# Bruising to the heel - Opinions please!!



## sarahhowen (21 February 2012)

Hi Chaps,

I have a lovely Warmblood who has sadly been lame for the last 4 weeks - the vet has seen him twice and the general thinking  was that the lameness was in the hoof (Slight increased pulse and heat in the hoof) and Xrays were taken to rule out a fracture to the pedal bone - thankfully that was all clear!!

So we were sent home to rest him, poultice his hoof and hope that an abscess blows out or that it was a deep bruise, so we did the prescribed box rest and Indi appeared sound (Adrenaline is a great pain killer) turned him out (as per vets instructions) and he proceeded to spend two days running round the field like an idiot, checked him after day two and yup, you guessed it slightly unsound on a circle I actually dont think he ever came sound but when we checked him after a week confined to barracks he was just that excited to be out he would of trotted sound even with his hoof hanging off!!

Opted to give him some time and Checked him two days later when he was significantly sounder - still not right but much improved so as the vet had already ruled out fractures etc I decided to give him a week of R & R and I am due to recheck him on Wednesday - if not sound then we will haul him back to the vets for the third time for god only knows what tests!!

So to give you a timeframe Indi has now not been sound for a month, when I say unsound, he is perfectly sound in a straight line but if asked to work on a circle he is prob 1/10 lame and he came un unsound during a clinic with a classical dressage guru who had us working in a VERY slow trot on the buckle end with no supporting contact from me, Indi is a big horse and does require some support to balance himself and I believe that he bacame unbalanced and overreached bashing his heels in a manor that did not cause the skin to break BUT has given him a very deep bruise which we are just seeing now.

So on to the pictures - sorry they are fuzzy but they were taken on my cell phone so they arent the best quality but I think you will be able to see what i'm seeing and advise if indeed you think this is a bruise and can feasibly be the cause of the lameness that we are experiencing??







Okay so this picture is when he has just come in, the fields pretty muddy at the moment so I have hosed the area off to see what is happening, on the bulb of the heel closest to us you can see a crack........ now look what happens when it drys out







Again on the buld of the heel closest to us you can see a red line about an inch long - this is the area that I suspect to be bruised??







and this one is the other heel that seems to of almost abscessed - Maybe from when we poulticed it for 5 days??

This isnt sore to touch but I am treating it as an open would and cleaning the area thoroughly and putting on a antibacterial cream.

Indi is now having Over reach boots on any time he leaves his stable....... if this is a bruise is there anything I can do to help this bruise come out and heel??

Also, I know he is still really low on his heels but they are a million percent better than they were when we brought him - its just an ever increasing work in progress


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## AdorableAlice (21 February 2012)

Assume vet took shoe off and had a good look at sole with hoof testers when xrays were done ?  Your pictures certainly show an area of trauma and deep foot bruising can take an age to come right.

You will be bombarded with advice to take his shoes off and all will be cured enabling the horse to gallop up flint tracks without a problem.  However if he was mine and I was positive there is no abscess brewing I would turn him out for a fortnight and if still lame after that request a lameness work up with nerve blocks etc to pin point the area of lameness and then be led by the vet and farrier.  A broad web shoe with support at the heel may be all he needs.  My big boy needed flat iron on his fronts to be comfortable.

You will soon have plenty of advice from the 'barefoot is best' devotees which is great for alot of horses but for big working horses may not be very helpful.

Good luck with him and hopefully he will be sound quickly.


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## sarahhowen (21 February 2012)

Thanks AdorableAlice, he did have the shoe removed when we poulticed but as nothing produced and the farrier couldnt find anything we opted to have the shoe back on as he is VERY thin soled and still underrun on his heels - he is very sore without - I would love to have him barefoot but given his current issues I dont see that being a possibilty at the moment.

Do you have any suggestions on how to get the bruising to come out?? or is it just a case of wait and see??


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## Maesfen (21 February 2012)

Agree with Alice.  This is a time for patience, you won't get a quick fix until that bruise is well and truly out of the way.  You must know how long your own bruises take to clear and stop being sore, a horse is little different in that respect especially a wimpy WB!
I'd also watch the over reach boots very carefully as they might irritate it even more.


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## sarahhowen (21 February 2012)

How long feasibly should I wait though before I begin to worry??

He has now been lame for 4 weeks and whilst I dont mind giving him all the time in the world to heel, I dont want to be ignoring the possibility that something else could be causing the lameness - I am by nature a worrier hence why he has already been to the vets twice!!


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## AdorableAlice (21 February 2012)

sarahhowen said:



			How long feasibly should I wait though before I begin to worry??

He has now been lame for 4 weeks and whilst I dont mind giving him all the time in the world to heel, I dont want to be ignoring the possibility that something else could be causing the lameness - I am by nature a worrier hence why he has already been to the vets twice!!
		
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A deep bruise can take months rather than weeks to settle and you can't tell a horse to put his foot up and rest like we can do !!  Your vet has dismissed navicular, pedalostitis, how do you spell that !, fractures etc.  I have pm'ed you with my experiences with a flat footed horse to avoid being slated again by the 'barefoot is best' devotees.


