A Hole in the foot

Deuce came up from the pasture severely favoring his right front foot. Of course I immediately gave him the look over scoping out signs of swelling, scrapes, rocks, anything that would give an obvious sign of pain and discomfort but to no avail. So a nice salt water soak for good measure (remembering that 80%+ unsoundness issues are in the hoof itself) and then out he went again. I figured it was better for him to move around at this point than to stand around in the barn and get stiff.

The next day he came up out of the field even a bit worse than the day before. I took a closer look at his hoof and brought along the hoof testers too. No soft spots but I did discover a hole in his toe and after some more digging, it connected to a hole in the hoof wall. Well, that makes sense, an abscess that worked its way trough and got close to his laminae in the hoof. Of course he would be sore! It would be like cutting your fingernail too short and then walking around on it. Ouch!!! I dug out the hole and cleaned it up with hydrogen peroxide and packed it with ictahmol and wrapped it up. 4-5 days of cleaning wrapping and packing and hanging out in the barn and he was doing much better. He was a good patient but most definitely ready to be out with the herd again.