Hoof question--thrush??

[Marsha Cassada]

My trimmer was out yesterday and I was shocked to see a space/hole between sole and wall on both front feet of my gelding. One was rather large, the other small. He suggested it could be thrush. I've never seen thrush in that place before and wonder what other horse folk have experienced.

He has his feet done every 6 weeks. We were dry, then wet, so not sure if that is a reason. He is on pasture in the day and dry lot at night. Never stalled or standing in muck.

He has had some slight thrush episodes by the frog, as his feet are very upright and it's hard to clean around the frog area.

 

[candycar]

Maybe a touch of white line disease? Don't google it! It'll scare you to death!

My Jelly Bean gets that hole/space sometimes when it's real dry, She has upright deep hooves. We just watch it and clean it out everyday. Making sure nothing (like small rocks) gets stuck in the hole, a little hoof dressing (hoofheal or rainmaker) to help the dryness. Eventually it grows out and gets trimmed off. Hoping for the best for you!

 

[disneyhorse]

White line disease. Drip in some hoof treatment but be careful about digging too aggressively at the white line because you could push it further up into the hoof.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I agree with the others. Sounds more like white line disease than thrush. Does it smell? Does it look like the thrush he had next to his frogs? When we've had it in any of our horses our vet and farrier both suggested we drip some ... dang, can't remember what its called...the stuff we dip the foal navels with. Check with the vet or farrier and ask if this is likely to do harm if you try it, just in case. I really only treated it a couple of times right after the trim and it usually just grew right out. I did have one stallion who I could never get his to go away completely. He was never lame and it seemed pretty much more of an issue to me (felt like I was doing something wrong that it wouldn't clear up) than to him.

 

[poniesrule]

I would lean more toward white line as well. I would keep it clean without digging into it, & apply either Pete's Goo 50/50 triple antibiotic ointment plus & athletes foot cream (or montistat) containing 1% clotrimazole with a syringe with no needle OR Tomorrow Dry Cow once a day at least. I used both for thrush, then because I had it on hand tried it with a case of white line. I was very happy with it. The Tomorrow is super awesome in my opinion because it's $30 for 12 syringes, & the syringes are plastic tip, perfect for nooks & crannies easy to use & store. You can even squirt some in & around the frog. 1 syringe would do 2 full days on 8 hooves. Clean the hoof well, & brushed off debris with a wire brush, then squeeze some into the crack, wherever it is, and go on my merry way. Would love to see pictures & see how you progress.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

You guys are scaring me. He is 17 years old--why in the world would he get such a thing now?

The hole on the other front hoof is smaller.

 

[disneyhorse]

I like Fungidye, CleanTrax or White Lightning (gel or solution).

 

[shorthorsemom]

white line disease. I have an old photo of my boys foot that looks exactly like that. I sprayed with dilute Lysol for awhile, kept it clean but never got ahead with just spraying. Don't dig it out, just makes it deeper. My farrier finally came and cleaned and filled the hole with some stuff that hardens like a hoof, so it could grow down and not get everything jammed in it. I put pea gravel in my loafing area for my guys at night and no more white line disease. If you don't keep it clean it can become a gravel and get infected and pop out at the coronet band, a big pain that is.

Best wishes.. glad my guys don't have that right now, its a real pain

Mine seemed to come when we had a wet spell or if I let the hooves grow too long between trimmings... standing around on damp dew grass can make it worse... that's why the pea gravel works so well, cleans the hoof like a little broom but it does jam in the hole and that's why my farrier did the filling. Once it grew down and was trimmed away, the pea gravel has prevented it from happening again for about 5-6 years now.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We are going to trim every 4 weeks, instead of 6 weeks and see if that solves the problem.

It is not thrush. It is separation, possibly from his hooves being too long.