You’ve likely had a horse with a hoof abscess. Or at least know someone who has.

In today’s Horse Mysteries Now podcast, I share a story of a horse who had nine hoof abscesses!

We talk about what hoof abscesses are, what to do about them, and …

{drumroll}

…Yes! They can be avoided.

They key is correct hoofcare AND correct leg circulation. Lastly, a well-functioning immune system is a plus.

Enjoy, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Links Mentioned:
Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health – https://www.facebook.com/groups/291820723387464

Summary:
Summary by AI:
Dr. Renee Tucker, a holistic vet with over 30 years of experience, discusses hoof abscesses in horses. She shares the story of Betty and her horse, Sam, who has had chronic abscesses, experiencing nine in two years. A hoof abscess is an infection trapped in the hoof, causing pus buildup, pain, and lameness. Dr. Tucker emphasizes treating abscesses with warm water and Epsom salt soaks, which help increase circulation and draw out debris. She warns against using anti-inflammatory drugs like Banamine, which slow the healing process. Chronic abscesses in horses can result from circulation issues, misalignment, and improper trimming. Proper hoof care, correct trimming to the hard sole plane, and alignment are key to preventing recurring abscesses. Dr. Tucker also stresses the importance of proper nutrition and movement for overall health.

Transcription:

Dr. Renee (00:00:00.20)
Hello. And today on Horse mystery Salt, we will talk about hoof abscesses. Hi, I’m Dr. Renee Tucker, holistic veterinary for over 30 years, and I have seen a lot of hoof abscesses. I would like to tell you a story of one of my clients, Betty, and her horse, Sam. So Betty, the most wonderful client. She is in her mid-60s, retired, plenty of time for her horse, Sam, who is a 20 20-year-old, scored horse gelding, who she has had her whole life. They just love each other, and it’s so adorable. They just go on backyard, trail rides and just spend a lot of time together. Problem is, Sam has had some chronic abscessing happening. He’s had about nine abscesses in the last two years. This is about when I met them. It was after all these abscesses, and she was looking for a more alternative method of fixing these because it’s just really too much. And it’s so miserable when a horse has an abscess. So what we’re going to talk about is what to do for an abscess, what abscesses actually are, and then how you can prevent them from continuing to come back. Okay.

Dr. Renee (00:01:17.20)
So let’s see. You know Betty and Sam, Betty does everything correct for the hoof abscesses. First, let’s talk about what they are. If you’re lucky, you have Have you ever had a hoof abscess with your horse. Most people I know have, or at least I know someone who has, hoof abscess is essentially an infection trapped in the hoof. It’s basically a pocket of pus or an abscess is the technical term for pus. You have bacteria, you have white blood cells. The immune system has gone in there to try to get rid of something, maybe dirt, maybe dead blood cells or maybe a stone bruise. But the immune system is trying to get rid of something. In doing that, it’s creating an abscess, but it can’t carry the stuff out. And so it’s trapped and becomes larger and larger, and as it gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more painful for the horse because they can’t get relief from that pressure since it’s trapped in the hoof wall or possibly in the sole. So it hurts. So a horse with a hoof abscess does not want to put their foot on the ground. They will be lame and more and more lame to such a point that they can be just barely toe-touching.

Dr. Renee (00:02:44.03)
I’ve had plenty of calls in my life about horses with broken legs, but any time I got a call with a broken leg, there’s a 90 % chance it’s a hoof abscess. And I say that because it’s so painful and it looks so terrible because the horse won’t even come in from the field because these dang hoof abscesses hurt so much when you put pressure on it. If they don’t put pressure on their foot, it’s like a dull, throbbing ache. But when they put pressure on it, the pain just goes through the roof. You can also see some warm spots on the hoof, so either on the hoof wall, maybe on the coronary band, wherever that abscess is localized to, area can get warm from the excessive circulation. In addition, you might feel increased digital pulses. That’s just the artery, the name of the artery, right behind the sesamoid bones. So that pulse in that artery, which is named a digital artery, is stronger than normal. It’s just like when you drop a hammer on your hand. Let’s just say that happened. It hurts, it Itells just like an absence. And what happens? It’s throbbing.

