hole in heel

[Trotter]

The horse I ride has very quickly developed a hole in the centre of his heel -right offside fore -the hole is between the bulbs of his heel and is about half an inch wide and just over half an inch deep. There is no smell, foul odour or oozing substances.The hole is clean and odour free and is in the soft part of the heel. He does live out and has never had anything like this before but the weather has been especially bad with the wet, snow and ice and he has not been ridden as often as usual.There is no heat and he shows no signs of pain or lameness. There is also a small crack on his left nearside hind.I wondered if this is cracked heel gone wet or if anyone has any suggestions ?
The farrier came about 2 weeks ago and nothing was noticed then.
All ideas gratefully received -thanks.

[loosie]

Hi,

Sounds like it could be an abscess that's burst or it could be thrush. Could also be a puncture. Flushing it out a couple of times a day with apple cider vinegar should keep the bugs at bay & enable it to heal.

[sparkey]

that's quite deep. Do you have access to stables? I would keep him in on a dry and clean bed and cover it with wound powder until it closes in or else, if he has to stay out, put a dry poultice on with heaps of duck tape. I'm not sure what would have caused that. It sounds like it could have been a burst abscess but he would have been very sore on it and if he cut it on some ice in the field or overreached would be inflammed.

[Trotter]

Thanks for your replies. We had the farrier out last week and he said it is simply the way the foot is growing.The farrier cut a slight groove in the frog and checked for signs of puncture wounds, abscess etc but nothing. This is the first time he has had anything like this over the last five years. He has a slight crack to his nearside hind in the 'cartilage' type area between the bulbs of his heels which isn't causing him a problem. There is no smell,gunge or heat still and he is full of beans when riding. We have kept him in a couple of nights each week . I imagine it could be a combination of the wet, snow and ice-like us ,if we've been in water too long and go all soft and wrinkly and then there is more possibliity of damage from stones etc.

[Trotter]

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/Trotter_2010/hoofjan10007.jpg
This is from a couple of weeks ago.

[Trotter]

href="http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/Trotter_2010/?action=view&current=hoofjan10004.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/Trotter_2010/hoofjan10004.jpg" border="0" alt="hoof"></a>

hope this one is a better size

[Trotter]

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/Trotter_2010/hoofjan10004.jpg