Abscess still draining after a week, has anyone else had this?

[whaleshark]

I discovered my horse had an abscess last Friday, when he went hopping lame after a week of on off slight lameness. Poulticed it straight away and the farrier came out the following day to confirm it.

He opened it up, and said a few more days of poulticing should have it sorted. I wet poulticed for three days, then switched to dry ones. The last three days I have been standing him with his hoof in hot salty water too, but it is still draining!

Every previous abscess I have dealt with has resolved after a few days. Is it normal for it to go on so long, and is there anything else I should be doing?

Horse seems to be sound on it now, as far as I can tell with the shoe off, but surely it should have stopped draining by now?

It's "how long is a piece of string". Make sure he's up to date for tetanus and give it as long as it needs.

If it's still draining I'd consider going back to a wet poultice for 24 hours and then dry again for another couple of days. You don't want it to heal over with muck still inside.......

I'm not sure about a piece of string. It's starting to feel like a never ending ball of string! Might give that a go Frosty, thanks. I'm not sure my back can take much more of this.

An abcess my pony had drained (albeit slowly and only a little at a time), for absolutely ages. I put it down to it being there for so long, but we got there eventually!

I wonder if the farrier made a big enough hole? You could ask him to look again.

Definitely get farrier back. Some do take a while to drain, depends how deep and how big it was and if it is opened up deep enough down.

They are usually a simple thing to resolve but csn become more complicated if left. Or if they are really deep seated. Watch for a quitter coming through the coronet band. Not nice and pretty dramatic.

I did indeed get the farrier back out. He has just confirmed that it is still draining, and said keep poulticing so hopefully we will get there in the end.

You could try hot-tubbing with Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulphate). It's the same stuff that's impregnated into poultices like Animalintex. You might already be doing that - I don't want to teach you to suck eggs!

Usually have them clearing up in a few days (with almost immediate relief) but had one go the best part of three weeks, early last summer.

Young horse. No health or hoof issues. Vet happy with how it looked and was draining. Farrier happy with how it looked and was draining. But still it went on ... and on ... and on.

I swear the damn thing grew out, rather than resolved!