Excellent idea I think!
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Personally, I’ve had the best results from a sugardine pack than anything else. Sugar + betadine mixed together to the consistency of peanut butter, pack it in the hoof, wrap it up.
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Lots of good ideas! I think tho, that a scientific study is in order. Surely as common as puncture wounds/abscesses/etc are there is one??!!
I did call Auburn’s large vet clinic and unfortunately got a receptionist who couldn’t or wouldn’t understand d that I was asking about the efficacy of a procedure not for over the phone advice for a particular horse. I will try again.
Thanks all!!!
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If I soak it’s in a clean scrubbed container made of something I can clean (not rubber) with boiled clean water and the foot is scrubbed clean with disinfectant before it goes in there and not put on the ground post scrubbing. Are people not doing that?
you can poultice epsom salts, they made a pre-made poultice of it these days. It works just as well imho.
No. I think many people don’t have access to boiled clean water in a barn (I don’t). I use potable water - which literature supports using to clean wounds in people. If I’ll drink from the hose I see no reason not to soak a foot in the same water.
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I see a big difference between a hood abscess and an actual puncture wound in hoof or skin.
With an abscess you are coaxing the black stuff to seep out through frog or heel tissue. If it bursts in the heel you do see a ripped flap briefly until it dries up. If it bursts through the coronet again you see a messy possibly bloody eruption but it heals up really fast once the liquid is expelled. The direction of movement is the body expelling something outwards like a boil or pimple popping.
Horses can and do brew up and burst hoof abscesses in pasture without any human intervention, you don’t even know until their next trim.
A puncture is way more urgent and dangerous. It’s a foreign object entering the hoof or body, doing unknown damage, and likely leaving at least a trace of bacteria or foreign material in the wound. That requires flushing and maybe probing and for a hoof an x-ray.
Abscesses respond to treatment that helps the liquid drain but you aren’t dealing with an actual wound or puncture unless you let a vet or farrier cut into living tissue to drain it which I’ve never done and don’t like. Then you have major rehab and hospital plate to regrow sole and treat as an open wound.
But your basic abscess responding to a poultice needs clean enough but not sterile because there is no open wound and the flow is outward.
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I bring it with me from home…
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My horse had the exact injury OP described. Absolutely initial response was definitely different. It was an emergency vet call with a hoof x-ray to make sure there was no remaining foreign body and no fracture of the coffin bone.
But once both of those were ruled out, my vet instructed me to treat it largely like an abscess. Specifically hot betadine and epsom salt soak, keeping the foot wrapped and poultice with animalintex. She did caution me there was a chance it could become infected and develop an abscess, which luckily did not happen. He was sound and back in full work within a week.
@Amberley - that’s great (although not necessary) if you live a minute from the barn, but if I did that the water would not be warm by the time I got to the barn. Making it far less useful than the very very hot potable water coming from the hose.
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Dear all,
I didn’t mention it in the original post, but the vet did do X-rays, cleaned the wound, gave a antibiotic shot, and a tetanus shot (he was due one in a few months). I was just curious about the bucket and soaking. I will say you can bring an electric kettle to the barn and get boiling water. Idk about water from a hose-we can consume lots of stuff that would be really bad in a wound. And just in general I think it’s hard to keep stuff sterile.
In a related question-does anyone know of any Vet School stories that showed that soaking a foot did anything positive anyway?
Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it!!!
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And he did get a terrible infection within 4 days. He’s now gracing the vet in a stall there. Fingers crossed that he makes a full recovery.
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After all those layers put on, what kind of boot fits over all that?
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What nylon bootie do you use? Is it suitable for turnout?
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I don’t think it would stay on in energetic turnout.
I think you shouldn’t wet it and squeeze out the excess water. Won’t you dilute the medication? I normally just dampen the pad, not soak it
Likewise.
With an abscess, there’s already an infection.
With a puncture, you’re hoping to avoid an infection.
Getting the hoof to soften enough for the abscess to open and drain can be facilitated by hot water/Epsom salt soaks.
But once the abscess has opened, there’s no further benefit to soaking in a bacterial soup.
Epsom salt poultice and/or sugardine is better after it opens, or some mastitis ointment in the abscess tract.
Keep it as clean as possible.
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Either a duct tape boot or a cavallo boot.
And I agree with the others that there’s a difference between trying to prevent infection from a new puncture, soaking to get an abscess to pop, and managing a draining abscess.
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Just following the directions on the package of Animalintex.
Yes. Animalintex isn’t medication per se. It’s tragacanth which is a gummy substance that works as a poultice and needs water to activate. Wet animalintex continues the wet soaking effect of the Epsom salts routine and helps the abscess get sucked out.
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Thank you!! You are absolutely right. I reread them rather than take someone else’s advice. 
No worries! It’s always worth reading directions on these things. 
