A Septic Pit From Hell

Oh HELLO. Thank you for clicking on my post. I see you are interested in hearing more about Guinness' abscess, either that or you're into satanism. Honestly, could be some crossover here. Don't worry I will not disappoint. You see, Pig's abscess finally burst on Saturday. The vet had thought it would go earlier, but I'd been hesitant. So when it finally went, I wasn't sure what we'd find.

Ready to pop.

It was a doozy.

My barn manager had let me know he seemed to be walking better on Friday afternoon, so it's highly possible it started to bust then. We didn't remove the wrap until Saturday morning. And oh boy did we find a thing...

Yeah, that's the burst point. Yeah. It's insane.

The infection had finally popped from the heel, but in such a way that it peeled back nearly 3 inches of skin and hoof at the tender bulb. Noxious liquid was seeping from the ripped seam, and he had raw skin underneath. The rest of the hoof was covered in brown, horrid smelling goo. I ended up having to wash his whole foot with Aloedine to make any headway. (Shout out to all the chestnut thoroughbred owners like me who have a lifetime supply of Aloedine squirreled away somewhere in their tack drawers.)

Once the foot was cleaned of goo, I settled in to flush the seeping areas with betadine. When I got it in the ripped seam, Piggy was royally upset with me. It must've burned something terrible. He definitely did not appreciate. Still, I'm glad it was disinfected some. Sitting in the goo wrap had some some damage to the hoof itself and the skin. Everything looked bruised, wet, and angry, though much less swollen than before it bust.

Horrifying full wrap on the left. Angry wet foot on the right.

Things were clearly still in the draining stage, from both the heel and the bottom of the foot we'd opened previously. The bottom had large chunks of foul smelling gray tissue coming out, while the heel was mostly just liquid.

I texted the vet some delightful photos, and she was happy with how it was looking. She suggested we keep wrapping, and encourage more drainage. That's mostly what we've done, changing the wraps daily to try to keep them dry. The last few days have had wraps with lessening amounts of nasty drainage inside. However, the foot is clearly still not out of the woods.

Monday's foot update.

While it looks better, I'm concerned by the amount of residual drainage and the continued soreness Pig is exhibiting on the heel. We took him off bute Monday, and today his lameness was no worse. That is heartening. Still, the vet wants continued updates through the week. It's always possible we're dealing with bone involvement or something more scary. With luck it will finish draining soon, and he'll come back to full soundness as the heel rip knits back together.

That bottom hole is so gross...

Keep your fingers crossed for the old idiot, who is currently running around like a psycho with the hormonal mare in the field. Between the two of them, it's a miracle my barn manager hasn't just opened the gate and released that field to fend for themselves in the wilderness. Obviously he's feeling better, I just hope he'll hold his sanity together during his regular re-wrapping sessions without needing twitched. This horse, y'all. He's 22 going on 3, forever.