|
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 683
  
Location: Ohio | A friend of mine bought a horse property last fall that was used as a training facility beforehand. While most of the stalls are matted she has a few that are just dirt flooring. She called me this evening to come up and look at one of her horses who she thought was trying to blow an abscess as she can't get a vet or farrier out until tomorrow evening (keep in mind she is not that experienced in owning horse and has a lot to learn).
So I go up and pull the horse out of his stall. He is very lame but only has slight heat near his front left coronary band. Once I picked his foot up and started picking it out I discovered thrush... real bad case. Frog is small and nasty but what got me was the more I cleaned the hoof I discovered the entire white line of his hoof is black. It also had a very odd texture when I went to scrub it with warm soapy water, very soft feeling and as I picked it out more a small piece got worked up enough for me to PEAL IT OFF! It felt like a mix between pealing a chestnut off a horses leg and the old tissue thats been removed from the frog when you trim it down (I hope that makes sense). Wish I had pictures, may be able to get some tomorrow.
Is it really thrush or possibly more serious like some kind of white line disease? I didn't think to ask her how she had cleaned or prepped her floors before moving a horse in the dirt floor stalls. I can't help but wonder what kinds of bacteria/fungus is hanging out in that dirt. ALso this horse never had thrush problems before she moved to this barn...
Edited by GrittyCowgirl 2015-04-29 11:45 PM
|
|
| |
|
| Sounds a lot like White Line Disease... Good luck!! :( |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 683
Location: Ohio | Also want to add that the white line isn't stretched from what I can see and that there is no hoof wall separation. Is it possible that this is how white line disease starts? I've never dealt with it before... it will be interesting to hear what the vet and farrier have to say tomorrow. I know that there has to be a weak point in the hoof for the bacteria/fungus to start but wouldn't the other horses be susceptible to it too should they come in contact with it? |
|
| |
|
| Geldings pee in the center of their stall so bacteria and other crap tend to build up ..
Dig out the wet spot in the center of the stall ... add some ag lime in it and fill it up with good clean shavings .. and keep good shavings in the stall ..
Sounds like you have a good case of internal thrush ... alternate doctoring it with diluted iodine and turpentine .... both can blister the hair line so just wet his hoof down and have a towel wrapped around his hoof when you do ...
Horse needs to be out in a turn out pen to get some sun shine and walk around on dry sterilized ground ...
GOOD LUCK |
|
| |
|
  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Sounds flaking of dead tissue. Thrush is very possible when confined to small quarters and in moist poop. Kopertox. Or iodine daily till clear. |
|
| |
|
 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | BARRELHORSE USA - 2015-04-30 5:45 AM Geldings pee in the center of their stall so bacteria and other crap tend to build up .. Dig out the wet spot in the center of the stall ... add some ag lime in it and fill it up with good clean shavings .. and keep good shavings in the stall .. Sounds like you have a good case of internal thrush ... alternate doctoring it with diluted iodine and turpentine .... both can blister the hair line so just wet his hoof down and have a towel wrapped around his hoof when you do ... Horse needs to be out in a turn out pen to get some sun shine and walk around on dry sterilized ground ... GOOD LUCK
Agree.. and she needs to do this few times a day and keep it clean.. thrushbuster or thrushx will help as well afterits under control. get a syringe and squirt in crevices.. iodine and then thrush meds..she has to be more diligent on maintenance in stalled horses.. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 28
| Just because you can't see separation of the hoof wall, doesn't mean there isn't any. We discovered my mare had white line from x-rays and you could see the separation only in the x-rays. Prior to taking the x-rays, the vet & a farrier had looked and picked at her feet and saw no visible signs of anything. After diagnosing white line the vet & farrier used the x-rays to guide their removal of all the diseased hoof, because it is caused by a combination of fungus & bacteria that thrive in the absence of oxygen. I soaked in bleach water 3x the first week and kept her in soft rides. She has come back great. I had battled white line blindly for 3 years and had given up, thinking my mare would never be sound and just had crappy feet. BTW my mare never stood in muddy or nasty conditions. Wish you luck. |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 683
Location: Ohio | Thanks for the opinions everyone! She did remove all the horses from the dirt stalls last night and Im hoping she will take my advice and get those stalls cleaned, sanitized and matted before using them again. They would be on 24/7 turnout but I think she is trying to keep her pasture from getting eaten down so quickly so everyone comes in at night (she really doesn't have enough fenced in yet but is working on it).
Last night we scrubbed everything in betadine and treated with Thrush-XX (copper naphthenate). Haven't got an update yet but hopefully the vet will make it out soon. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | BLess her heart! Sounds like he picked up a bad bacteria from the dirt. Synbiont is my go to for cleaning stalls. But I'm at a loss for dirt floor stalls. I dug mine out and hauled in sand. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1611
| Get metronidazole it is a specialized antibiotic. It specifically treats Clostridia that are prevalent in soil. It is MAGIC for treating these types of hoof funks. My vet prescribes pills and we crush them up and pack in the area with gauze then duck tape the fire out of it. It no joke will clear whatever up in about a week. |
|
| |
|
 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | My barn has dirt floor in the stalls and i have never had any issues......but i also havent had a lot of strange horses in it...i agree with the bb that mentioned him picking up something from the dirt.....hope it all works out in a good way for you guys....m |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 683
Location: Ohio | She just called me and was not happy. Vet still hasn't shown up and the farrier was a no show (not like him). She picked up a davis boot to keep meds on after soaking. This horse has been her problem child since she got him. I think something is going on that makes him more likely to pick this kind of stuff up. He was seriously underweight when she got him and has always been a really hard keeper. He has had teeth done, been scoped for ulcers, had fecals done to check for worms, bloodwork... always a sickly little thing |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I had one horse go lame from thrush under the frog, her frog looked healthy, she just went lame, when I took her to the vet, he tested her with hoof testers, then xrayed and said the thrush was under the frog.
The vet said only way to get rid of it is a chemical burn.
We used iodine crystals and turpentine |
|
| |
|
 Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | I'm not saying he's abscessing but I tell this story to illustrate that the property CAN have an affect on the horses' feet. We moved to a place that was a fixer-upper. The previous owners kept a variety of sickly, starving animals all together out in the weedy, over-grazed field. We cleaned it up and moved our horses in. They continually abscessed. Not one of them had ever absessed before. I think I had five horses at the time there. There wasn't one time in the two year period that we lived there that at least one of them didn't have at least one foot bandaged because of an abscess. We moved and not one of them ever got an abscess again. It's been ten years now. So yes, maybe there's bacteria wherever he is being kept. |
|
| |
Folks on-line