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 Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
   
Location: WA | I have a 3 year old colt who has chronic abscesses. He had one last Sep when I bought him. Couple throughout winter. In the past 8 weeks I would say he has had 6? He was on pasture but pulled him off because it is hard and uneven. So thought maybe that was causing crap. Now he is in stall with a good size run/small pen off of it. Some grazing but more as something to do then nutrition. He is on flake each timothy grass and alfalfa, Equerry Plus supplement, Omolene growth grain (300??), Farrier's Formula and Mag Ox. Last night time only'd at race, totally fine. Today took out to ride and got to point of warm up where we circle right at jog and lame. Tied to fence for hour as I had a gal I was helping, walked back to barn (quarter mile, yay me) and he was lame. Wrapped hoof to wait for this one to blow out.
ANY advice?! I am getting very frustrated. He is such a nice colt. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 912
Location: Alabama | Can you post pictures of his feet? My guess is he is badly trimmed and causing stress in the actual hooves. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
 
Location: Texas | I'd have a vet look at him and x ray his foot... I'd check for a foreign body, sometimes if they have something in there the foot will just abscess over and over again. Or it could just be an abscess that just isn't ever completely getting rid of itself, may be worth having it really dug out if you haven't tried that yet. There's also metabolic conditions that increase the likelihood of abscesses like PPID but that would be pretty low on my list for a 3YO.
Or he could be a horse that needs to be in shoes if he isn't in them already.. if he has thin soles and continually bruises his feet, the risk of abscessing over and over increases.
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Veteran
Posts: 155
| I have a mare with EMS and horrible underslung heals, and she would blow abscesses on a regular basis. I got her diet under control and the farrier and vet are working together to get her feet straightened out. She hasn't blown an abscess since July 2017, knock on wood!
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Recently gotten shod in front. Abscesses will blow from either, not all in same hoof. I will try to get pics of feet tonight, just a matter of remembering. Feet have been on a 6 week (or as needed schedule, if he needs done before we do them) schedule since I got him. Vet has also seen him. Said besides tender soles nothing was shouting that he needed xrays. It was right after that we got him shod but probably only been 3 weeks he's had them on.
Edited by Lisantwist 2018-07-19 6:51 PM
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Sockittoemred - 2018-07-19 2:08 PM Can you post pictures of his feet? My guess is he is badly trimmed and causing stress in the actual hooves.
Pics of feet. Not the best but probably not the worst pics. Trying to get him to stand still and with straight legs is a chore. Lol. |
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Sockittoemred - 2018-07-19 2:08 PM
Can you post pictures of his feet? My guess is he is badly trimmed and causing stress in the actual hooves.
I have pics. But can't get them uploaded because too big. I need an idiot-proof program to resize them. |
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| Lisantwist - 2018-07-19 4:38 PM
Recently gotten shod in front. Abscesses will blow from either, not all in same hoof. I will try to get pics of feet tonight, just a matter of remembering. Feet have been on a 6 week (or as needed schedule, if he needs done before we do them) schedule since I got him. Vet has also seen him. Said besides tender soles nothing was shouting that he needed xrays. It was right after that we got him shod but probably only been 3 weeks he's had them on.
I would definitely have radiographs taken by your vet. If he's saying your horse has tender soles, but isn't doing anything about it- that's concerning to me. Baseline radiographs would be good to have, so you can measure what his sole depth is and work on building that back up, and like casualdust said, see if there is a foreign body in there. We had a client with a horse that continually abscessed, and turns out it had a piece of plexiglas somehow jammed in there, but it took radiographs and surgery to get it out before we knew what it was.
