abscesses in the hoof

Just doing a survey, hope no-one minds!
How many people have experienced 'dormant wall abscesses'? - in the hoof of their horse.
If so, is this a recent experience? How soon after shoeing was this discovered, any other comments.
I know what my thoughts are, but won't disclose at this time.

Hi
more years ago than I care to remember I had a pony which had an abscess that started where a nail had gone , sorry I can't remember how long after shoeing it was noticed but what I do remember is the area was cut out by the vet who adviced poulticing which we did ,then he used to squeeze antibiotic tubes ( same as those that are used for squeezing into cows teats ) , the theory was that instead of hoping antibiotics would reach the foot eventually that it was a direct hit . Once thoroughly clean and infection free the hoof was built back up with filler ( similar to car filler that goes hot during setting ) can't remember the name of that , result was very good though

Living in France I have heard of more abcesses in five years than I had ever heard of in twenty years back in UK, and several of my horses have actually had them, it's probably to do with the fact that horses feet here seem to be softer possibly due to the ground moisture. On the subject of dormant wall abcesses it is my understanding that they are most common in horses making the transition from shod/neglected to barefoot, it's as the hoof begins to heal with the natural trimming, the new circulation can trigger abcesses that have been dormant for many months or even years it's looked upon as a detoxification process from unhealthy to healthy. So that said I would think that a dormant abcess could come to light a couple of days after shoeing, I'm not sure how if the horse is shod you could say a problem was caused by a dormant abcess or an abcess caused by a prick or bind.

my trotter Saltie came to me (from the meat farm) with long over grown feet, long toes and low heels, we started work to rebalance them, she quickly had 1 small abcess which evacuated at the heel with no need to open the foot,
about 6 months later she had another, than a few months after another, always they seemed to coincide with a run of wet weather? then a few months later all hell broke loose.......

she had multiple and huge abcesses break through at the heel and along the coronette band, at 1 point there were 7 all at once, she was on antibiotics for over 9 months with some pain relief & had a series of Xrays done, in her case it was a necrotic infection of the side bone, the side bone itself was dissolving away leaving all this muck to come out, due to her age and general condition my vet did not think surgery an option, to complicate things more, she showed signs of early cushings, so we just had to keep going with the drugs, poultices, tubbing etc & hope the muck would all come out and that the infection would not transmit to another part of her foot.

she rapidly lost condition, after a few months she looked like a skeleton, then her skin began to break down, her normal rugs rubbed her raw, (i made a double bed quilt into a light rug) she had no interest in anything & at 1 point she refused almost all food for almost 10 days and we thought we would lose her, we discussed with the vet if she should be PTS.

we decided to give it a few more weeks, our vet thought once the worst of the pain was gone she would pick up....maybe? & if not then consider again.

she did reccover, & her hoof eventually grew out something like normal, she is never going to be 100% sound -but at 26y and with bi-lateral side bone anyway with age she never was, but she moves ok,

we then had to restart work on the 'good' hoof too, she could not take her weight on the bad side to give the good side a proper trim, so it got the **bare minimum, just a cut down -no rasping- now both front hooves had to catch up again,

she began very gentle work almost exaxctly a year after it flared up so badly, but had to stop again, this time she had a tooth abcess running out through her lower jaw, we are still dealing with this, but she is looking ok & has come of antibiotics for a while to see if it is ok.

she may be due another set of Xrays, if the vet thinks she needs them, to check progress on the jaw problem and to see how her foot mechanics have changed to accomodate the loss of the nearside fore outside side bone

**my husband has had some farrier training, he had to do a quick job whenever she was in the stage where abcessess had burst and the worst of the pain over, sometimes this was only 5 min, rest and another 5 min later and so on, this would not have been possible for a working farrier to fit this in.

my vet gave me a receipe for a foot cleaner, to use after a normal scrub wash, a rather powerfull concoction with a whole load of health warnings for users :- do not get onto skin-yours or the horse, avoid breathing the fumes, very flamable, very irratant, do not leave in a warm place, keep away from kids, animals and idiots.

1/3 of each...hydrochloric acid, formalin/formaldehyde, acitone. apply to the heel, frog & sole of the foot which goes white briefly after application, it is very drying,

crazy thing is....knowing i was buying a trotter with neglected feet of the well known flat bloodhorse type, i had bought 1 of those emmergency rubber foot & sole covering boot things, but couldn't use it 'cos her abcessess came out at the heel & coronnette, which is right where the darn thing fastens on [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] bye

You have all my admiration for dealing with everything you went through, and indeed are going through with your mare, she's one lucky horse to have been chosen by you.
Pen

thanks - i hope i don't come across in my posts as 'arn't i a hero?' type, i don't mean to be, & yes i have had a battle with all 4 of the rescues we have had here, i just want to share what happened and maybe Saltie, Chance, Gerry & Gingi's stories and reccoveries will put a bit of hope in for anyone else having a fight, it can seem lonely when you are not in your own country and don't have other horsey bods about to share it with, non horsey families try (some of them!) but it is not the same is it?

anyway is the info any use to your question? i could ask my vet for a copy of her Xrays if it helps genuine research.
bye [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Come on then pinkponies....Spill [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Pen

sorry- forgot to post reply sooner!
After much internet searching, and of course all the replies, (sorry to hear all the trouble you've had saltie), and azaria mentioning barefoot of which I have no experience, it seems 'dormant wall abscess' doesn't exist in previous well shod horses....but nail bind does!
After farrier returned for a 3rd time... shoe replaced, few days later totally sound. Farrier still adamant not his doing.........

Looking for new farrier!!!!

before anyone reads this be warned you might find it a bit yukky ok! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

my husband started farrier training, but had to stop due to injury, as part of his studies he went to the abbatoire - a big 1 in the UK!

& bought a load of horses lower legs to dissect to get a better idea of hoof and lower leg anatomy etc.
he got a cross section of types of horse, Tb, chunky, shod, un shod, well looked after, neglected, & as part of his study he tried to determine if he could see any cause of lameness or other problem which might have put the ex-owner of the leg in the abbatoir in the 1st place.

many of the feet had serious faults, some obviously home brew shoes from the 'travelling' community maybe? a few had normal nails instead of horse nails used, some had shoes which did not fit, even 1 case of a hind foot with a fore shoe on, some had nail prick or bind which he could see as a track of inflamation or damage going into the inner hoof, many had feet badly out of balance or long toes or dumped off toes etc due to careless trimming which was causing lower leg problems.

of the legs he recconed at least 50% had problems due to farrier type poor work either by a rough farrier or an owner having a go.

& some had mild lammanitic type inflamation, possibly concussion or bad hoof care which while not enough to cause actual lameness would have made the horse pottery or reluctant to jump etc.

& some had signs of abscess or weak spots the so called cheesy foot areas, & bruising.

but very few had bone problems such as navicular showing - he was surprised at that.

so in conclusion it would seem not all farriers are doing a top job, and that foot care is a major contributor to horses being destroyed when they could be saved.

P.S the legs were intended to be prepared to be preserved as college specimines, so they were cleaned up & put in a freezer in the garage, we went away for a holiday, the old freezer broke down and near the end of the holiday the garage was broken into.......

I wonder what the thief thought when instead of joints of meat - they found a pile of going off horses legs in there? i do hope they had nightmares [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

bye [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

How scary is that [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] We put our trust in these so called "professionals". I'm sure we could collectively compile a book on the horrors we have seen or heard of [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Pen