Weird Cellulitis or abscess case

[StormyDay]

Last weekend Storm went lame on his LF. It came on very fast so I immediately assumed abscess. No leg swelling, positive to hoof testers. I soaked daily, iced the whole leg daily and gave him bute, plus he wore soft rides to keep comfy.
Yesterday I went out to check on him and the abscess had popped. It came out just above the coronet band. (Pic 1) He was feeling way better but his leg was pretty swollen. (Pic 2)
I consulted with the vet and they said since it had come out nothing else was needed as long as the swelling kept going down in the next few days.
Last night he’s happy and sound.

This afternoon I go out to ride another horse and Storm comes up to greet me. His leg is significantly less swollen. I tell him good job, you’re getting better. And then I see it. There is pus oozing out of his leg. (Pic 3)

I immediately put in a message to the vet but it was after hours and while gross, I felt it probably wasn’t enough of an emergency to interrupt my vets’ night.

I cleaned, clipped, and wrapped it. The leg overall is much less swollen except for around the spot where the abscess came out. If I push on it I get clear liquid but it seems most of the actual pus has come out.

The thing that’s weird to me is that the symptoms are all not quite matching. Why the heck would he have both a hoof abscess and a leg abscess/cellulitis? If it’s cellulitis, why was it not swollen until yesterday? He’s had no injuries on that leg. We have had dry weather so no mud fever.
I’ve heard horror stories with cellulitis so of course in mildly panicking.

[StormyDay]

I circled on the pic the areas where the pus/liquid is oozing out of. At first glance it kind of looks like a scrape, but it’s definitely more that the skin broke (popped? )along those lines

[GraceLikeRain]

Did you take his temp?

[StormyDay]

Yes, normal. IIRC it was 98.9 which is normal for him

[Simkie]

With a normal temp, cellulitis is really unlikely. Abscesses can tunnel up…this is definitely weirdly far.

It sounds like you’re doing all the right things!

[GoodTimes]

Definitely weird, could be related, could be coincidental. One of mine got cellulitis 10ish years ago. He went from sound and happy to 5/5 lame with a hot stove pipe hind leg in a matter of hours. Threw some serious antibiotics at him along with cold hosing, wrapping, etc and he was fine. The lymphatics in that leg never went 100% back to normal though.

Let us know what the vet says. I wouldn’t be overly alarmed if there isn’t much heat or swelling though.

[cnd8]

I’d do a sweat wrap for 12 hours per day to pull the fluid out and start Uniprim. Since the abscess has already blown, you dont have to worry about bute or antibiotics slowing down the abscess rupturing. (I’d text pics to my vet and ask if she agreed, obviously)

[NaturallyHappy]

It seems odd to me. I’d ask for veterinary help if he were mine.

[StormyDay]

The vet office is trying to get someone out but it’s Friday
Pics as of this morning. A lot of fluid/puss stuff came out overnight. The swelling has gone down. Still no temp

[Bonnie2]

Looks like he got something in the leg - splinters, thorns. The foot abscess may not have been a “traditional” bottom up abscess but a reaction to a foreign body. As long as he continues to improve I wouldn’t do anything additional. But watch him like a hawk for a week or so and call the vet at the first sign of trouble. Good luck! Horses!

[Simkie]

The drainage doesn’t look particularly purulent–more like blood and serum. How’s it smell? No temp is good! I’d also be curious about a foreign body.

This is weird, but I wouldn’t be too worried at this point. It looks like you’re doing what needs to be done! Do keep checking that temp–an increase is the very first sign I ever get of a cellulitis, even before they’re painful or have filling in the leg.

[StormyDay]

@Simkie

The drainage doesn’t look particularly purulent–more like blood and serum. How’s it smell? No temp is good! I’d also be curious about a foreign body.

This is weird, but I wouldn’t be too worried at this point. It looks like you’re doing what needs to be done! Do keep checking that temp–an increase is the very first sign I ever get of a cellulitis, even before they’re painful or have filling in the leg.

It smelled like an abscess does yesterday, but just smelled like blood today.
He must be feeling good too because he ripped off his fly sheet in the half an hour I wasn’t paying attention to him

[Simkie]

@StormyDay

It smelled like an abscess does yesterday, but just smelled like blood today.
He must be feeling good too because he ripped off his fly sheet in the half an hour I wasn’t paying attention to him

All good signs!

[Laurierace]

I had a horse like 25 years ago that bowed a tendon pretty badly. He was going to be sent to the killers so they didn’t really treat it at all. I paid $1000 to save him from that fate and took 30 minutes to hobble him the 100 yards to my barn. A few days later he blows something, out of the bowed area. I don’t know if it was pus or serum but the whole thing looked like hamburger. My vet had never seen anything like that before but he eventually healed up well enough to go back into training.

[StormyDay]

Photo as of last night below. No more swelling. He is sound and happy.

The whole thing was very weird. I have to assume the abscess started up in the leg and some of it went down to the hoof area, which made him lame. I can’t imagine a hoof abscess traveling up the whole length of the cannon bone. But, until the hoof abscess blew there was no leg swelling.

[HorseLover65]

This was my experience as well.

[Amberley]

I don’t know where you are but porcupine quills will do that. I had one come out at the elbow on a dog and I know it went in at the paw because I saw the idiot gently reach out and touch the porcupine with his foot and I pulled the other two quills out of that paw immediately afterwards.

I imagine any barbed thorn will do the same thing and just keep traveling.

[NaturallyHappy]

Actually, my dog had major surgery for pyothorax…infection in his chest cavity. The supposition was that it was a seed from a foxtail that was embedded in his coat, went through the skin, muscle and made it to his chest cavity. I groom him regularly… he got sick very, very fast. I’d never heard of it.

[StormyDay]

We don’t have porcupine here (probably. They are over a mountain.) but maybe a thorn. Though, the pasture has nothing in it but grass. Not even a tree.

[StormyDay]

Strange turn of events; ANOTHER gelding of mine now has the same symptoms, but I can very clearly see a snake bite on his leg. It’s even the same leg.

Either im ground zero for the newest infectious disease; left-leg-abscess-itis, or I have an aggressive snake living somewhere the horses are hanging out.