[RC] a vet perspective and a nutural horse foot perspective - LTYearwood
I have an Arabian with an abcess. I didn't know it was an abcess, I just saw how puffy his leg was and took him to the vet, who told me it was an abcess.
The vet dug a hole in his sole, after testing for the precise location of the abcess. Sunny (the horse) was instantaneously better.
But a few days later he was worse.
The vet told me to soak in Epson salts.
However, when I called my hoofcare speicalist, she told me to do much different things. She said epson salts dry out the hoof, and that I should soak in apple cider vinegar and give Sunny Arnica and Hpyericum (both homeopathics) for pain.
She also said that the vet had hurt my horse's foot by digging around because she took out the abcess prematurely. She says what I should have done was let the abcess blow out, because that way it would have blown when it was supposed to blow and it would have done so much more completely. Now she says I not only have to wait for the rest of the abcess, I have to wait for the part of the sole that the vet dug out -- the corium of the sole -- to grow back.
So there are two sides of story.
Personally, I'm glad I went to the vet because Sunny's leg is no longer swollen. But I'm following the advice on the homeopathics and apple cider vinegar versus Epson Salts.
