Hoof Absess
I have had several experiences with hoof absesses, but the one thing they all had in common was that they were difficult and cumbersome to treat. Most of the time a hoof absess will show itself simply as being a lameness. So your horse will start limping. So, if you're like me, you pick up his feet and check for rocks or nails or something similar. If the absess is caused by puncture, you might find a nail or something else going deep into the hoof, but more often than not you won't see much of anything. Look for cracks in the hoofs, anything that may have punctured the hoof, any problems like hoof rot or thrush, and any rocks stuck in the horses foot or shoe. Frequently if there is a rock in the shoe, you can take it out, and the horse might be limping for a little bit longer, but he'll stop pretty soon because the rock was the only thing causing the problem. However, if he does not stop limping, and you can't find anything else wrong with his feet or legs, call your vet. Sometimes diagnosing an absess requires x-rays, but my horse (who was prone to them) was fairly easy to diagnose. They simply pinched certain spots on her hoofs, determined where she was sore, and dug into it a bit. Each time they did this, a goey, foul smelling mess came slowly oozing out of her foot. Most of them were from stone bruises we think, because I used to not keep shoes on her in the winter-time. For treatment, I had to bandage her foot (yes, that's right bandage a horses hoof...) after applying citrofurazone and DMSO to it. The hardest part there was, obviously, keeping a warp on a horses foot! I developed a great method through trial and error. I went and bought baby diapers (slightly embarrasing, as I was only 15 at the time, and everyone at the store ended up thinking I was a teenage mother, I think...) and after that it was simple! First coat the outside of the diaper in a nice even layer of duct tape (or something simliar, but duct tape works wonders), leaving it long enough to extend pass the diapers edges. Put all the goop (nitrofurazone, DMSO, whatever your vet prescribes to put on the foot) in the middle of the diaper, and put it on the horses foot. Then tape it to her hoof, and put a simple bandage on her leg, extending it down to cover to top of the hoof and the duct tape keeping your diaper on. This will help keep the bandage on for a full day, maybe even longer, but make sure to check on it a few times a day to make sure it's still holding up alright.
