.
Sorry for the novel. Sometimes anecdotal case studies can be helpful.
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Thanks to all. I think I’ll be going the paste route. Tho what is Animaltex-misspelled I’m sure! I’m writing this in the phone.
Animalintex. 
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It’s a mess-free poultice pad. It comes wrapped up like a maxi-pad. You briefly dip it in sterile water and apply to the wound / abscess / hoof, then wrap around it as you would a normal diaper.
It’s amazing but $$. You can get the same results by making your own at home, but the no-mess hassle free application is worth something. You basically just add water, slap on, and wrap. Beats dealing with getting poultice, ichthammol, and other nasties off of your skin and clothes.
P.S @GoodTimes you have my sympathy. I hope yours resolves soon and uneventfully!
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The logic of Epsom salts is that a saturated solution, that is more Epsom salts than will dissolve in hot water, will suck out liquid. But I wouldn’t use this on an actual wound. It does seem to work to soak abscess out through frog/heel or white line, but in that case it’s not really contacting sensitive tissues.
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When my horse had puncture wound in her hoof sole, the vet told me to soak it in a betadine solution (betadine diluted in warm water until it was the color of weak tea), then wrap it with an animalintex pad in a homemade boot (pad on the hoof first, then wrap the foot in vetwrap, then wrap the whole hoof in duct tape–Gorilla tape is my fave).
Initially (first five days), I soaked with betadine. After five days, I just cleaned the hoof well and re-wrapped. The vet said to keep wrapping until the pad remained unmarked by any discharge from the wound.
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Interesting that there are so many different approaches. We need more science/studies!
In our area, the vet recommendation is rinse foot, then soak in hot water (as hot as your hand can stand it) and Epsom salts. Lots of Epsom salts - you want the solution to be thick enough that some of the Epsom salts do not dissolve. Soak for about 20 min.
Once soaked, animalintex pad (as per instructions on pad, hot water to moisten then apply plastic side to the bottom/out), wrap in vet wrap and then duct tape and/or boot depending on the turnout situation.
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I’m pretty sure Animalintex isn’t sterile either (as someone who works for a veterinary surgical supply company.) Very few of the veterinary medical products you can buy as an individual are sterile, other than things like needles and syringes. Nothing that’s not individually packed/single use is going to be sterile.
Just do your best to keep things as clean as possible. My vet also recommends soaking in diluted betadine and packing with sugardine (poultice of granulated sugar and betadine.)
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When my horse had an open coffin bone fracture, my vet (who bless his heart was not giving me the best advice) initially told me to soak it in Epsom salts. To this day, I think that contributed to the infection and also suspect that’s how a foreign body got into the fracture.
I was much happier with how things were managed with a “cleaner”/semi-sterile betedine scrub. It was not truly sterile, but I kept things as close to sterile as I could and meticulously clean, with frequent bandage changes 1x-2x daily.
That was an ugly recovery, but that mare survived to live a long and sound life.
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Mine sprung his shoe and stepped on the nail last April. In accordance with the vet instructions, I soaked in a hot betadine and epsom salt solution for 15 minutes, then scrubbed the bottom of the hoof with betadine before packing with animalintex and wrapping.
As far as recovery, mine never abscessed and was back in full work a week later.
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The hot water and epsom salt soak has a drawing action on pockets of infection. The heat seems to be an important component of the effective soak.
When it’s not a hoof I will do hot compresses to draw out infection for 10 minutes, or until I stop getting goop on the towel, whichever is longer. For both I am using water as hot as I can keep a finger in, and frequently adding more hot water to my bucket during the compress or soak.
When the hoof abscess hasn’t burst, a hot soak can help soften the tissue and allow it to open up. For the first 2-3 days a hot soak can help draw out the infection - the heat softens and loosens the pus, allowing it to drain more easily.
Everyone I’ve known to use cold soaks has never had much success. Though some just soaked and didn’t bother wrapping the foot to keep dirt out. For me it’s not either soak or poultice, it’s both.
I’ve been using Greenhawk’s version of Animalintex (significantly cheaper) this year. I wet it, squeeze out the excess water and put it on (it can be used dry), then dry diaper, vetrap and hoof boot. In very wet conditions I have used a plastic bag in there as well to keep the worst of the mud out.
I use iodine and epsom salts poultice in the diaper to harden everything up once the infection is gone.
I have had way too much practice at it all this year.
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You only need enough animalintex to cover the drainage hole. You don’t need to slap the entire sheet on there.
For heat, you can slip a handwarmer in the dressing, too.
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I had one gal who leased a horse of mine years ago who could be prone to abscesses in the wet season. One day I came down and she’s got him standing in a frigid bucket with epsom salt. I asked her if she wanted hot water from the house and she refused. She said the heat didn’t make a difference. I wasn’t going to waste energy arguing with that.
She became a vet… 
Sorry to hear you’ve had too much practice this year. It’s been a nasty year here too. One of our boys just blew out the mother of all abscesses through his coronary band. It’s been so unseasonably wet, it was out of character for him to even get one, but I think the wet + the constant stomping of the horrible flies (out in banner numbers because of how wet it is) must have done that hoof in.
I’m going to check out Greenhawk’s version! I love my Animalintex but always find excuses to use anything else, because of how dang spency it is!
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I thought handwarmers require air to keep producing heat. Do they stay warm all wrapped up in a hoof?
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I haven’t tried it, but they stay warm inside your glove or sock, and I would think the hoof wrap would be a similar application.
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What about the handwarmer pack getting damp either the poultice leaking through the vet wrap or ground moisture leaking up through the duct tape or nylon hoof boot? I got pretty good at doing the elaborate poultice + vetwrap + duct tape but right now I have a nylon bootie thing that velcroes on and then I add just a bit of duct tape. Minimal wrap over the poultice underneath.
I soak in a solution of epsom salts and chlorhexidine and have had very good results with it
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