I have a 6 yr old mare that has an abcess. I took her to the vet and he did xrays and medicated with magna poultice. My mare is in extreme pain and I hate to see her experience this, is there a home remedy I can used to speed up this process? Also, he did dig a small hole for drainage.

Soak in hot Epsom salt water until the water cools. TWICE A DAY if you can!  Use a sterile syringe with a long tip and squirt some salt water up into the hole.  Dry well and apply Ichthamol to the sole, cover with either a clean gauze pad, sanitary pad, or diaper, wrap with vet wrap, and cover the bottom with duct tape.  Be careful not to wrap over the coronet band.  Abcesses can be very stubborn and it takes alot of dedication to treat, and they STILL can take what seems forever to heal.  Keep her up in a stall or in a confined DRY area.  I usually give 1 or 2 gm of Bute twice a day for several days, and maybe sulfa tabs or another antibiotic that the vet reccommends.  Good luck, sounds like you have a long road ahead of you

jreed, do exactly as N2riding said. I've found that the huggies, ultra-leak 6-12 lbs diapers are the perfect size. ;) I swear, they really fit the hoof perfectly.  After you've done the soaking with epsom salts (3 x a day) put on the Ichthamol and then duct tape the diaperb onto their hoof so nothing gets in or out. It really works. Takes about 3 days but hopefully that absess will break. Don't forget the bute also. (As small a dose as you can get away with, I think I use about a half tab a day for an 1100 lb. horse but check with your vet, I forget.)

Good luck and just be glad it's not a puncture wound. Absesses are a total pain but they can be healed. Just keep it clean, keep soaking & Let us know how it works out.

I use a syringe with iodine to wash out the cavity, and then keep the hoof as dry as possible.   Once the abcess has ruptured, I no longer soak the hoof daily, but instead keep it clean and dry as possible (which has been difficult this year) and medicated with the iodine...   The horse would have be in VERY bad pain before I would medicate with bute (due to creating ulcers), but I have been known to use it on an abcess.

Lastly, and this is my opinion only, but quite a few vets subscribe to the theory of hollowing out around the abcess, and often too large of a hole for my liking, so I try very hard to get it to rupture without their assistanct, and then either I or my farrier will open it a little so I can keep the Iodine in there.

I'm so sorry to hear about your mare. You got some good advice on here but I dont believe in digging out the hoof.

Standard procedure is soaking 3 x a day in epsom salts and warm water (if the horse wont stand still- mine wont- just keep pouring warm water over the frog with a cloth.) Next pour on Betadine, I also use coppertox, then put on some icthamol (sp?). Wrap it in a diaper. I find that the ultra-leak 8-12 lb. huggies (I think that's the brand) are the perfect size.

The icthamol will draw out the absess. Unless it's a puncture you can usually deal with an absess yourself expecially if you start treating it right away!

Good luck. (My gelding especially loved the pink diaper.  Not. ;) )

David, that's my position. I didn't mean to imply I was totally against the hollowing out, I just consider it to be the drastic measure. An absess, if caught early, should be treatable without such an invasive procedure. The key is catching it early. Always have a good eye for your horses natural gait, if you see anything "off" pay attention to it immediately.

You also have to make sure you're treating an absess and not a puncture. Not always so easy to distinguish. Sometimes you have to call in a vet. I my just saying, not so fast with the cutting.

Also, owners need to always make sure we are current on their Tentenus shots. If they do get into any trouble and they're not up to date, make sure they get  a shot right away.

I'm sure I'm not telling owners anything they don't know. I just wanted to be clear and go over the "protocol" in case anyone forgets in a moment of panic.

wow, misty. I've never seen one like that. On the bright side at least you got it to bust. Have you had a vet look at her vet look at her? You really need to.

Short of that it sounds like it should be treated as a wound and with all that puss. Have you tried debriding it?

I agree with the anti-soaking thing. My horse never sits still for it anyway. Rinsing and re-rinsing with warm water and epsom salt, imo, does a better job. But the icthamol is used to bring the absess to the surface. It sounds like that part is already done. I dont think I'd put icthamol on this. it will prevent the wound from debrieding and keep the puss sealed in. You need to get that puss out and draw some blood. Once the blood is running clear you know you are starting to drain the infection.

It's a messy procedure, sometimes requires a needle to puncture the wound- you may even need to lance it (dont try this if you havent done so before.) But you have to get the pus out and the blood flowing, then treat it as a wound to stave off infection. (antibacterial soap, Peroxide, betadine, neosporin. Clean and re-clean 3 times a day.) You want to get that puss out. The tar-like nature of icthamol will just  block the pus pocket and you need to squeeze all that stuff out of there and keep squeezing it out until the pus is pushed out and the blood runs clear.