What is your best home treatment for abcess?

[LJ1972]

I am yet another victim of the horrible wet summer and currently have 2 horses with abcesses. I have followed the other threads about this recently. I know the usual routine of soaking, etc. One of our horses is almost impossible to get to stand for an extended soak without dumping everything. We have recently been soaking a diaper with epsom salt/water solution, wrapping the hoof with it, then covering all with a duck tape boot. I pack any suspicious openings with ichthammol. One of the horses seemed as if his might be working up to the coronary band, so I did a poultice wrapped on the coronet. Does anybody else have methods to try before we have to go the route of x-rays, vets & farriers? These horses are barefoot, pasture pets by the way. Thanks for any ideas.

[jaimebaker]

The best thing I've found is Animalintex poultice. I too am going through my second abscess of the summer due to all the wet. On barefoot pasture pets too.;) When I deal with it, I soak for 5-10 minutes, twice a day. Not long at all. Then I put my poultice on the bottom of the foot (I don't want it coming out the coronet band personally), wrap in vet rap and duct tape. I change it out twice a day, and sometimes it's not on when I get back out to change it. The last one I dealt with blew in 4 days. This one is on a flat footed mare with hard soles. I've been soaking and wrapping her since Monday of this week. I can't find evidence that it's blown yet, but the mare went from 3-legged lame to about 85% sound in 3 days. Now she's not limping at all but has a slight head bob. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing with the soaks and poultice until she's 100% sound, or I find the sucker blown. Sometimes the only way I can figure out if it's blown or not is if the poultice is still in when I go to change it and I find a spot of puss. I found something yesterday right next to the frog that felt a little sticky but since it was in the groove, I don't know if it was just moisture collected or puss. It did stink so I'm hoping it was puss. When I figure out it's blown out I'll switch to wrapping with sugardine on the bottom of the hoof for a week or so to get the drainhole closed back up and free of bacteria.

I haven't dealt with an abscess in 10 years up until this year. Pain in the rear.

[buck22]

I found this article recently: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=757

though it discusses the graveled horse and from a shod perspective, I found their poultice recipe interesting, though I didn't try it:

Treating the graveled horse consists of pulling the offending nail or the shoe in order to find the affected area of the hoof. The infected area is trimmed and allowed to drain, which relieves the pressure. To pull the remaining infection out of the hoof, a poultice is applied to keep the infection from progressing to the coronary band. The poultice can be applied in a special boot with a nylon bottom and a cotton ankle. It consists of a mixture of two parts wheat bran to one part Epsom salt, and warm water with a tablespoon of Absorbine added to it. Every 48 hours, the poultice should be changed, and twice a day, it should be rehydrated with a two ounce syringe of warm water.

Even with the poultice in place, the infection sometimes will emerge as an abscess at the coronary band. Once drainage has begun, and the pressure is released from the hoof capsule, the horse should become sound again.

I went through a horrible abscess recently with my barefoot pasture ornament. Keeping him moving as much as possible seemed to be the key. He got banamine daily, I'd soak his foot for 20 min in a hot epsom bath, though it didn't seem to do much. Then I'd locate the area of soreness with hoof testers to know exactly where he didn't want to step. I'd scrub the sole with provodine-iodine, pack the entire sole with a paste made from ichthammol and epsom salt, pack that with clean cotton on top, wrap an old soft fluffy polo around his hoof, then take a foam hoof pad and trim it so it was void in the area of pain, but supportive everywhere else. I'd vet wrap that all on, then do a duct tape bootie on top of it all. It was time consuming, but it held beautifully and kept the grit out. Giving him a cut-out relief of the areas where he tested sore seemed to help tremendously. He would actually attempt walking.

I gave up trying to think it would blow anywhere other than the coronet. It finally did:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c54/buck1173/IMG_3190.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c54/buck1173/IMG_3204.jpg

good luck, it was misery for us.

[Yip]

Never had one, but a friend uses a grated, raw, white potato packed into the hoof, cover with a plastic bag, then duct tape on. OR put the raw potato in a soaker boot and leave on for 24 hrs.

You need to change this dressing once a day.The potato softens the sole and allows easy draining of the abcess.

