Another Abscess

[fimacg]

Brave had been a little footy last week, but then he normally is after he has been shod, so I wasnt overly concerned as I couldnt find anything and it certainly wasnt slowing him down, and I took him XC schooling on Thursday (during which he managed to deck me twice via dirty stops at ditches, but that is another story) Friday I didnt get a chance to ride but he was in during the day and fine when I turned him out overnight. Got up Saturday morning and went to bring them in off the grass, and all 3 were lying down, as soon as Brave stood up I realised something was wrong as he hopped and didnt want to put his left fore down at all.

I coaxed him down the hill to the barn, fortunately the other two just followed and hopping was an understatement, one of his tendons was puffy so immediately started hosing his leg whilst waiting for the vet.

Vet duly came and couldnt quite work out what was going on as he had a high digital pulse in both front feet, inflamed tendon sheath, but not jumping out of his skin on flexion which he should if he had damaged his tendon, but not wanting to put weight on his heel of his foot and very very lame. So possibilities were laminitus, tendon problem or abscess, so the shoe cam off and she dug in his foot but couldnt really see anything, so decided minimal pain killers and a poultice overnight to see if anything happened.

She came back on Sunday (why do they always do things at the weekend) nerve blocked him and concluded that it was his foot rather than tendon. So he has been in 24/7 since Saturday and on Tuesday his heel, frog and coronet band started to ooze dark green gunk, there was less yesterday and he is nearly sound again, certainly able to spook at bicycle when it rode past as I took him out in hand for some grass.

Must be the hard ground.

[brigadier]

Sounds a nasty one, hopefully it will recover quickly. But yes they do seem to do things on a Sunday.

[zara]

Always at a weekend! I thnk they know lol. Glad to hear that he's feeling better xx

[racaille]

Poor Brave, sounds nasty.

ALL vet treatments at the w/e in my experience My first boxer was very accident prone and managed to fall off a seaside cliff, impale himself on iron railings and slice through a leg tendon, all on Sundays.

[haffyfan]

Hope he's better soon.

I think they can linger before they go dead lame, Brave sounds exactly like what i had with Murph last summer, sound until it hit hard but at same time you know there not quite right.

[fimacg]

he is utterly sound now, turned him out in the arena for 10 minutes and he ran, galloped, bucked, did extended trot, spun, bucked again and generally went mad for 10 minutes before he came back to me at the gate and put his head on my shoulder as if to say "thanks mum i needed that".

still a little clear fluid coming out of his foot put its not dark green anymore and doesnt smell, so he has a dry dressing on and I will call my farrier on Monday when hopefully his foot will have stopped leaking.

[toomanyhorses]

It's horrible when they get an abcess isn't it. Danser had one early June. She looked like she had broke her leg with how she wouldn't put any weight on her foot. It was that bad a neighbour who i don't talk to asked me if she was alright as i left her in the stable overnight to make sure she got to the water and food as she wouldn't have walked that far in the field. It came out on her coronet band. It had been rumbling on for a couple of weeks where she would be a little bit lame for a day and then be fine util it finaly kicked in properly. She is prone to them so i ignore the fact that her leg is swollen, i always know it an abcess in her foot.
Hope Brave is OK now and it all clears up quickly.

[fimacg]

Shoe back on today and all good. And despite barely being out of his box for thelast 10 days he was surprising sensible! Didnt spook or do anything daft even when a whole herd for friendly cows came galloping along the fence line with us.