Abscess help please

[winnieandben]

My horse is on her 3rd abscess since September.  She has no history of abscess and her feet are very good.  This most recent one is in a back foot and she is barefoot on her backs.  Her feet are in great shape, any ideas on cause????

Anything I can feed etc to help???

Thank you 

[Diane Smith]

My sympathies to you, abcesses are awful things, has she had them whilst shod?

 Monet has had 6, but all of them occured when he was without shoes. He has never had any on a shod foot, I have to keep him shod in order to avoid them.

Good luck and happy poulticing 

[winnieandben]

Thank you  , she is shod in front and the last one was on a front foot.  She was shod behind over the summer but had the shoes off for winter.

I know that I prob need to put more info to get advice but dont really know what to put as there are no obvious things to me so please ask any questions about her / her management that may help. 

[ParisDiamond]

The first person to ask is your farrier to be honest.  Sometimes they can just happen, some horses can release abscesses when they're healing from other issues in their bodies, it can be totally unrelated to foot health, but this is unusual.  The most common reason is a foreign body having entered the foot, or soft delicate feet having a lot of bruising which turns into an abscess.

[winnieandben]

Thanks for the reply PD.  With the one in her front foot it was caused by bruising, we think she landed bad on a stone, foot was bruised enough for Vet to think there was a fracture.  It then abscessed from that.  The second abscess was in the same place so I guess maybe didnt get it 100% drained first time round.
But this new one on the back foot is a bit of a mystery??  I am just waiting to hear back from farrier when he is coming our way to have a look, obviously if it gets worse and she really gets sore will get him out sooner at the moment she is only slightly lame on turning and landing on the outside of foot.

[Jo*]

How old is your mare? Has she any history or signs of laminitis or cushings?

[winnieandben]

Hi there  She is rising 6 and very fit and healthy otherwise.  She has a history of LGL but that has been under control for sometime now. 

[ParisDiamond]

Yes, definitely count the first two abscesses as one, given what you describe.  Treat the hind one as a separate issue.  You say you had her hind shoes off for winter, are they tough enough for the work you've been giving her unshod?  It could be more stone bruising, especially given the very wet weather in December, meaning feet were softer than ideal, this can be the tipping point for thin soles/abscesses. 

[Claire]

monfils had three, on three separate feet, last spring while transitioning.  been fine sine the walls etc grew stronger (touching wood, LOL).

[winnieandben]

Claire, good to hear he has been fine since 

PD,  Her feet hardened up really fast, she only had a couple of sets of shoes on, in the summer I find they wear down a too quickly hence the shoeing for hacking.  In the winter her workload is much less and if we do go for longer hacks I use boots.  She seemed much better this morning though so fingers crossed it was maybe bruised? and doesnt abscess 

[CremeBrulee]

Abscesses are usually down to mineral imbalances/diet from what Iv read.

What is she getting fed?

 

[winnieandben]

Hi.  She has ad lib hay (round bale out in field) very little grass left.  No hard feed, she gets a handfull of unmollased chaff damped with water with vit min supp, agnus castus (hormones) linseed oil and a joint supp.

[CremeBrulee]

ID check the ingredients in your supps just in case but unless theyve got molglo in (mollasses) it souds nice and low sugar which is perfect for BF. Also a vit supplement is pointless, they get vits from the sun/grass etc its only minerals that need supplementing.

There is no point blanket supplementing minerals as you could be making one that is already high in your grass higher, and some such as calcium then inhibit the absorption of other minerals which would then be even lower than without the additional supp.

In which case Id def be thinking th hay is lacking in a certain mineral, the way to find this out would be to have it analysed, preferably by an independent not an actual feed company. Id recommend forageplus as its Sarah Braithwaite of the feet first book so v knowledgeable and helpful. You could always drop her an email adn explain what has been happening and see if she thinks its the way to go? 

http://www.forageplus.com/

Another suggestion is to post pics and history on the UKHNCP forum for loads of v well informed bf advice 

[winnieandben]

Thank you very much for all the info    She is fine now, back in work so will see how she goes but any further probs I will def look into that 

[thecatsmother]

Another suggestion is to post pics and history on the UKHNCP forum for loads of v well informed bf advice 

There are people on this forum with lots of experience from a variety of the barefoot schools I think so hopefully there's a great deal of balanced (`scuse the pun  ) advice on here