Diapers & Duck Tape

That was my shopping list at the grocery store yesterday. I must have spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what diapers to get. The duck tape was the easy part.

Why diapers and duck tape? Do I have an unruly toddler? A mischievous tailless monkey? Nope, I have a horse with a sore foot.

There are lots of ways to treat a horse with a foot abscess, but the basic formula is to apply a drawing agent and then pack the foot with padding and a tough outer exterior. That's where the diaper and duck tape come into play.

Previously I had just used folded up paper towels for the padding to help protect the sore spot and hold the drawing agent in the right place. But last year my farrier had me try a new method and concoction. I must admit, it was odd to see such a tough, burly guy hand me a stack of itty-bitty disposable diapers with Baby Mickey Mouse and Baby Minnie Mouse on the front. The good thing about using diapers is that the fold is in the perfect location for the toe of the horse's hoof and the tabs are handy for securing the diaper to the foot. The absorbent interior provides padding and also helps to draw the moisture (and hopefully the infection) away from the hoof.

The hard part (for me) was figuring out what size diaper to buy. I don't know the first thing about diapers other than they are sized according to the weight of the baby. And since I try to avoid babies as much as possible, I don't have a concept of how big the bum is on a 10 lb. baby compared to an 18 lb. baby, and how that relates to the size of a horse's foot. The good news is I guessed small, grabbed a package of size 1, and wound up with the right size. But since it was a package of 48 diapers, I probably now have a lifetime supply of horse hoof bandaging material.

So the trick is to pack the infected part of the foot with the drawing agent, wrap the hoof in a layer of stretchy bandage material, apply the diaper, secure with another layer of bandage material, and finally encase the whole thing in duck tape so it has a chance to hold up to the wear and tear of pasture turnout. 

It looks goofy, this silver and white blob on the end of the horse's leg. The good news is I can get this contraption to stay on for at least 12 hours whereas I was doing good if I could get 12 hours out of the old wrapping method.

Hoof abscesses. Prime opportunity to practice the art of wrapping horse feet. And a reason for raised eyebrows in the checkout lane at the grocery store.