Have you ever gotten a sore spot on your foot and you dreaded having to go anywhere because you will have to walk on that foot? It could have been from stepping on a gravel to a piece of glass, and it could be cut or just bruised and sore. Animals can do have sore feet too, irregardless if they have paws or hooves. Paws would be like injuring our own feet since they are considered to be“soft tissue”. Getting an injured hoof would be like having a injury that you cannot see, it is an internal bruise. When it bleeds within from the bruise then it will from an infection, which is called an abscess.
Just because an animal, let's say a horse for example, is limping does not mean it is an abscess. If you trim their hooves too short or past the white line(laminae) it will cause their feet to be very sore and they will walk as if they would rather not be putting any pressure on any of their feet. Doing this could also cause them to founder, but several other things could also cause them to founder. The technical name for founder is laminitis, and it is when there is inflammation is the laminae of the feet, laminae are what hold the hoof to the bone of the foot. It is manageable dependent upon the various pain degrees it causes. It can be in one foot, two, three, or all four feet. Some things can also make it “flare” up while before then the horse would have not been in any pain.
However, my horse got an abscess and could not hardly walk, he just stumbled around until I went to get him. I put him in his stall so he would not be moving around much at all and was able to keep his weight off of his foot. I cleaned the bottom of his hoof out really well and I could not see anything that looked wrong as to why he was limping on it so badly. It is possible to cut the abscess out with a hoof knife if you can locate the sore spot with a pair of hoof testers. My horse has had that done before but this time, I could not find the certain spot it was sore. So I called Doc Fuller and he told me to soak his hoof in a mixture of water and epsom salt for twenty minutes a day for four days. I did so and each day he began to put more weight on his foot until I quit soaking his foot and turned him back out.
