# Foot abscess - how long to heal? (pic)



## Shrimp (8 June 2008)

Ok, so about a month ago, Shrimp developed a very nasty foot abscess and after three weeks there was still pus coming out. We had the vet out three times, xrayed twice which showed no foreign object so the vet and us decided to take him up to Leahurst veterinary hospital which is literally next door luckily for us!

His foot was xrayed again and you could see where the infection had underun the foot so together with the vet and specialist farrier it was decided that the best option was to take off part off his sole  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 to make sure that there was no possible way off any infection staying put and so far since then, no more pus has come out.

So nows he's bandaged up though he's barely sore on it considering whats actually been done to it.
So, my question is, if anyone has had similar experiance of this, how long did it take to heal and any tips that would help it heal? Any help would be much appreciated 
	
	
		
		
	


	





Here is the pic (a bit squeamish) You can see on the right hand side, the large part of the sole that has been taken away. The yellow clour is due to manuka honey we have been putting on the help get ride of the infection


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## merlinsquest (8 June 2008)

Ewwwww... that looks yukky.....

Sorry no experience, but yuk


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## mintaka04 (9 June 2008)

That's a serious hole! It looks quite clean though.

In the past I have used hydrogen peroxide solution to clean out wounds in the feet. Sterilising solution for contact lenses contains hydrogen peroxide in the right concentration.
I will agree that manuka honey is good for wound healing, but I don't know about putting it on the feet.

Did the vet not suggest anything to put on it?
Regards time scale, best person to ask would be your farrier, but I rather suspect that it will take the horse a few months to grow a new sole.


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## donablue (9 June 2008)

my horse had a abcess and i got the vet down had to poultice it for days.. didnt seem to do any good..
got a friend down for a helping hand

soaked her foot in hot water with savlon in the dried her foot off and put some peroxide in to it ( please be careful when doing this)
lucky enough my horse just stood there. then got a huggies nappy ( yes a nappy) and the vet wrapped it up for 2 days then re did it again and the wow brilliant it cleared up ...
dont go out buying poultices when you can just use huggies pull ups much cheaper and works a treat..


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## mintaka04 (9 June 2008)

Oh yes, that's right! I'd forgotten about the nappies! They really keep the moisture in and give some padding too.

The other thing you could try is betadine solution, you can but it from the chemist, comes in 500ml bottles. It's the best for keeping infection at bay.


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## lowbardon (9 June 2008)

we had this with my tb he stayed for a month as it was winter,but we put iodene and suger on which hardened it up and prevented infection it ,it hardened up in about a week and a half,but we kept him in for a while after


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## Shrimp (9 June 2008)

It is a rather large hole!! It is clean now, just going to take ages to grow a new sole. We are using tesco nappies as padding 
	
	
		
		
	


	




 and also a davies boot so he can go out in the field. The vet said to use to keep on using the manuka honey (was mums idea in the first place!) but I really think it is just time, thankyou for the suggestions, I may well try them 
	
	
		
		
	


	




Annoying thing is, I was supposed to be selling him in September because im going to uni but theres noway he'll be back ready to sell by then so who knows what im going to so....


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## jewel (9 June 2008)

what must of been one hell of an abscess. so i'm nohelp but i hope he heals soon.


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## ru-fi-do (9 June 2008)

I'm sort of going throught the same thing with my mare and your post has been very helpfull. Last Monday she became very lame in trot, she looks sound in walk. We have poulticing since last Tuesday and there hasn't really been anything come out. The vet dug her foot away abit a she was sore but still nothing. Inbetween poulticing I have soaked her foot in warm salt water. She is going in for Xrays tomorrow as they are concerned she may have fractured a bone in her foot.
Do you think that if it was an abcess it would've drawn out by now?? I don't mean to Hi-jack your post, just though you might be able to advise 
	
	
		
		
	


	




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## Shrimp (9 June 2008)

Hmm if it was an abscess I would have thought that having her foot dug away and soaking would have at least brought some of it out so xrays are the next best option. My horse went very lame in walk, could barely move whereas yours doesnt by the sounds of it. Let me know how the xrays go, im intrigued now!


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## ru-fi-do (9 June 2008)

Hmm my thoughts exactly. She is fine in walk mand for the first few strides of trot then her head nods away! I'm quite nervous about tomorrow. Hope your horse gets better soon too.


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## donablue (10 June 2008)

ps after the foot was out of poultice i used stock holme tar spray and that was better than the yully sticky one like treacle lol


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## KarynK (11 June 2008)

Keratex do a very useful product called hoof putty which has an antibiotic in it you can use it to fill holes and I would back it up by putting silage tape round the hoof for a while to make sure it sets in the hole or get the farrier to apply a pad on top of the putty underneath the shoe.


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