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Draining Infected Foot
Two weeks ago I wrote because of what I thought was an abscess in the left front foot of my twelve year old trot and gallop mare from poor shoeing - it turns out I was right about the poor shoeing as we eventually discovered an infected hole that was caused by a misguided nail - the farrier never said anything and after two weeks of treatment and almost having laminatis because of the very high temperature in the hoof and the tissue inflamation from the infection some friends helped out and we gave her several treatmernts with ice-horse pads and water boots with ice for extended periods. she recovered from the high temperature and also we cleaned the wound with several anti-bacterial meds and eventually drained part of the infection that wascoming out the cororonary band. Gave her the Bactrim equivalent for three and half days and she seems a lot better than a week ago. Brought her back to the barn yesterday and this morning noticed there is still stuff coming out of the hole at the bottom of her foot. Im keeping it very clean and washing it with water and adding a bit of farriers barrier around the bottom of the foot in order to prevent further infection - any ideas - should I just wait and let it continue to drain - or cover with poultice - Im bit afraid of the poultice because it makes her feety very hot and that is not good in this FL weather -
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Pannell on
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I would be getting the hoof knife and pairing away a bit more sole, so it can drain better. It's going to drain better if you open the hole at the bottom so it can drain down ,not up through the corronet. If your to squeamish to do it find a GOOD farrier. Sounds like the last one was not to good..
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Permalink Reply by Petstorejunkie on
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Sounds like it's time to call the vet. the wound needs to be debrided.
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Permalink Reply by AECat on
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what is that debrided ??? called the vet and they gave some antibiotics for a couple of days -
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Debriding is what you do with proud flesh.
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Im not sure we are there ( debriding ) yet... there is some matter still comming out but just a couple of drops every day - not much more than that - I can tell because I check her foot every few hours and in the morning there is little bit of matter close to the hole on the bottom of her foot - Started soaking with water- ice and salt for 40 minutes to relieve presure and cool her foot but havent done any poultice yet - Im leaning towards trying poultice for 12 hours to see if it dries everything inside and heals the infection - im somewaht afraid because the foot and laminate could be getting too hot and causing other problems - not sure if there is any fundament to this theory but it seems to make sense that covering the foot in this weather and applying a very warm substance would increase the tempterature of the foot considerably - that and the fact there si already some increment because of the infection seems too risky - would like to know anyones opinion on this as most vets recommend the poultice with an abscess but is this an infection from a nail ....
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Permalink Reply by Lallanslover on
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Personally, I'd be using dry poultices on it by this stage, covering the whole foot and right up around the coronary band.
There's some great information on this link, which will take a little time to read but may help you to decide what's best in treating your horse:
http://www.equipodiatry.com/article_hoof_abscess.htm
I also agree that you need to find a farrier you trust, and think your vet needs to take more of an interest in pro-active treatment!
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Re-started the poultice last night for about 18 hours - this morning water-ice-salt her foot for 40 minutes -Letting her rest for a while an later today will poultice again until tomorrow am. and then ice-water-salt again - its a compromise between not doing any poultice and doing some - still concerned about increasing the hoof temperature too much in this weather - this morning a bit more infection came out - thinking calling the vet later today - farrier thinks poultice - vet thinks poultice -
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