Please read on and help!?

Katie as your a vet im hoping you will read and answer this!


A vet came to see my boy on Monday as he has been short in front for a while now and I wanted to get it chked! She did upper and lower flexion tests and trotted up sound, lunged on soft surface and sound then lunged on small circle on hard ground and came up lame! A couple of wks ago he had a corn and pus in foot so this wk she took his shoe off and dug at foot with no success @ finding anything! I have been poulticing since then and today vet came back and was another vet - we trotted up- one shoe short and he was lame (he wasnt that lame Monday) so its worse! Anyway she dug at foot also and lots of blood came out! It was pouring!! I now have to tub twice a day and poultice twice a day!





My question is, is it normal to bleed like that??

Please read on and help!?
doesn't sound normal at all. I would ask for a second opinion and possible go to a different practice. Ask around for a good one. Also you could request a referal to your local equine hospital or call them yourself.


I agree with the person who suggested it sounds like an abcess - it's certianly a possibility, did they give you any anti-biotics? If they didn't before he should certianly be on them now to prevent any infection entering through the place they dug at.


Sounds like you need a second opinon, then once you have a good vet, try and get the same person every time as that way the vet knows what is going on and what the foot was like previously.


Good luck working out whats worng and getting it fixed.
Reply:yeah well Im not a vet either but I know not to dig quite that deep into the hoof,the knife has cut one of the small arteries into the sensitive lamminae(sic),its not bad bad but it is a really good way for infection to find a way in.It also sounds as though the abcess you were looking for may erupt up through the coronet band.watch for secondary infection and a course of penicillin or similiar might be in order.And watch for tetanus as well sorry I can't surmise more without seeing this case
Reply:It is hard to say without seeing things first hand. However, if the horse had increased lamenss on hard ground going in tight circles - well that typically is a sign of a bone problem. Lameness on soft ground indicates soft tissue. A hoof abcess usually results in fairly severe lameness on any surface.





Did the vet take x-rays, specifically of the navicular bone? Did they use hoof testers to look for a specific point of pain before they started to dig into the sole? Why did they do a second lameness exam with only one shoe on? That can cause a poor lameness exam right there.





A hoof abcess can be filled with blood, so it can drain blood if the vet cuts into it. However, anytime you get bleeding in the hoof you open the hoof up to infection - lets face facts, even in a stall they are probably stepping on their own poop. So soaking and poulticing is great, but the hoof should also be covered.





To answer you question, yeah a hoof can bleed like that. The hoof has a lot of vascular tissues in it. Do I think that the vet found the problem? Well, if it were a abcess/corn - the horse becomes sound very quickly after the pressure from the injury is removed. That doesn't seem to be the case. I go back to the fact that the horse was only lame on hard ground in tight circles - that to me screams of a bone problem either in the knees or with the navicular bone.





Best of Luck!
Reply:I'm not a vet, so my answer might not be correct, but I wouldn't think it's normal for a horse to bleed like that. Though a horse has lots of blood, it's not good for any animal to bleed.
Reply:If you're digging for an abcess, then yes, they can bleed. Usually, though, once you hit blood, you should stop. But it is also possible that abcess itself was full of blood in addition to pus. Don't worry about the bleeding as long as it does not continue past that day.


But if the horse does have an abcess, the poulticing twice a day and soaking in a warm bath of epsom salts twice a day is the way to go to get draw it all out.


Even if your vet just opened up the spot where the abcess is, where all the blood came out, there may still be more infection up in there that you need to draw out, in order to try to prevent it from gravelling up and popping out the coronary band, which can cause damage to the coronary band, and how the hoof grows after that.


Sometimes abcesses are hard to find, which is why they didn't find anything the first try. Taking an xray of the foot can help, because you might be able to see the abcess on the film, and the tract that it is creating.





Good luck!
Reply:It sounds to me that there was something wrong if they dug and that much blood came out.





Thats never a normal thing. I would call the vet, ask them for detailed reasons that this happened and if your not getting any answers, then you really need a second opinion.\





To me, sounds like an abcess, but its so hard to tell by your descripture.





But that is NOT normal.
Reply:Does not sound normal to me...however perhaps the blood was pooling somewhere? I'd get a second opinion asap and have another vet check out the work...not all vets are worth their salt, so when in doubt, get a second opinion.
Reply:Well, you got my curiosity up!


Isn't it possible the vet "dug" around too deep? I KNOW that can make them bleed profusely........


The soreness can definitely be from the "corn" %26amp; "pus" (possible abscess, which you could be looking at months of lameness) which I am guessing you already know.


Being "more" lame on the second vet visit makes sence, after the first vet a few days before already went diging around making him more tender.


I look forward to see the answers you get.


I hope he has a speady recovery for you...hopefully nothing serious!



Loose Teeth