Dr. Renee (00:04:04.20)
It just goes boom, boom. It just throbs. Too much swelling in the hand. Can’t get rid of it fast enough. And you ice it. Now, Horses can’t really do that. So we have different ways to get these chronic abscesses out of there. And I say that’s a different shape between dropping a hammer on your hand. That’s an immediate problem where there’s swelling and inflammation, and you want to stop that. With the hoof abscess, this is a chronic buildup of the immune system trying to get something out. So you actually want to help that along. All right? So when we see the hoof abscesses, then we treat them. Now, as I said, Betty has been treating these perfectly right, except for a couple of things. And like I said, she’s a pro. She’s had nine of these things. She’s been soaking in the warm water and Epsom salt. This is the classic. You want to soak your horse’s foot with an abscess for 20 minutes at a minimum, three or four times a day. And when I say warm water, I mean really warm. I mean so warm, you can get your hand in there and you’re just about to say it’s hot, but it’s not quite hot because you need those Epsum salts to dissolve.

Dr. Renee (00:05:25.16)
Now you want to follow the package directions for the Epsum salts. General rule of thumb is a five-gallon bucket would be about a half a cup of Epsum salts. So the warm water increases circulation. We’re trying to help the horse get this flowing out of him. The salts work as a drawing agent, and they can draw and help draw, literally pull out some of the debris that’s in there. So both of those things work to help the horse clear the hoof abscess. Generally, if just soak with warm water and Epsom salt as many times a day as you can, that should help it come to a head and come out in about one to two weeks. Now, I definitely had plenty of times, unfortunately, my clients are like, It’s been four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, eight weeks. Oh my gosh, when will this end? At a certain point, you might want to have a veterinary or a farrier try to create a little hole in the sole to help drain the abscess. Generally, we would love to avoid this because once you have a hole in the sole, well, now you have a perfect open door for more debris to get in there, in which case you’d have to wrap the hoof with something to try to keep it clean as best you can until the sole grows back.

Dr. Renee (00:06:51.24)
So you got a hoof abscess. It’s because the horse is trying to get something out of its foot and it can’t do it. We’re helping by doing warm water and Epsom salts to increase circulation and draw the stuff out. Now, as I said with Betty and Sam, Sam just heals up this abscess, just doing that, and it keeps coming back. What can you do? Now, Betty has tried a bunch of things. She has tried several things that different vets have recommended, where there’s all kinds of SAVs, and ointments and concoctions, and all those are fine. Try those if you want. The main thing is the warm water and Epsom salt. And unfortunately, and it is unfortunate, it will drag out your abscess healing time if you use anti-inflammatories. Betty saw Sam holding up his little foot and being so painful and unhappy, and she wants to help, so she gave him but or banamine. I forget which one, but I have heard recently of a veteran in my area recommending banamine for a hoof abscess, and this makes no sense. The abscess is because the horse is trying to get rid of something. How the horse does that is it sends in white blood cells, like I mentioned.

Dr. Renee (00:08:21.02)
That’s part of the inflammatory process. If you actually use anti-inflammatories like buterbanamine, you slow the whole thing down. So part of the reason that Sam was sometimes taking six or eight weeks to bust through this abscess was because of the anti-inflammatories. Yes, in the short run, he’s less painful, but it took much longer to get it done. So you really, really do not want to give anti-inflammatories if you have a horse with the hoof abscess. Okay. So let’s get back to the point. Why can Sam have more abscesses than the normal horse for sure? Why does some horses get it and not others? Why does Sam mostly get it in his left front foot? Why not equally in all of them? He’s had them in all four, honestly, but mostly in the left front. Also, Sam has had these abscesses when it’s been very wet and muddy and when it’s perfectly dry. So it’s not the weather. And I’ve seen it in multiple cases. I used to live in Washington, state see abscesses all the time. We blamed it on the mud. Now, I live in California. There’s abscesses all the time, and it’s not from any mud whatsoever.