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## sarahhowen (21 February 2012)

Thanks guys, and thanks for the PM Adorable Alice - it was very informative


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## Ditchjumper2 (23 February 2012)

Get a big plastic tub, fill it with very warm water and epsom salts. Leave him stood in it for as long as possible. Do this a couple of times a day. You will be suprised how much, and how quickly, the bruising comes out. BUT...if it looks as though any infection is coming up and out through the coronet band stop.  Our hunter was eactly the same last season. He overreached and although it was clean and healed a bit of grit must have got in and it worked its way through.  As we did not want to affect coronary band farrier cut a 1 inch horizontal line in wall and we tubbed and poultices to get infection out that way.  Soon cam right, foot grew out and all was OK.  Your problem sounds just the same.  Hot tub with salts...works every time and cheap as chips!!  The old ways are still often the best.


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## Ditchjumper2 (23 February 2012)




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## A Guilding (23 February 2012)

How old is the horse? when it was at its lamest what would you score it out of ten? In my experiece I think four weeks is a long time. Did he nerve block to the hoof?


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## sarahhowen (24 February 2012)

Ditchjumper2 said:



			Get a big plastic tub, fill it with very warm water and epsom salts. Leave him stood in it for as long as possible. Do this a couple of times a day. You will be suprised how much, and how quickly, the bruising comes out. BUT...if it looks as though any infection is coming up and out through the coronet band stop.  Our hunter was eactly the same last season. He overreached and although it was clean and healed a bit of grit must have got in and it worked its way through.  As we did not want to affect coronary band farrier cut a 1 inch horizontal line in wall and we tubbed and poultices to get infection out that way.  Soon cam right, foot grew out and all was OK.  Your problem sounds just the same.  Hot tub with salts...works every time and cheap as chips!!  The old ways are still often the best.
		
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Thanks Ditchjumper2, We did try and soak the hoof when we thought it was going to abscess, but apparently Indi wasnt a fan and thought it was a good idea to repeatedly kick the water everywhere and get in a tizzy about it!! Indi has always had issues with having his feet done and I have found out this week from a previous owner that he had issues with repeated abscessing during winter and the issues stem from his just being fed up from having his feet handled when they were painful!! When we brought him you couldnt pick up his back feet and the farrier could do the backs - he had soup plates behind!! Now I can pick up the feet daily without any issues and the farrier can put shoes on (this is a big achievement!!)

I dont want to tempt fate BUT when I checked him on the lunge on Tuesday he looked about 95% sound and just a little unconfident to put his foot down but sound when he did if that makes sense!!

Im planning on starting to hack him very lightly at the weekend - just 20 minutes walking each day and taking it from there very slowly.

And yes I agree the old cures are often the best!!


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## sarahhowen (24 February 2012)

Ditchjumper2 said:








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Ditch, was this your horse?? How did he do this and how long did it take for him to recover - Thats A LOT of bruising going on there!!


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## sarahhowen (24 February 2012)

A Guilding said:



			How old is the horse? when it was at its lamest what would you score it out of ten? In my experiece I think four weeks is a long time. Did he nerve block to the hoof?
		
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At worst he was probably 3/10 lame although he did have one incident when I rode him that he went hopping lame (This was the only time I have ridden him during the whole episode and he looked a little off so the instructor suggested putting him into canter to see if that loosened him up and it was just tension - It wasnt and he went three legged lame for a few strides!!) We abandoned the ride straight away.

He is 11 Years old, the vet didnt nerve block the hoofs as given the increased pulse and the reaction to the testers they were confident that the lameness was in the hoof.

In saying that he was so reactive that they did have to block the hoof to get the shoe off, he was so sore when they were trying to remove the shoe but they couldnt have him trotted up afterwards as he would of been unlevel given the shoe had been removed!!

They did xray the foot to rule out fractures of the pedal bone


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## A Guilding (24 February 2012)

It looks like an inflamatory condition, bruising as a result of trauma would of cleared up quickly. If it was as a result of pressure then relieve the pressure then the lameness would go, sometimes imediatly. What ever it was had a proper run through the foot, almost a coronitis, be good if you took more (better) pics of different views. Just because fractures arnt visible doesent mean they arnt there so that was still a possibility. I hope he continues to improve.


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## Ditchjumper2 (24 February 2012)

sarahhowen - yes this is my boy. He jumped a ditch out hunting and it was very deep on landing side. He over reached on landing and sort of got his feet stuck and really bashed his heels.  The over reached cleared up quickly, but he wasn't quite right. Not hopping lame just unlevel, but he is usually 100%.

A bit of dirt/grit must have been left inside.  The hot tubbing brought the bruising out big time...amazing that within 24 hours there it all was.  But we did not want it coming out the coronet. The line in the wall that shows as black is where the farrier cut it.  We then tubbed just up to there and poulticed it for 2 days.

We then duck taped it whilst he was turned out.  As we had a spare hunter we just gave him the end of the season off. It took a few weeks before he was 100%. The slit has now grown out and you would never have known it was there.


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