Hairy with bad feet , trimming and other q's

[tangosmum]

A few numpty questions.....

My 3 yo cob has thrushy feet, currently being treated. He is barefoot at the moment as not being worked, out 22 hours a day.

He is super hairy and his feathers come down the the floor on all four feet. I am really worried about the coronet band area and what is just below it. He had yellowy flaky stuff and some slight ridges in his hooves. Now this week I have noticed a thin layer of this flaky stuff has fallen off leaving his hooves missing an outer layer. Leaving whats left appearing pinkish in colour though still hard.

I am assuming this has been cause by the moisture under his feathers on his hooves all the time. It looks thrushy to me...but I didn know they had thrush there. I have scrubbed his feet inside and out today and applied purple spray as an emergency measure....but I am really worried.

The other Q is how often should I be getting those feet trimmed. He is my first barefoot horse and he last had them dont on 19th of July. They are a bit ragged round the bottom and I am wondering if they can wait a total of 6 weeks in between trims or if barefoot horses have them done more frequently.

 

[MissSBird]

He should be able to go 6 weeks - many people don't have them trimmed even that often.

I'm not really sure what the problem is, but I'd maybe phone my farrier and chat to them about it. Better safe than sorry!

 

[ThePony]

Sounds like he might do well without his feathers, at least until his thrush and foot probs are sorted? Anything yellow and flaky doesn't sound good. Can you call your vet or farrier and get advice?
The frequency of trimming will be v individual to the horse. Do you lead him out on hard surfaces at all? That will help his hooves grow good and strong. Your farrier/trimmer will be able to advise how long to wait between trims. You may well get a little cracking at the bottom of the hoof when you have gone a couple of weeks after the trim as normaly the bevel/roll at the base of the hoof will have worn off by then so the hoof is a little more prone to chipping. If you are concered then I would have the farrier out to take a look. If you'd like to read up more on keeping your horse barefoot then this forum is really useful and friendly: http://uknhcp.myfastforum.org/forum2.php

 

[tangoharvey]

this may be pure co-incidence but i started feeding my horse with rubbish feet Alfa hi fi lite, and have never had problems since, could be co-incidental but it wont add weight if thats an issue, might be worth a 3 month try?

 

[brucea]

It's probably the removal of what you were feeding him that' s made the difference TH

Keep to a low sugar, and molasses free diet - don't worry about the periople, it will look after itself. The yellow bits are just where it has thickened and sloughing.

Leave his feathers - it is a shame to cut them and he will need them for the winter.

Keep on top of the thrush using a very simple 1:5 dilution of Milton - it's simple and it works (but if you want you can always buy something much more expensive that might work too )

 

[Cahill]

i recomend pig oil and sulphur for the hairy legs and domestos for the thrush.

i have 6 hairy cobs one of which is a bit prone to thrush because he has deep frogs.

they all have lovely silky feather because i apply the pig oil every 2 weeks.
the thrush was cleared up with the domestos by appling it every other day for a week and now i just do it about every fortnight and scrub it in with an old toothbrush as a preventitive.