Dr. Renee (00:09:38.07)
It’s too dry. So people say the foes are too hard. I don’t know. But let me tell you the real reasons. The thing is, the horse is supposed to be doing this. It’s supposed to send information, white blood cells, to clear stuff out. It can’t, for some reason, get rid of it. Here’s the problem. Either there’s not enough circulation in the hoof to totally get it out. This can be from shoeing and/or trimming and/or misalignment in the whole leg so that the blood flow is not really ideal and it’s just slow and sluggish. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but sometimes you put your hand on a horse’s leg and below the knee can feel cooler than the rest of the body. That’s a circulation problem. I know some people think, well, that’s just how horses can be. No, that’s not it. That’s a circulation problem. And a lot of times when I check horses with abscesses, there’s a coolness to their leg below the knee. Not normal. We got to fix that. Just an alignment problem or a hoof shoeing or trimming problem. So we have those two things. And then, particularly, abscesses can form either in the hoof to get rid of some things, as I mentioned, or if the trim is incorrect.

Dr. Renee (00:11:03.09)
Generally, what I see is the bars of the hoof are left too long so that the hoof angles look proper. In reality, how the hoof looks to us from the outside is irrelevant. The hoof should be trimmed to the hard so plain. Sometimes when we do that, particularly when we start doing that, the heels look to us to be too low. And so the farrier is like, Oh, my gosh, they’re going to yell at me, and they leave too much bar material. The bar is the area of the hoof wall that goes around the back of the heels and goes next to the frog. When that bar area is left too long, it doesn’t stay long and wear off. Instead, a lot of times, it folds over. So now the horse is walking on bar material and it gets squished and it gets embedded and pressurizes the heel, the heel area where it then will push on the sole. So you can get an abscess in between the sole and this squished bar area. You think, why does my horse keep getting abscesses? And why can’t he clear it out? It’s because it’s not technically in the body.

Dr. Renee (00:12:27.07)
It’s in between. It’s weird. Yes, in theory, your farrier or trimmer should know not to do that. But let me tell you, I find about 70% of farries or trimbers are doing it wrong. No offense. Everyone is doing their best. They’re doing what they’ve been told. It’s not right. We’re really discovering this now, and you just want to trim to the hard soul plane. No, I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel. There’s people out there that actually do know what they’re doing. My friend Lindsay Seychell is one of those, and I’ll put the link to her below. She is hoofing marvelous, and they have so many pictures and anatomy dissections. If you just go to their YouTube or Facebook areas you’ll find the files and you’ll see everything. No need for me to try to cram that into a video right here. I’m just telling you why abscess has happened. The hoof isn’t trimmed correctly and there’s little circulation Mostly, it’s the hoof issue. On Sam, it was very interesting because he had a lot of misalignments, and Betty didn’t really notice any problems with them. I think maybe because they were just backyard ribing.

Dr. Renee (00:13:45.06)
Which is fine. It’s just they don’t do a lot of bending and turning and jumping, so there’s no noticing of a problem. He can walk just fine. But his sternum was misaligned, and in fact misaligned to the left. And then his left shoulder was also misaligned and jammed into the chest with both of those things that were squishing the axel or the inside of the arm where the blood flow happens. So he was not getting enough blood flow to the left front, which I believe is why he got more abscesses in the left front overall. But all of the herbs were not trimmed correctly. Once we got the hard sole plane trim and we got everything aligned, he stopped getting abscesses. It’s really that simple. Correct trim, correct alignment. Also, you do need correct feeding, which is 24/7, free choice, mixed meadow hay. No rye, no alfalfa. They need to eat all the time to have a healthy immune system in their gut, and ideally, as much movement as possible out with the herd. A track system would be ideal. But since this video is mostly about the hoof abscesses, that’s the story. The horse is trying to clear something out.

Dr. Renee (00:15:05.24)
It can’t quite do it. We’re treating it with warm water and Epsom salt just to help that issue. But if you want to prevent chronic abscesses, you need the hoof correctly trimmed to the hard soil plane, and you need correct alignment so all the blood flow and the immune system flow can be perfect. Any questions, please put them in the comments there, and I’ll see you next time..

Want to Align and Heal Horses? You Can!

LEARN MORE HERE