The Hoof Saga Part 3

At some point the podiatrist was contacted.  He came out the day after the x-rays were taken, Easter Sunday.  I got the call he was coming and headed out to the barn immediately. By the time I got there, he had already tranqued the filly and blocked her foot.  For the first time in at least a week she was actually standing on all four feet.

The podiatrist had not yet seen the x-rays.  They weren't in the system at the vet clinic, but he had a theory.  His theory was, the apparently non-problematic toe abscess was the issue.  He explained to us that 99% of abscesses can be treated exactly as we had done and they are never a problem.  The remaining 1% blow up and cause problems.  He guessed that if he looked at the x-rays, he'd see a line directly up the hoof wall leading from the toe abscess.  The line was caused by a piece of sand getting between the laminae of the hoof and, long-story short, wreaking havoc and causing the infection. 

His plan was to dig out the abscess in the toe.  He felt that if he did that, he'd find a pocket of puss and at the very least relieve some pressure.  So, he trimmed the foot and then took his small loop knife to dig out the abscess, and sure enough as soon as he hit it, puss shot out of the toe.  Continuing to follow his gut, he laid out a treatment plan for the day and decided to see how well that worked.

The big concern on the day was to make flush the hoof out and inject it with an antibiotic directly to the area that was needed. The flush was wild.  Where she had the three abscesses initially, there was little more than her heels holding her entire hoof on.  The vet stuck his finger in the heel abscess and was able to confirm that the new frog was growing just fine, and predicted that once he started flushing the hoof, we'd see it come out the cornet band as well as the toe.  Boy was he right.  He tried flushing it through the toe and the heel.  From the toe, we saw it come through the cornet band.  Through the heel, it came out both the cornet band and the toe, it was wild.  It flushed so well, he decided to run an extra bottle of saline through the hoof to make sure it was clear. 

Happy the way everything went, he started CleanTraxing her, with directions to put a regular hoof pack on and that he'd look at the x-rays in the morning and check back on her on Tuesday.  With the nerve block still working, she walked soundly back to her stall, and even got a little frisky before we started messing with it again (read almost running circles in her stall).  I left that evening to go back to studying for my first in class final feeling slightly more relaxed with the podiatrist's confidence.