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which_chickMostly Bird is as healthy as, well, you know. But sometimes, he is not. He blew a hoof abscess on Friday last (having not at all been lame prior to, so this came out of nowhere) and spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on Injured Reserve.
Bird's hoof abscess was minor one. In my experience, minor sole abscesses (what he had) are visible as small marks, cracks, or wetness on the bottom of the foot. Get a hoof knife and shave a little off at the suspect area, press down with fingers. If there's juice... that's the spot. (If you have any doubts about your ability to shave "a little" off a suspect portion of sole, please contact a farrier or vet.) Upon discovery of abscess, I generally put about 3" of slightly warm epsom salts water into the bottom of a bucket and set the horse foot down in the bucket and soak it for ten minutes and that's that. Repeat daily soak until hoof abscess is no longer draining (usually a couple of days), then boot up horse and see if he's sound enough on grass to do work.
Note that these are MINOR hoof abscesses on a horse that is on full pasture turnout. If horse was three-legged lame, I would call a vet. This is a "only limps on rocks, visible crack or rupture in sole with gross-smelling juice, rest of leg is fine" kind of thing.
So, that's what I did. Here's how it went...
Day 1: Fill bucket with 3" of epsom salts water in a body-temperature sort of way. I put my hand in the bucket and swish the epsom salts around. The water is not hot on my hand. Put horse foot in bucket. Horse stood quietly in-hand (not tied) for five minutes and then tipped the bucket, freaked out as the 3" of water went everywhere, bucket rolled around, yadda yadda.
I refilled bucket (3" of water, again) and we tried again. Tipped bucket over, maybe intentionally, freaked out. I yelled at him to not be stupid.
And again. Tipped bucket over, intentionally. Did not freak out. I yelled at him to not be stupid.
Again. Tipped bucket over, faster, with zero freak out. I yelled at him not to be stupid and picked up the small, rounded-edge plastic bucket and threw it at his shoulder. I have good aim. He was not amused.
And we tried again. Big sigh, dropped head, ears out to side in his very best Dejected Gelding look. Foot stayed in bucket. Bucket stayed upright. Soaking happened without incident. Zero freakout, zero foot movement, zero stupid.
Is it good to throw the bucket at your horse's shoulder? No. That is not good. But... bucket had no sharp edges, was small and lightweight plastic. Shoulder of horse is large, reasonably flat area that is not likely to suffer much damage from having a bucket lobbed at it. Also, foot got soaked.
Day 2: filled bucket with epsom salts water. Put foot in bucket. Horse tipped bucket over nearly instantly. I yelled at horse.
Again. Horse stood with foot in bucket for duration of soaking.
Day 3: Horse stood with foot in bucket for duration of soaking, did not even attempt bucket-tipping.
Day 4: No drainage visible from foot, so no soaking.
Day 5: Put boots on, horse was sound on grass. Rode horse. We'll try a couple of more days of boots and then it'll be a check of how regular barefoot works.
In the meantime, the hay has been cut and baled. Yay!! Initial reports from the hay making crowd are that the hay is way thicker this year than it's been in previous years, likely due to the sewage sludge project. It's enough thicker that it's not drying well when cut, so we may need a better hay tedder to fluff it about prior to raking. The hay making crowd is researching this. Hopefully our yield will be up, as well.
Bird's hoof abscess was minor one. In my experience, minor sole abscesses (what he had) are visible as small marks, cracks, or wetness on the bottom of the foot. Get a hoof knife and shave a little off at the suspect area, press down with fingers. If there's juice... that's the spot. (If you have any doubts about your ability to shave "a little" off a suspect portion of sole, please contact a farrier or vet.) Upon discovery of abscess, I generally put about 3" of slightly warm epsom salts water into the bottom of a bucket and set the horse foot down in the bucket and soak it for ten minutes and that's that. Repeat daily soak until hoof abscess is no longer draining (usually a couple of days), then boot up horse and see if he's sound enough on grass to do work.
Note that these are MINOR hoof abscesses on a horse that is on full pasture turnout. If horse was three-legged lame, I would call a vet. This is a "only limps on rocks, visible crack or rupture in sole with gross-smelling juice, rest of leg is fine" kind of thing.
So, that's what I did. Here's how it went...
Day 1: Fill bucket with 3" of epsom salts water in a body-temperature sort of way. I put my hand in the bucket and swish the epsom salts around. The water is not hot on my hand. Put horse foot in bucket. Horse stood quietly in-hand (not tied) for five minutes and then tipped the bucket, freaked out as the 3" of water went everywhere, bucket rolled around, yadda yadda.
I refilled bucket (3" of water, again) and we tried again. Tipped bucket over, maybe intentionally, freaked out. I yelled at him to not be stupid.
And again. Tipped bucket over, intentionally. Did not freak out. I yelled at him to not be stupid.
Again. Tipped bucket over, faster, with zero freak out. I yelled at him not to be stupid and picked up the small, rounded-edge plastic bucket and threw it at his shoulder. I have good aim. He was not amused.
And we tried again. Big sigh, dropped head, ears out to side in his very best Dejected Gelding look. Foot stayed in bucket. Bucket stayed upright. Soaking happened without incident. Zero freakout, zero foot movement, zero stupid.
Is it good to throw the bucket at your horse's shoulder? No. That is not good. But... bucket had no sharp edges, was small and lightweight plastic. Shoulder of horse is large, reasonably flat area that is not likely to suffer much damage from having a bucket lobbed at it. Also, foot got soaked.
Day 2: filled bucket with epsom salts water. Put foot in bucket. Horse tipped bucket over nearly instantly. I yelled at horse.
Again. Horse stood with foot in bucket for duration of soaking.
Day 3: Horse stood with foot in bucket for duration of soaking, did not even attempt bucket-tipping.
Day 4: No drainage visible from foot, so no soaking.
Day 5: Put boots on, horse was sound on grass. Rode horse. We'll try a couple of more days of boots and then it'll be a check of how regular barefoot works.
In the meantime, the hay has been cut and baled. Yay!! Initial reports from the hay making crowd are that the hay is way thicker this year than it's been in previous years, likely due to the sewage sludge project. It's enough thicker that it's not drying well when cut, so we may need a better hay tedder to fluff it about prior to raking. The hay making crowd is researching this. Hopefully our yield will be up, as well.
