# HELP PLEASE Gravel infection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!



## horse.love92 (1 September 2010)

Please help , last friday my horse ( we found out when the vet came ) had a gravel infection as he was seriously lame. She then gave me antiobiotics and bute and told me to poltice him for a few days to draw out any thing I could. He then was sound the last 2/3 days so we had his shoe put back on and some filler put in the hole the vet made to find the gravel. He was then turned out last night and came in very lame this morning. Please help !!! don't know what to do.


----------



## nikicb (1 September 2010)

It sounds as though there is still an infection in there and you probably need the vet and or farrier (to remove shoe and filler) back out again.  If he is very lame he may well need some more antibiotics.


----------



## kickandshout (1 September 2010)

definately get the farrier out to remove shoe and investigate the hole. after all feet are his area of expertise.
my vet did an poor job on my horse after he trod on a nail scaring me silly saying he might need xrays as he couldve hit pedal bone etc. my farrier took one look said there was nothing to worry about it was no where near anything important ( lol) dug a bigger hole found no infection and said to plug the hole with stockholme tar.


----------



## cptrayes (1 September 2010)

Get your farrier back, reopen the hole and this time don't call the vet and don't give her antibiotics - they do just what happened in your case, allowed the infection to get sealed in and blow up again once they were stopped. You shouldn't need antibiotics for an open draining hole in the foot, and they are definitely usually not recommended for a foot abscess which is not open because of the problems they can cause. Why did your vet give antibiotics in the first place? Is she a horse vet or a generalist who does a bit of horse work???

Stick with your farrier, he knows better how to treat a foot abscess than most vets will.


----------



## brucea (1 September 2010)

And my pet advice on this - cut out all mollasses - it's just my pet theory but of the many horses I have seen with abscesses the ones that take longest to fix are those that get mollasses in their feed, or licks, or treats...

I could probably never prove it... but I've seen it so often it's got to be more than coincidence


----------



## Tnavas (2 September 2010)

brucea said:



			And my pet advice on this - cut out all mollasses - it's just my pet theory but of the many horses I have seen with abscesses the ones that take longest to fix are those that get mollasses in their feed, or licks, or treats...

I could probably never prove it... but I've seen it so often it's got to be more than coincidence
		
Click to expand...

Fed Mollasses for over 40 years and rarely had feet problems - generally when we did it was from bruising or abscess after really wet weather.

Sugar can even be be used as a poultice.


As others have said, forget the vet & antibiotics and get the farrier back. He will do a far better job of sorting out your horses foot. Occaisionally I've had horses react to the filler too and go lame again. remove the filler & they are sound. Wether it is a reaction to the chemicals in it or possibly just the pressure of the filler in the hole. I've always had the best results from soaking cottonwool in Stockholm Tar and packing the hole with it. The tar has a great disinfecting effect on the damage. 

Also start treating the coronary band with something like cornucresine to encourage good horn growth.


----------

