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Regular
Posts: 81
| Is there anything I should be feeding or doing to help prevent abscesses? My horse has now had 3 in 2 yrs and it is becoming very frustrating. They have all been in a different foot and they show up very suddenly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks |
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 Tough Patooty
Posts: 2615
  
Location: Sperry, OK | rockybar - 2015-04-10 3:06 PM Is there anything I should be feeding or doing to help prevent abscesses? My horse has now had 3 in 2 yrs and it is becoming very frustrating. They have all been in a different foot and they show up very suddenly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Nothing you can do...any kind of crack in the sole, or nail hole can let the bacteria in. |
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  That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| If the abscess is caused by damage to the sensitive tissue it can be prevented by getting the horses feed correct. A good farrier is very important. |
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What Name?
Posts: 1994
| my mare a couple years back ( dam to my now gelding ) used to have this issue awful. It was because we were in a seriously rocky area, and she had very soft white hooves. CONSTANTLY having to soak her hook to get them out. I eventually starting feeding her supplments that improved hoof health, and started treating her feet with main & tail hoof lotion. It helped a lot and lowered the frequiency. But never completely able to stop her from getting them.
I was soooo glad wen my boy came out a bay with all four black feet instead of his dams white stockings/hooves. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| Get some "Rickens" foot treatment. About 15.00 for a 6oz bottle. Paint the sole and all nail holes every few days. |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I have one that is flat footed and we've been working on him for a year and we're just now getting decent feet. I've had to really lay the nutrients to him and it's made a difference. I use Hearty Hoof Hoof dressing and it helps to toughen their feet - when I don't forget to use it! The wet and then frozen ground was the biggest contributor this year.
I also have another one that if he's not kept on 5 week schedule he'll abscess. He grows heel faster than his toes in his hind feet and he'll have too much pressure on his toes and abscess.
Niacin helps with circulation, biotin helps with hoof quality, and methionine helps with growth. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I have been on a roller coaster with my mare since last June. It started with her getting her foot stuck in a hanging bucket last May, which bruised her at the hairline on the side of her foot. She then abscessed 3 times in a week--3 different holes stacked on top of each other. I have never seen an abscess that large ever, or a horse that miserable with one. Standing on her toe so much while this was brewing, draining, and healing, she cracked it from ground through the hair line and kept cracking as it grew. This then gave another entrance hole for germs, and she abscessed from that crack 3 times last fall before she blew one big enough to put a horizontal stop at the top, and then twice this spring. I've been trying to keep her out of mud while all this is growing out, but it's not always possible. The extremely large hole on the side of her foot is grown out, and the toe crack is halfway down.
she has 4 white feet, but fortunately her other 3 have been healthy so far. I put her on SmartHoof Ultra last fall and I can see a difference in the quality of hoof she is growing now. The toe crack still seems to be stable halfway down her foot.
Moral of the story is don't put your feet where they don't belong. She hasn't learned this yet. She also thinks if her head is behind the trailer door and she can't see me that I must not be able to see her either, most especially what her feet are doing. She is now convinced I have magical powers, which I'm hoping will aid me in finishing her training during her periodic Times of Soundness.  |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | My mare started blowing with abscesses in her feet every few months about 6 months after she had a blow in in the trailer and got an infection in her hock. She had to be on long term antibiotics because of the infection which then seemed to really kill her immune system. She blew up with sarcoids around the same time. I put my horses I was headed out on a long haul with on to Forco and felt bad not giving it to this mare also since it is inexpensive. A month later her sarcoids cleared up, she quit having on and off lameness issues and hasn't blown an abscess since...that was almost 3 years ago. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | ACEINTHEHOLE - 2015-04-10 3:09 PM
rockybar - 2015-04-10 3:06 PM Is there anything I should be feeding or doing to help prevent abscesses? My horse has now had 3 in 2 yrs and it is becoming very frustrating. They have all been in a different foot and they show up very suddenly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Nothing you can do...any kind of crack in the sole, or nail hole can let the bacteria in.
Not to mention a sole bruise or a piece of gravel or a thorn getting past the sole... Keeping them current on tetanus is a good idea.. |
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Expert
Posts: 1815
| My gelding had one two years in a row in Feb of all times, just being turned out. Have had numerous abscesses with other horses as well. I started feeding Purina Enrich Plus and been 2 yrs without one.........their feet seem much better after the feed switch |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Speaking with a holistic equine practitioner, she told me to remove all simple sugars from their diet, this includes grass.
During the wet times, I will soak breast pads in 16% iodine vet wrap them onto the soles of the feet change every 3 days or when they fall off. This gives antiseptic properties, hardens the foot, and the iodine will travel up into the foot. When you X-ray after using iodine, abscesses show easier as they glow
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 Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | One time I moved to a place and my horses continuously abscessed. I had five horses at the time. There wasn't one time, in the entire two year period that I lived there, that at least one horse didn't have a least one foot bandaged. The vet joked that we bought his summer home that year. None of my horses had ever had an abscess before. Not one time, ever. Nowadays I can diagnose an abscess from across the pasture and treat it with my eyes closed. We moved from that place and not one of my horses has ever had an abscess again, knock wood! It's been ten years. I have four of the same horses. I feed them exactly the same and do the same stuff for their feet, i.e., supplements, hardeners, conditioners, etc. when I feel like it. So it had something to do with that place. Our theories about what caused it:
1. The horses crossed a small, rocky creek to come down to the barnyard for their feed twice a day.
2. The farrier was not balancing them properly. (This goes hand in hand with one of my horses getting sidebone.)
3. The pasture was teeming with bacteria. The prior owners kept sickly, neglected animals (cows, goats, chickens, horses) all together in a dirty barnyard and overgrazed, weedy pasture.
I think it was a combination of these three factors. The water from the creek weakened their feet. The poor balancing of the feet caused the white line to spread apart, so to speak, and allowed the bacteria from the dirty pasture to get in there.
Prevent them by keeping his feet clean and dry and making sure you have a good farrier. Do you notice if it happens when it's muddy? |
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