Did you know we have gotten 30” of rain this year in Denison? With all this wet weather, horses and their feet suffer the most. Standing in constant wet leads to a slew of foot problems that have owners panicked. Especially when the owner comes out to find their horse can’t put any weight on one of its legs. While broken bones and infections are on our list of potential problems for this, most commonly (about 75% of the time, really), it’s a foot abscess. Especially when we’ve had as much wet weather as we’ve had lately.
Did you know we have gotten 30” of rain this year in Denison? With all this wet weather, horses and their feet suffer the most. Standing in constant wet leads to a slew of foot problems that have owners panicked. Especially when the owner comes out to find their horse can’t put any weight on one of its legs. While broken bones and infections are on our list of potential problems for this, most commonly (about 75% of the time, really), it’s a foot abscess. Especially when we’ve had as much wet weather as we’ve had lately.
Foot abscesses are the number one cause of non-weight bearing lameness. Imagine the last time you shut your finger in the car door and got that bruise under your fingernail. Eventually the bruising under the nail got so bad you couldn’t bend your finger. A foot abscess is going to be rather similar because the hoof capsule can’t expand, but the foot abscess does. It’s basically a pimple within the hoof that keeps growing like that bruise, but the horse must walk on it. It can be extremely painful to the point they can’t put weight on it.
Hoof abscesses develop one of two ways. The first is due to wet weather. This softens the hoof capsule and allows bacteria to work their way up the laminae of the hoof. Once the weather starts to dry, that hoof capsule reseals, trapping the bacteria inside where they wreak havoc. The body produces pus to deal with the bacteria, and now we have a foot abscess. Foundered horses are predisposed to foot abscesses as they already have compromised laminae. The other way foot abscesses develop is through bruising. If a horse gets a nasty bruise from stepping on a rock or riding on hard ground, sometimes the blood from the bruise turns into pus if it sits too long.
The easiest way to find a foot abscess is to use a hoof tester to pinch various parts of the hoof. When the horse reacts to the pressure, that’s usually your problem area. The horse also may have an increased digital pulse in the one leg, and might even be increased on only one side. There may or may not be any swelling in the leg, sometimes it’s from the horse not putting weight on the leg, and sometimes it’s from the infection in the abscess. Occasionally, foot abscesses can be seen on x-ray, but only if the bacteria causing the abscess is producing gas.
Treating an abscess involves creating a path of least resistance by soaking and pain medications. Many people want to “dig out” a foot abscess. In my opinion, trying to find the exact spot of a foot abscess can be difficult, and if you don’t dig in exactly the right spot, you can actually cause more problems. If you are digging in the wrong spot and you accidentally relieve some of the pressure, it’ll make the abscess take longer to come out. And there is always the risk of hitting live, healthy tissue. Soaking the foot until the abscess works its way out is a much safer option. There are many products available commercially on the market to make soaking easier. My personal favorite is to use a baby diaper (3-6-month-old size Pampers work well for me), fill it with water, Epsom salts, and betadine, and duct tape it around the foot, being sure to change the bandage daily. Youtube.com has many instructional videos on how to make a soak bandage. Soaking softens the foot, allowing for the abscess to find a way out on its own. Also, getting the horse to put pressure on the foot is helpful to force the abscess out. We do this by administering bute daily to help with pain until the abscess ruptures. Once the abscess ruptures, digging out the abscess is ok to make sure there is adequate drainage. Then it’s a matter of keeping the foot clean and dry until the injured tissue heals.
While preventing all foot abscesses is not always possible, there are a few things you can do to help. Number one would be keeping your horse’s feet as clean and dry as possible (easier said than done, I know). Daily hoof cleaning and keeping horses out of the mud are the easiest things to do. Sand or gravel in high traffic or low, wet areas may help to control the damp ground that softens the foot. Many of the foot abscesses we see are also in horses that haven’t seen a farrier for several months, so they have cracks and overgrown hoof walls that provide easy access for bacteria. Keeping up on hoof trimmings with your farrier is a good way to help prevent abscesses.
Sometimes it’s incredibly difficult to tell what is causing the sudden, non-weight bearing lameness. And some soft tissue injuries can just look like a non-weight bearing lameness, but the horse can still bear weight at the walk when asked. If you have any question, always feel free to call your veterinarian as they will have the diagnostic tools to tell where the pain is coming from.
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