My horse can barely walk on one foot all of a sudden! Call the Vet! -this story ends having parted with a few hundred dollars-

I've had a few horses lately that have been lame as buggery in one foot, and it seems to have just happened over night. The owners have understandably panicked because the horse can barely walk on the one foot and have called the vet over immediately. The vet then puts the hoof testers on it, offers a few theories(sometimes the right one) and tells the owner to call the farrier. After a hefty vet bill, the farrier is called. I can already tell over the phone with 95% certainty what the problem will be by the symptoms. A horse that is acutely lame on one foot, has a throbbing pulse and it all came on relatively quickly is most often our old friend the abscess. So I go over there and confirm the theory and all the owner has to do is hot poultice the foot a few nights with animalintex and preferably some venous turps with it. The abscess will work it's way out pretty damn quickly. For close clients the farrier will probably charge nothing and if he does charge it may be a call out fee anywhere from $20 to $50. Bugger all compared to the vet bill ay?

I can totally understand how the owner gets panicked mind you. A horse afflicted with an abscess looks very severe and can look as bad as a broken coffin bone. You are by far best poulticing the foot immediately, as this will begin to draw the abscess out immediately, calling your farrier and have him check it out. Even if it is something as serious as a broken coffin bone, your farrier will be best able to diagnose it and then it may be effectively treated. A broken coffin bone will take not only the hoof testers but usually light taps with the nailing-up hammer to identify. Again your farrier is best on the scene first because he will immediately begin preparing a rigid bar shoe to help protect the coffin bone and the vet will then be needed to take x-rays.

Most often though we are looking at an easily treatable abscess.

An abscess is an invasion of bacteria into the sensitive structures of the hoof, and swelling results to the point of pain. Bacteria can invade via bruising, a close nail, laminae separating during laminitis and several other less likely causes. Different types of bacteria can be involved, one type being a bacteria that actually causes gas, as well as swelling, to build up and put extra pressure on the sensitive structures inside the foot, causing extreme pain. But the humble poultice is our friend in this battle, and will quickly help the swelling to drain from the foot through the path of least resistance. This, I believe, is a much better procedure than attempting to manually drain the abscess by paring the foot away with a knife. When you pare away a hole into the sole of the foot, the exposure of the sensitive tissues beneath can cause more pain to the horse than the actual abscess. When an abscess is drained via a poultice, it does so causing minimal damage, and the horse is instantly relieved of pain. Thus when you perform the invasive procedure of paring away sole yourself to drain an abscess, you can end up causing longer lasting and harder to heal pain than the original abscess.

So just a quick blog for tonight. Short and sweet. Or maybe dull and boring. Bugger I’m yawning so that can’t be good. Either way, if your horse comes on acutely lame in one foot quickly, poultice immediately and call your farrier out. You can quickly get your vet if need be so don’t stress. You’ll save yourself your hard-earned, get your horse properly attended to and happy quicker by calling the farrier first. Thank you.