The Hoof Saga Part 1

So much for waiting until finals were over.  This mornings final was so mind blowing, I had to take the rest of the day off to give my brain a hope of recovering for Thursday's test.  Therefore, I am going to delve into the beginning of George's hoof problem.  Not all of this is first-hand experience, some of what I tell is what I've discerned through text messages and conversations with the people George is boarded with. 

Up until the beginning of April, George was the perfect yearling.  She hung out in the field with her buckskin buddy Pip, ate her food, grew, and chased the dogs out of the field.  Around the 8th, I got a text message that George had an abscess, no big concern on my part.  Thoroughbreds get abscesses all the time, especially in the spring.  By Monday, she'd had the abscess for awhile and it still wasn't improving.  From my understanding, the farrier was on the farm for another horse, so they had him look at George.  The verdict came back that it was a deep abscess he couldn't dig out, it would just need time, but if it didn't clear up after a few more days he wanted a vet to x-ray it to make sure she hadn't fractured anything. 

Fast forward to the end of that week.  On the 14th the vet was scheduled to come out because she was not improving.  After a week of hoof packs, that afternoon I got a text message declaring that an abscess had popped out the cornet band.  I've never been so happy to see the words "yellow puss" in a text message!  The vet decided not to come to the farm after all, because with a normal abscess there would be nothing to be done.  Orders to soak the foot, keep her up for the night, put a hoof pack on and to give George some bute.



4/15/11 x-ray, black spot in heel is unpopped abscess.



The following morning, a Friday, my friend went to the barn expecting to find George climbing the walls because she's become a bit barn sour.  Instead, she found a filly still on three legs.  So the vet was called out for x-rays.  In the end, a different vet came out with a portable x-ray to look at the foot.  What he found surprised us all a bit, even the vet, but in the end I shouldn't have expected anything less from this goofy little filly.   She had 3 abscesses in one foot.  The one that had popped out the cornet band, one in the toe, and a very large one in the bulb of her heel.  No bone infection, no fractures.

As this was still an issue with abscesses, there was no change in treatment, there was no need for a change.  All that was unusual was the number of abscesses in the one foot.  The next day we were even happier when the heel abscess had popped.  George seemed to be on her way to recovery and was showing her attitude in the stall.  The twitch was very quickly becoming a requirement for each foot soaking and hoof packing.  By mid week, she'd be back outside after a report of her possibly acting colicky by another boarder.  The report I got is that she ran around like the crazy Thoroughbred she is, always a good sign.