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Member
Posts: 14
| Hello everyone! I have a couple questions for people that have had horses with toe cracks that just wont go away, without just turning to shoeing immediately!.....
Here's my story
My mare is a pmu rescue and I have been barrel racing her for the last 6 years, she has never ever come up lame on her feet and our farrier is very routine with his schedule so every six weeks she gets trimmed, however my farrier thinks that shoes can solve anything and I'm not one to jump on the band wagon so to speak, I have never had a horse have shoes and never had one that needed them before, and frankly I think what my farrier charges I would be broke pretty quick lol but that's not the point I would spend whatever I could to help my mare.
So anyways my mare has cracks on both her front feet and in the same places, about half an inch to each side of the center of the toe on both front feet, my farrier says she has bad genes and therefore bad feet, he told me the cracks are because her toes grow faster then the rest of the hoof wall, he tries to talk me into putting shoes on her every time and I stand my ground with the answer no, she has never come up lame and while the cracks are quite large they are only on the surface nothing goes deep enough to touch the white line on the bottom of her foot and they only go about halfway up the outside of the hoof wall there for nothing is getting to the coronet band. He worked with me once and put an appoxy on her foot in the cracks and it had seemed to help but says he wont do it again because the cracks didn't go away and there is no point.
I don't run her like we are in the pros, she basically gets all winter off(because it is way too freaking cold to ride) and its maybe like every second week or so through the summer there is a race I take her too, however I am semi retiring her now for probably the next two years, to see if it will help and just give her a general break and focus on some of my colts.
So what I'm asking is that are there any home remedy/tricks up your guys sleeves to try, or am I going to be forced into bowing down to my farrier and forking over the dough for a couple shoes? |
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
  
Location: Opelousas, LA | You need to find someone that will square or roll the toes on her. Get her breakover back, take the stress off the toe and the cracks will grow out. If she is sound and happy barefoot I would keep her that way.
There was a pretty good video on youtube about using a four point trim to heal toe cracks. I think they also painted the cracks with Keratex to help seal them while they grew out.
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| Take a rasp and notch the top of the crack, your farrier should be doing this, but most do not, not even mine.
The reason to notch is it prevents the spread of the crack so then the crack will eventually grow out.
I also put my horses on a biotin suppliment, milk powder, and feed flax. This helps to thicken up the hoof wall, helps the foot grow faster, and helps conditioning internally.
I have also had the most luck with fish oil applied to the cornet band daily. This was on recommendation of my vet for cracks, and he noticed a difference at the 2 week check up.
Also cracks don't happen due to long toes. If you are religiously trimming every 6 weeks and your farrier says the toes are too long, then he is not doing his job properly, I would suggest finding a different farrier. |
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 Tough Patooty
Posts: 2615
Location: Sperry, OK | The thing I noticed when I had one with cracked toes... the heals were left too long, putting more pressure down the front of the foot. Make sure your farrier is cutting the heals all the way to the back to the frog sulceses (sp?) (the grooves along side of the frog). Where the frog meets the bulbs of the feet, your heal should start there too. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| Some new theories have been going on lately about it being caused by yeast infections. we have been trying monostat (sp?)at my barn with some success. Don't know at this point for sure but a couple horses that have had cracks forever are closing. Worth a shot. |
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 Certified Snake Wrangler
Posts: 1672
Location: North MS | Mechanical forces that started it and fungal that keeps it going. I recommend oxine activated with citric acid (vinegar can be used too) and also getting copper sulfate powder or crystals to pack in the crack with cotton balls. Enlarge the necrotic area from the bottom (white line to exterior wall) if a small hole is present. Often the hole/bad is further up the wall than it looks. Or expose the crack/interior to the outside air by debriding crack with dremel and treating it from exterior. Depends on severity of crack really. But farrier first, fungal second. Other treatments can be white lightning soaks, kopertox-harsh, neosporin/athletes foot cream mixed and inserted with a cotton ball, bleach soaks-can harm living tissue (same with peroxide), tea tree oil is natural but slower. Maybe I've given you something to think about at least. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
Location: Sunny So Cal | Do you have her on a good hoof supplement? She may just need a little help. When I brought my gelding back from pasture from an injury (pulled his shoes in pasture) his feet were horrible, chipped and cracked to pieces. I put him on THE Hoof Growth and it made them grow out crazy fast and strong. They are better than ever. But I was seriously shocked how fast they grew out. |
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 Half-Eaten Cookies
Posts: 2076
Location: Fort Worth / Springtown | bluerose2001 - 2014-03-19 12:16 AM Mechanical forces that started it and fungal that keeps it going. I recommend oxine activated with citric acid (vinegar can be used too) and also getting copper sulfate powder or crystals to pack in the crack with cotton balls. Enlarge the necrotic area from the bottom (white line to exterior wall) if a small hole is present. Often the hole/bad is further up the wall than it looks. Or expose the crack/interior to the outside air by debriding crack with dremel and treating it from exterior. Depends on severity of crack really. But farrier first, fungal second. Other treatments can be white lightning soaks, kopertox-harsh, neosporin/athletes foot cream mixed and inserted with a cotton ball, bleach soaks-can harm living tissue (same with peroxide), tea tree oil is natural but slower. Maybe I've given you something to think about at least. I stumbled across a youtube video of a lady that explains, too, that it won't go away without treating the fungus, regardless of trim ---- she uses "root killer" because it is 99% copper sulfate pentahydrate - soaks the foot about 15 minutes each time, but also puts soaked cotton up in the hoof crack to stay for a while during turnout - and repeats. I think after 3 weeks, the update showed crack almost gone. I've been meaning to find the video again, and refresh my memory and research more.
A farrier I used for a short period explained to me that you grow the toe out longer and set the horse back on his heels to take pressure off the toe -- has anyone ever heard of that? The cracks got worse and my horse's angles were making me cringe - with only 3 weeks in between each of 3 trims, -- with other reasons on top of that, I decided to go a different route with farriers.
Edited by txbredbr 2014-03-19 10:50 AM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | It just has to grow out. Make sure you keep the thrush out and feed gelatin to help it grow faster. |
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