Durasole is a great product you can put on the soles of their hooves to strengthen them up. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I had a frustrating one like that.. every couple months she would blow an abscess out her coronary band. Left or right foot, it switched up each time. Owner pulled a bunch of her excess weight off and worked on getting a better enclosure for her and she still continually abscessed. The next plan was to get pads put on her to protect her soles from bruising to maybe get ahold of everything. I think he ended up buying protective boots for her feet and so far so good. It was very frustrating.. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | Treat for thrush!!!! like everyday.... |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 912
Location: Alabama | I pm'd you my email. You can email me pics and I will upload for you. |
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 The Vaccinator
Posts: 3810
Location: Slipping down the slope of old age. Boo hoo. | I am sorry you are dealing with this -- it is frustrating. I had a nice TB who was a stellar jumper and his coffin bone began degenerating -- little chips. He abscessed constantly. We made him comfortable for several years with Bute -- but as it progressed we just could not give him enough Bute to keep him comfortable and we ended up putting him down. Very sad. We even tried experimental treatment offered up free from a well-known vet. I second the recommendation for x-rays -- once you know what you are dealing with you can make a plan. Good luck.
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 Sorry I don't have any advice
Posts: 1975
Location: Sunnyland Florida |
My friends' recently-purchased horse had about 7 abscesses in a row. Turns out the horse had been over-vaccinated (diagnosed by a vet) by the previous owner. The abscessing continued for a few months after she was under the vet's care. Finally the horse is sound, for several months now.
I don't vaccinate and it is an extremely rare occasion that any of mine have an abscess.
Edited to add... you can detox your horse to help rid their system of the toxins a little quicker.
Here's a link to a good article:
https://depaoloequineconcepts.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/vaccine-reactions-in-horses/
Edited by Runaway 2018-07-20 12:25 PM
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | madredepeanut - 2018-07-19 7:16 PM Lisantwist - 2018-07-19 4:38 PM Recently gotten shod in front. Abscesses will blow from either, not all in same hoof. I will try to get pics of feet tonight, just a matter of remembering. Feet have been on a 6 week (or as needed schedule, if he needs done before we do them) schedule since I got him. Vet has also seen him. Said besides tender soles nothing was shouting that he needed xrays. It was right after that we got him shod but probably only been 3 weeks he's had them on. I would definitely have radiographs taken by your vet. If he's saying your horse has tender soles, but isn't doing anything about it- that's concerning to me. Baseline radiographs would be good to have, so you can measure what his sole depth is and work on building that back up, and like casualdust said, see if there is a foreign body in there. We had a client with a horse that continually abscessed, and turns out it had a piece of plexiglas somehow jammed in there, but it took radiographs and surgery to get it out before we knew what it was. Durasole is a great product you can put on the soles of their hooves to strengthen them up.
He's a good vet. I have used many and I appreciate him not having me throw $1000 at a problem immediately. Not saying that I won't if needed, but it is not his first go-to. His first step in solving the issue was putting shoes on him. He wanted him to have them on for a bit before jumping to the next thing. If he only had them in one foot I would be more apt to do xrays immediately. They come in both. I do use hoof conditioned on him when he isn't wrapped for a dang abscess but will try to remember to get Durasole on him as well. I have it, just forget to use it. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | Lisantwist - 2018-07-20 3:37 PM
madredepeanut - 2018-07-19 7:16 PM Lisantwist - 2018-07-19 4:38 PM Recently gotten shod in front. Abscesses will blow from either, not all in same hoof. I will try to get pics of feet tonight, just a matter of remembering. Feet have been on a 6 week (or as needed schedule, if he needs done before we do them) schedule since I got him. Vet has also seen him. Said besides tender soles nothing was shouting that he needed xrays. It was right after that we got him shod but probably only been 3 weeks he's had them on. I would definitely have radiographs taken by your vet. If he's saying your horse has tender soles, but isn't doing anything about it- that's concerning to me. Baseline radiographs would be good to have, so you can measure what his sole depth is and work on building that back up, and like casualdust said, see if there is a foreign body in there. We had a client with a horse that continually abscessed, and turns out it had a piece of plexiglas somehow jammed in there, but it took radiographs and surgery to get it out before we knew what it was. Durasole is a great product you can put on the soles of their hooves to strengthen them up.
The fact that its both feet basically drops my foreign body idea to like 0.
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 495
Location: Washington | 
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Lol right?? I have laughed and cried over this horse a lot. And not even had him a year. The both is frustrating. If it was one all the time I would've done xrays long ago. But its both.
