131. Nature versus Nurture - Knowing when to intervene...

Something i have recently been thinking about is how to know when to let 'nature take its course' or when to lend it a helping hand...

There seem to be two schools of thought on the dreaded abscessing...one to find the entry point and drain as soon as possible and two to let it come out by itself. The latter tend to be the school of thought of the barefoot trimmers and the former the school of thought of the farriers and vets...So who is right?

Common sense tells me that if you have an infection in your body the first thing you want to do is get rid of it i.e before it develops into anything serious and gets into the bloodstream.

However, there is the idea that if we never allow our bodies to deal with infection they might never build up the antibodies to fight them...which may weaken their immune system and make them reliant upon us.

But more importantly it seems that when abscesses are drained (usually by digging a hole in the sole) there's a very good chance that you wont drain everything because you are relying solely on gravity - which lets face it as soon as the horse puts its foot down on ground is going to be somewhat compromised. However, it seems that those which are left become so pressurized that when they finally burst they seem to do so entirely.

In relation to the question above i think it is critical to assess a horses environment before deciding on which treatment to offer. I can see that the invasive route in a clean stall environment where poulticing was easy would quicken the recovery time and ease the horse of its discomfort sooner but in a more natural field environment - especially in the winter months you would have a very hard job keeping the hoof clean and probably therefore struggle to keep the abscess draining and prolong the recovery time.

I therefore think vets should consider how a horse is kept before taking any course of action as after care is often of paramount importance when invasive procedures are performed.