F E A T U R E
Horse Care Cont’d. teria may be just a millimeter or two away from the bones. An infection can become quite complicated if a simple abscess goes too long and gets into the deep structures; the horse may need surgery. If the coffin bone is involved, this typically requires surgery to debride the bone. The prognosis is good— it just requires several months of lay-up for the horse,” he says. It pays to know what’s going on in the foot, early on. It’s also important in the early stages to determine whether the lameness is due to an abscess or some other condition like a fracture or a bad bruise. “Usually when the horse is that lame you’ll be putting him in a stall where he doesn’t have to move around. An abscess generally gets worse with time. An injury, by contrast, usually gets better with time and rest,” says Morrison. “If you are not sure what’s going on, radiographs and an examination by a veterinarian is recommended, to rule out
Medical-grade maggots.
other causes of lameness. You want to make sure it’s the foot, and also that it’s not a fracture in the foot or anywhere else in the leg.” Treatment “The vet or farrier can open the abscess and establish drainage. At that point you want to keep the foot hydrated and soft, so the abscess can continue to drain for at least four or five days. We generally use some kind of soak or poultice. The Animalintex poultice pad works well; you put warm water on it, put it next to the site to help draw out the infection and keep it moist so it can keep draining,” says Morrison. He warns against use of Betadine or any kind of iodine or astringent at first. “You don’t want anything that would dry it and shrink up the tissue or it will close up the hole. You want to keep it open for several days, which can be accomplished by soaking.” Traditional soaking treatment with Epsom salts (for at least 20 minutes daily) can help. “Once the horse is comfortable and no longer lame, then we can start drying it up. That’s when we use things like Betadine and ichthammol to help dry it up,” he says. By then the infection should be gone and the tissue can start healing and closing up. “There are some hoof disinfectants that are helpful once the abscess is opened and drained. One is Clean Trax and another is White Lightning. These both contain chlorine dioxide, a good antiseptic that penetrates the hoof capsule and kills bacteria,” he says. Usually he doesn’t put horses on systemic antibiotics for a typical abscess. An antibiotic in the bloodstream can’t readily get to the site, and won’t be very helpful, and most localized abscesses will heal just fine if allowed to drain. “If deeper structures are involved, the horse may need antibiotics. With a typical abscess, however, antibiotics may delay maturation of the abscess, especially if it has not yet been opened and drained. Antibiotics just make the abscess
Don’t Ignore Health Of The Other Foot “If lameness is severe and has been going on for five days or more, I start worrying about the opposite foot that’s carrying all the weight. It is important to create support for the other foot or it may develop laminitis,” says Morrison. This may be hard to do, however, because the horse doesn’t want you picking up the other foot, not wanting to bear weight on the sore one while you work on the good one. “There are boots you can slip onto the foot fairly quickly, or even when the horse is lying down. Or, when the veterinarian is there, he/she could block the sore foot temporarily so it doesn’t feel pain while it bears weight—while the farrier is working on the other foot to protect it,” he says. A boot to protect the good foot should be something with a soft pad that helps load the sole and frog. “This helps take weight off the laminar interface,” he explains. “With horses who have been lame for more than a week,
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we become more aggressive on protecting the other foot, to try to keep the coffin bone from starting to rotate. We often put a cuff shoe on, that has a wedge on it—to help take tension off the deep digital flexor tendon and keep the bone from rotating,” he says. “When a horse is bearing most of the weight on just one front (or hind) foot, it greatly affects blood perfusion to the toe area. Normally, the horse is always moving around and shifting weight from one foot to the other. This aids blood flow to the foot. If a horse is really lame on one foot, all the weight is being borne on the other foot. This shuts down the perfusion to the toe,” explains Morrison. There’s slightly more risk of damage to the front foot than to a hind, because the fronts typically bear more weight to begin with. “But if a horse has severe lameness in a hind foot, I try to put support on the other hind foot,” he says.
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