My Horse has a What?

You go out to the barn to feed in the morning and your horse doesn't approach you like he usually does, he just stands there off at some distances with his head hanging a bit lower than usual. Then when he begins to move, ouch he is really lame. You note that he is pointing his right front. Panic sets in, you immediately start looking for signs of injury, you find none. You feel for heat in the affected limb and foot, and you find that the hoof feels warm, warmer than the others. If you have experienced an abscess before you may breath a little easier, even feel a sense of relief. But if you have not experienced it you are likely to call your vet in panic mode, with thoughts of laminitis, broken bone, or stone bruise bouncing from one side of your brain to the other. What I am talking about here is the onset of an acute abscess. An abscess that forms quickly and often works its way out of the hoof following a path of least resistance in a relatively short time. Sometimes your veterinarian or farrier will help things along by probing, creating a path of less resistance that allows the abscess to drain. Once a acute abscess has drained the horse usually feels immediate relief.

Being well versed in the hoof, you would think that if my own horse developed a acute abscess that I would have no difficulty identifying it, and aiding in alleviating my horse's discomfort. The wrench in the works here is the descriptor used in that sentence "my own horse". No one knows my horse better than me, at least that is how I usually see things.

I recall several years ago while teaching at our facility in north Florida my wife interrupted my class to say that one of our horses was really lame. As described above, she went to feed and found our big warmblood was not weight bearing on his right hind, he's a big guy over 17 hands tall.

I had adopted him at age 6 from a dressage barn in New York. While in training he was plagued with stifle and hock issues so they retired him to the warmth of Florida. Did you catch that? They retired him because of stifle issues, right hind to be precise. He would often hike his right hind as though he suffered a locking patella. I have always battled with hoof deformity in the right hind, this because of how he moved. Well, we took a break from class and I went out to the yard to examine the big guy. Sure enough he was hiking his right hind. I checked for heat in the limb and hoof finding nothing significant, even probed a little with my hoof knife. Knowing his history and seeing him hike that limb in the same fashion as he has may times, I simply assumed he had injured the stifle. We called our vet out for an x-ray. You guessed it, it was an abscess. You see, even us experts can fall into the trap of vertical thinking, especially where patterns have been established. The vet followed his set pattern of thinking and in this case was correct. I don't regret calling the vet. Though it was tough chocking on such a big piece of humble pie, I can appreciate the lesson learned; Never Assume. I had once again been taught to respect one of the greatest teacher of humility in my life, My Own Horse.

Perhaps I should mention that recently that same horse presented the same scenario, and even though I had been served up a huge helping of humble pie the last time, I still called in the vet. Why? Because I looked at the situation from a lateral perspective, approaching the situation as if it were a client's horse and not my own. The result; it was not an abscess this time. 

Hoof Abscess Video