[greysandbays]

I haven't had to do it very often, but from the few times I have, my favored method is:

I fill an eight-quart bucket 2/3 full with water as hot as the horse will stand for (or maybe a little warmer; it will be cooled down by the time the foot gets in it). Maybe add a squirt of whatever dish soap I have sitting around.

Soak foot until water is somewhat cooled off. (Horse does NOT have a choice in this. He can bloody well stand when he's told to. )

Remove hoof from bucket and poke around to see if the abcess is begging for a way out. Carve a tiny hole for it to drain and stick hoof back in the bucket of water for a couple of minutes.

Remove hoof from bucket and set on dry towel for abcess to drain some more, and dry the leg off. When the hoof and lower leg is competely dry, take three or four sheets of good paper towel (I like Viva brand) and fold them to fit in the bottom of the hoof and packed into the drain hole a bit (serves as a wick to draw more drainage out and as a barrier to keep "grit" and junk out).

Wrap a plastic bag of any sort around the hoof. This just serves as a moisture barrier so mud water doesn't get in so fast. Then wrap the hoof in vet wrap.

Cut the lid of a mid-size plastic container (small margarine tubs, cool-whip tubs, etc) so it fits in the bottom of the hoof and leave enough of the rim to come up over several inches of the toe (how much depends on the size of your lid -- the more closely the lid matches the size of the hoof, the more rim you'll have. Place this on the bottom of the hoof with the rim of the lid fitting over the toe.

Wrap the whole works in duct tape. Quite a bit of duct tape -- you don't want to see any vet wrap, any plastic lid, or any hoof ; nothing but duct tape to the coronet band.

Turn horse out and remove wrap, soak again, and re-wrap two or three days later or when the wrap wears through the plastic lid at the toe (whichever comes first).

Obviously, all materials should be assembled and prepped before you stick the foot in the bucket.

[Kodidog763]

Our vet gave us a fabulous idea for soaking. He had some large "iv" type bags. Now we put the foot in the bag, tape it almost shut, use a watering can (narrow spout) to pour the mixture (water, salt, & iodine) in, and finish taping up the bag. The bags lasted for 3 or 4 soakings. It made soaking a LOT easier.

[SFrost]

It is sad to say, but I consider myself somewhat of an abscess expert thanks to my horse. He had very hard hoof walls and his last for a LONG time and a usually very bad.

Anyway, he used to not stand to be soaked. When I was tired f fighting to keep the foot in the bucket I would buy several large zip lock storage bags. not the kind for food, but that you use to store house things in. I would put the salt and water in the bag and duct tape it to him. (Two bags works best if you are not going to do this in the stall. Sure he kicked and hated it at first but he got over himself. Although, he was not able to do much because when I did this he had abscesses in BOTH back feet. That was a joy to deal with. I would not do this if I didn't trust him not to act like a total ass hat.

I like the bags better than the boots because you are able to use more water and cover more hoof. (Stays warm longer too.) I like a bucket best though. It just takes time to train them to stand there.

Also, I have found Gorilla Duct Tape to work best. I like to turn my guy out to keep him moving and it holds up and has never come off his foot. (It is a pain to cut off, but worth it.)

Hope your horses feel better!

[Jennwarr84]

I have a recipe for this mixture:

1 cup Ice Tight (or other mud based poultice)
1/3 cup Ichthammol
2 tbs epsom salt
1 tsp alum spice (it's a pickling spice--any grocery should have it)

[Long Spot]

Cut the lid of a mid-size plastic container (small margarine tubs, cool-whip tubs, etc) so it fits in the bottom of the hoof and leave enough of the rim to come up over several inches of the toe (how much depends on the size of your lid -- the more closely the lid matches the size of the hoof, the more rim you'll have. Place this on the bottom of the hoof with the rim of the lid fitting over the toe.



Have gotten pretty darn good at hoof wraps that hold up for days, but I go through a LOT of expensive material to make them turn out so sturdy. I'm really excited to try this the next time I need to do one and see how much I can save on those expensive materials that make the wrap 'turn out worthy". Thanks for a very interesting tip.