Or not.

Well a friend messaged me on Facebook the other day that her new filly was dead lame in both front feet, could I come and look at her.  She’s over an hour away and my life, right now, is running on high-speed (wish my internet would) I told her it was impossible for me to come at this time.

So she wants a diagnosis on-line.  Seriously!!!!!????

We are still in the 90’s here, but we have a “cold front” coming in a couple of days and we should go into the 80″s, and possibly 70’s. (I love Florida).  Ninety is above normal this time of year in here, but then the whole summer has been breaking records.  We had rain all summer, which was a blessing to our pastures, but not necessarily for the horses.

The whole east coast has had way to much rain this year.  But that happens every few years.  However, with horses that creates a whole bunch of problems.

So I asked her – are you sure it’s both front feet?  She pretty much thought so, but I didn’t entirely buy into that.

I explained that my mare, once again, has soft soles from all the wet grass.  If her horse is ouchie on both front feet when she walks onto concrete or a hard surface, treat her for sore feet, use something that will dry them out.  If it’s only one foot, than I bet she’s trying to blow an abscess.

First of all she wrote me on Sunday, which I didn’t get until Thursday, so I answered her right there and then.  Duh!  Then I got another message on Friday that she called the vet who was due that day, and the mare blew an abscess on Thursday.  Did you follow that?  I’m not even sure I did.

Between the wet, then dry, then wet, you get the picture, horses can’t help but abscess.  Expansion, contraction, creates problems when wet is involved.  Of course horses can abscess for other reasons, but the most common one here in Florida is wet.  Not to mention hoof rot.

I remember Bob’s horse when he would abscess.  He’d wave his leg around in the air telling you “it’s broken, I know it’s broken.”  He was such a drama queen.  Get an infection in your finger from a splinter and you’ll know how they feel with an abscess surrounded by hoof wall.  Then there are some that you don’t know they have an abscess until it breaks.  Sometimes it can take a month or more for it to travel to a soft area where it can escape.  It will always travel the path of least resistance.  If a horse has a shoe it can travel to where the nail hole is, but if a horse doesn’t wear shoes, it goes to the next soft place, which is usually the cornet band. That is unless you can get your farrier, with hoof testers, to find the sore spot and carve the sole to find the entry point.  How do you know it broke?  The smell and black gunk seeping out it is a good clue.  Also when you see a horse go from dead lame to “what problem?” you can be pretty sure the abscess broke.

So I told her to soak it in Epsom salts, and pack it with Ichthammaol or Epsom Salt Poultice to make sure it’s completely drained.

I know I’ve spoken about the importance of healthy feet before.  It’s a common complaint and a common problem.  Why are people so surprised by a lame horse?  These are horses.  That’s what they do.  Leave them in a padded stall and they are still going to hurt themselves.  If you absolutely need them for something, they will be lame.

Why is it so easy to forget an abscess from one year to the next?  Of course I’m pushing the senile envelope here so I write everything down.

I’m glad her new mare will be okay.  This girl has waited a long time to own her own horse, I wish her well.  She loves working with and around horses, and her knowledge base will increase as she goes, but hopefully she’ll remember the next time she thinks her horse has a broken leg that it might be an abscess.