thrush and hoof anatomy

I made it out to scrub hooves today. It took a while because I tried to trim up the frogs to get all the flaps off, but that was kind of pointless. I tried, but I find it hard to do...hoof knives don't cut frogs very well, or maybe my knife is just dull. I used hydrogen peroxide for the thrush today. It was fun watching the peroxide bubble over the frog and in the grooves. It really foamed! I used a little squirt bottle to apply it, and I applied it once to thoroughly wet the frog, then after it had softened up a bit, I rinsed it again to be sure to get peroxide in all the cracks. I think it worked well. Anyplace I could see that had been black colored was bleached to normal frog color after peroxide. I almost used up a hole huge bottle of peroxide on 12 hooves. I guess tomorrow I'll use bleach. And I found my old bottle of iodine (I thought it was gone), so the third day will be a rinse with that. I don't think the thrush is as bad as I was thinking it was yesterday.

Cody's front feet have the worse looking frogs. The widest part is mostly pocked, but they were like that last year too...I think they just haven't recovered. Her feet are the worse out of all the horses (she's domestic, so I'm thinking the mustangs just have good feet by genetics). She has the narrowest heels, the longest toe, the thrushiest frogs, and the flattest soles. She also has the smallest feet in proportion to her body weight. Chico's feet are the same size and Catlow's feet are actually larger, and they each probably weigh about 250 lbs less than Cody. She's only 6, and I've had her since she was an unbroken 2 year old. She was raised on a Montana ranch. She wore shoes during the summer of her 3 year old year and her 4 year old year (I noticed that spring of her 4 year old year that she was very tender on gravel, so I had her shod for riding, but the following year I switched to boots). The mustangs have never worn shoes with the exception of when Chico wore them for 3 weeks when we took a pack trip the fall of his 3 year old year. Regardless, Cody tends toward landing toe first, but I think she's getting better about that. Now she lands more flat footed, while the mustangs land heel first (they flip those toes right out and the heel first landing is very obvious). Maybe it's Cody's breed (she's a quarter horse), maybe it was the thrush I discovered she had really bad last year, maybe she's just really sensitive and her diet causes separation in her hoof walls, or maybe it's all a vicious cycle. Whatever it is, she will probably always need boots, although her soles are more concave this year than they were last year. I rode her bareback today through the woods after treating her feet. She walks out well, but whenever she hits something hard (small rock or tree root), it's obvious that it hurts her front feet. She's my challenge...the horse to work on to increase the health of her feet. I may try to find a trimmer I like out here to touch up her feet every few trims to make sure I'm doing it right.


This is a picture of her right front hoof last fall before the weather became wet. I didn't take any pictures today.


And I think a week of treating daily for the thrush then doing it once in a while after that will keep it at bay. The ground really is drying up here, so it should be good.

Thrush

Well, all three of my horses have some thrush in all four hooves. The creases of their frogs are black and the frog tissue itself in the creases is peely and in the worse hooves, it's even chunky looking. Darn. I thought I saw thrush when I trimmed them, but I was hoping that opening the creases up might help it go away, but I think the ground is just too wet for that hope. So, today I got stocked up on some products I think might help fight it. My plan is to alternate days scrubbing with 2 different disinfectants. I'll try a dilute bleach solution (I've heard some people actually pour full strength bleach onto the hoof and let it dry to treat thrush, but I think that is too strong and would damage tissue), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). I've never used hydrogen peroxide on thrush, but it seems like it might work...unless the bacteria and fungi have peroxidase or catalase (enzymes that break down the free-radical hydrogen peroxide to prevent tissue damage - that's why it bubbles when you put hydrogen peroxide on your cuts). H2O2 breaks down into water and oxygen. So I was thinking that the introduction of oxygen into the crevices of the frog might actually help kill the bacteria/fungi...isn't thrush an anaerobic thing? Well, it's worth a try.

In the past, I've also used iodine (seemed to work and is not as harsh as bleach). I'd use iodine again, but I'm out of 7% and didn't feel like going to the farm store to get more. I've also used a 50/50 mixture of antifungal cream and triple antibiotic ointment, and I think it probably works but it also seems to be slower than the disinfectant products. I don't know. All I know is that thrush is such a pain! I had to battle it last year too, and I think I still found some evidence of it in some horses even in late summer! And now I have 12 hooves to treat each day! Ick!

I'm curious what other's have used for the treatment of thrush. It also seems like getting their enclosures dried out would help too, but I'm just not sure how it's possible to really keep them dry in late winter/early spring, unless you stall them all the time, and I don't do that. Most of their pasture IS dry, except for right down in front of the barn where they come to drink...that's wet now because it was the last to melt (since the horses had hard packed the snow there). I'd better get on this though...In past experience, if you don't, it gets deep inside the frog and causes other problems (caused Cody to be short-strided).