Just talked to me farrier again, he wants him to have a solid week off after he is sound from this one. He thinks since they blow out so high they aren't getting dried up internally and fully healed. It's worth a shot.
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Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Lopin' Leopard - 2018-07-20 3:22 PM
Farrier and I are well aware that he has some straight hoof walls to battle. We are working on it slowly, not making any huge changes all at once. The shoes will help us speed that up a bit as compared to keeping him barefoot. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I would probably do X-rays at this point. I had one who’s interior angles weren’t matching with his exterior angles. Wasn’t causing abscesses but some lameness issues all the same. Trimming off of the rads helped us.
Nutritionally I prefer a lower NSC feed in general (omelene is fairly high) but I couldn’t tell you how a higher sugar/starch feed affects hoof growth and quality. I have it in a textbook at home, but I haven’t gotten there yet... |
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  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | shod to tight, need larger shoe or expand it more. IF you facebook search rehab hoof help. seems abbcess is also linked to nutrition. need to eliminate/decrease iron in the feed, up copper and zinc among other vitamins/Minerals.
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 Loves to compete
Posts: 5760
Location: Oakdale, CA | I would xray him right away................. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | OE Hoof Evolution is a good supplement to think about feeding to, just to improve the overall health of the hoof. And I am going to echo someone else on nutrition. Omolene is really high sugar content. I would get him on something with lower NSC (non soluble carbohydrate). |
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 Veteran
Posts: 214
| When I first got my gelding we had a pretty frustrating go. He had pads on his front end and it was described harder rodeo ground seemed to sting his feet a little. He was due for a trim and reset when I took him to do a prepurchase so the vet pulled, did x-rays, flex test, hoof testers etc didn't find anything out of the ordinary wear and tear expected. The horse was working great but slowly got a little off in the front end over the next few months. We only live 45 mins from the previous owner (who I really like) we kept his feed the same, kept the same farrier etc. We got this horse in August and by December I took him to a lameness specialist. X-rays, blocks, hoof tests later he felt he had a ligament or tendon injury in both fronts, we decided to not do the MRI just to confirm this and went with the treatment route starting him on stall rest etc. Come his 8 week check up he was no better, just as lame. The vet thought he might be a tad sore with the hoof testers so he started digging.. and digging and digging... I wish I knew how to upload pictures, my horse's front feet had entire sections taken off almost to the cornet band in several spots close to his heel on both fronts. Deep festering abscesses that kept resealing.
I had been talking with another farrier about my problem horse in the meantime so he took a look at him. Where our problems were mainly coming from were around the bar areas. The way this particular horse grows a foot apparently requires each trimming to really clean out the bars. I never thought anything different about how this geldings feet were opposed to any of our other horses just while cleaning his feet out. He would get a tiny piece of sand or anything really in there it would seal over work its way up and we had the reoccurring lameness. This farrier, who I wasn't using before, came out every other week to ensure things were still open and draining, made him special shoes to help support the parts he was missing hoof. This went on for about 12 weeks. This horse was back to being legged up in June 2016 and knock on wood, we haven't had an issue with abscesses since. The farrier who was doing this horse before I got him and 4 months into owning him does a very good job, but a new set of eyes from the farrier I currently use really saved me in the long run. For the vet I took my gelding to to misdisagonse the deep, reoccurring abscesses as a ligament or tendon in BOTH fronts would hopefully give a little hope maybe yours could be something as simple as ours turned out to be, good luck! |
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| Test your hay/forage and balance his diet to that. If you don't know enough to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you. Dr. Eleanor Kellon is great. From there you can have a custom supplement created that balances your forage. It truthfully is quite astonishing what *issues* a properly balanced diet will eliminate and how much money you'll save in the long run.
For example: It could be that your hay (or water) is high in nitrates which affect the thyroid (plus, many other issues) and is manifesting itself through abscesses in this colt or that your forage is high in copper (unlikely, but possible) and by feeding three additional sources of copper, you're throwing the iron:zinc:manganese:copper ratio way out of balance.
You can test each forage source for about $40 through http://equi-analytical.com/
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Chronic Abscesses