Abscesses
An abscess can be like a small pimple or a very large blister. Many times, small abscesses don't cause a problem and appear when trimming as a small black spot, usually near the bar sole junction. In horses with a large amount of damage to the foot, you may see extensive abscessing from the body's effort to get rid of dead or damaged tissue. Sometimes you'll see a small abscess on the sole from excess bar horn that has bruised a part of the sole corium which grows out as a buise or abscess.
Abscessing in the case of returning the foot to health is a part of the healing process, not to be disrupted with medication or veterinary digging!!! (Veterinarians and farriers often want to alleviate pain by digging an abscess out. This can cause even more damage so don't let them! They also will want to give pain killers and antibiotics. These are also unnecessary and may cause other damage to the horse's body as well as slow down the progression of the abscess causing it to take longer to ripen.) Your horse will be very, VERY lame when he is developing a large abscess. You may think he's broken his leg. Think about when you may have had an abscessed tooth. Treating the abscess holistically means you should soak his foot and walk him or turn him out with other horses that will move him. Give the abscess a chance to ripen. It will resolve itself if the foot is trimmed for good flexibility and it's soaked in water. The worst thing you can do is leave the horse in a stall with his foot hot and dry. Pain killers only slow the ripening process. Why do the feet make abscesses when transitioning or healing? Well think of those frost bitten fingers and then imagine that all that pus and dead tissue is inside a tight place. It creates pressure and produces enzymes that dissolve tissue in an effort to be expelled. If you've ever had a blood blister under your fingernail, you will have a mild idea of what an abscess is like in a hoof. Usually abscessing in recovering feet come out at the bulbs, frog or sole but they can also work their way out at the coronet. Here are several photos of different abscess exits.  Close up of sole abscess caused by coffin bone bruising sole due to high bars.  Close-up of a small abscess caused by excess bar (note also the bruised frog)  Frog was bruised and abscessed by a bar pool, in this photo, now removed. This is a white hoof and if it were completely healthy (not contracted), you would not see the darkened necrotic tissue color. The bruise on the frog is purple and a hole can be seen where the absess exited.
|  Wall abscess just after emerging  Wall abscess after eruption  Wall abscess growing out of a foot which has just had shoes removed  Whole solar abscess (frog, bars and sole)  Subsolar abscess in a barefoot horse with excess horn and metabolic problems (owner trims) Frog abscess caused by excess bar
This is the left hind of a horse that went 9 weeks (too long!) between regular trimming. The bar caused an abscess to form and exit on the portion of the frog beside the bar. See the photo below for what this foot looked like before it was trimmed.
Interesting to note: these bar pools are almost always on the outside bar.  |
