Help very much needed pretty please

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RachelB

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I feel absolutely awful about this, I am such a bad "mother"
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My horse has never been quite sound since she tore her tendon last year, and I assumed this was to do with the tendon itself. About a month ago my vet dug out some black gunk from Maiden's toes and told me to disinfect the holes and plug them with cotton wool soaked in purple spray. She just said to me that it was "gravel track". I didn't think much of it because I was convinced it was the tendon acting up, and I'd never heard of gravel track so I assumed it would clear up quickly and wasn't much to worry about.
I've just spent an hour cleaning all four of my horse's feet. She was due to have her toes cleaned today (I do them twice a week, last time was Thursday) and I have to admit I was lazy and hadn't picked her feet out over the weekend. Her frogs are starting to peel (they did this last year) and her feet are looking a bit bad underneath due to this, and also because her hooves have cracked round the edges because Maiden is lazy and won't pick her feet up on the concrete yard. She has been 1-2 10ths lame since she broke into Berlin's field on Saturday morning, and I assumed it was because she had a fight with him that she was lame. She's been getting slowly worse so I decided to have a really good look tonight at her feet...
Looking at her feet I suddenly "clicked" that if my vet would have used the exact words "seedy toe", I would have panicked and researched it and been very worried about her feet not healing up. So firstly I worked out that she has seedy toe and it is not getting better. Then I remembered reading something about seedy toe possibly being related to chronic laminitis, which is very possible because Maiden is overweight and also because my vet was worried about her getting lami (she is on a strict strip-grazing diet and is losing weight). So secondly I think she might have laminitis. Then I also had a look underneath the peeling bits of her frogs and where it was cleanly peeling on Thursday, it's now giving off a foul smell... so she also has thrush in two feet.
I am going to make no excuse for myself, I should have seen this coming. I also should have quizzed my vet about it more so I made sure I understood what was going on - I just blindly followed my vet's instructions, which is not like me at all. I feel dreadful and am going to call my vet first thing in the morning.
So basically, without everyone jumping on me for being such a slow-brained pillock (as much as I deserve it, I would prefer if this could stay civilised), does anyone have any advice on the following:
seedy toe
chronic laminitis
thrush?
I have cleaned her feet, disinfected them (scrubbed with Virkon, then syringed hydrogen peroxide onto them), washed them off again, plugged her toes, and sealed the cracks with Cornucrescine. She looks a bit more comfortable and her feet look (and smell) a lot better. Is there anything else I should be doing (apart from knocking my stupid thick head against a large brick wall)?
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keeping her in, on a very clean deep bed, feeding hay soaked for 24 hours, giving a bit of bute i believe (not a lami expert though), and not beating yourself up because sometimes vets don't get it right, and don't make it clear enough. no grass or walking out at all, soaked hay, chat with vet tomorrow.
perhaps frog lifts (hard-spongy v shaped things) bandaged onto frogs to raise heels for a few weeks, that's what one of mine had when she had a tiny bit of lami, helps prevent pedal bones rotating iirc. bandaged/booted feet might stay cleaner too perhaps, for a few days at least? just an idea.
my mare, who was a bit fat (not gross) and had a touch of lami, was put onto a 2-flaps of hay, soaked for 24 hours, per 24 hour period- diet, and it worked... the weight fell off her, she stayed absolutely fine.
very best of luck.
 
I remember my vet checking Maiden's feet with hoof testers last time she was here and there was no reaction - I'm guessing that was the test for the lami.
Here is me being stupid again, I have left her out. Bad because 1) she has her strip of grass at night, and 2) it's meant to rain tonight and I can't really risk her feet getting wet and muddy. Damn, back up to the yard for me (good job I live close!) I don't have any hay soaked as yet but I'll stick some in.
Thanks kerilli
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My next problem is do I call the vet reception tomorrow morning and ask for an appointment, or do I just talk to my vet on the phone?
 
I posted the other day about thrush.

My mare has it, and I have tried everything (apart from the copper sulphate crystals that were recommended) to try to get rid of it......don't beat yourself up over it!
 
Soaking with Cleantrax is very effective for thrush and wld.

It is just one of those things that you need to keep on at until every trace is gone. It won't be long until she is back to normal.
 
Thrush - get the foot rot spray they use on sheep/cattle. works fab.
Pick feet out, scrub with brush and then spray on say twice a week. On the other days do the same but instead of the spray you can scrub with a pethidine (sp?) solution.
This worked well on Higgs who suffered with Thrush even in the summer due to his boxy feet.
Sorry don't know anything about the others
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Don't beat yourself up about this, we are after all human
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and I'm sure if we are all honest with ourselves we've all done something we shouldn't have or not done something we should have done at some stage.
(((((hugs)))))
 
Old farriers tale - brush honey onto frog and cleft for thrush and use honey on walls for seedy toe. All i can say is that it worked on Jay.
You can buy squeezy bottles of honey which are much less messy.

We all get things wrong, dont worry, sounds like you are working overtime to correct it and help your mare.
 
Thanks guys, after much protest on Maiden's part (and much snorting due to the fact that it's dark!) she is inside with a small amount of hay, a huge thick bed and a salt lick that she loves
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Sadly we don't have electricity at the yard so I couldn't clean her feet again, I had a look though and they're not too bad. Will clean them in the morning. I also gave her a huge dose of calmer (it was too dark to see how much I put in there...!) so hopefully she won't stress too much and I won't have a colic case on my hands as well.
 
Tbh, seedy toe sounds about right but I doubt she has lami.

Jacko used to get seedy toe with sudden changes in weather- this wet/dry/wet cycle is really bad for it. Dont be too harsh on the feet- you want to keep the reasonably clean, yes, but dont scrub and dont washing then drying them as that obviously is the original trigger! Hydrogen peroxide is a little too strong I find- Jim probably makes his own stuff up so it's worth asking him.
 
One of mine had this badly a few years back, a very special top farrier told me to scrub the feet out with hibiscrub daily. Use keratex Hoof disinfectant 3 times a week, you only need to pop a little bit into each nail hole, and along the undersides of the toe if she is barefoot. Also, the key thing, the very most important thing she needs is 'keratex water gel' which should be put on all over the hoof every day.
That will waterproof the hoof and stop all the damp and wet getting in.

All this recent wet weather will be making the feet, and therefore the inside structures of the feet very soft hence why Maiden is prob feeling more sore at the moment. The keratex hoof gel is really supposed to help this. All the keratex products are brilliant for hooves like these. Also reccomend regular use of the keratex hoof hardener all over to harden up the feet . Also another tip the farrier gave me is that it is pretty essential, when its wet, stand the horse in for a while to allow the feet to dry out.... if they become wet, the frog becomes wet, then it becomes infected, allows bacteria through and all the inside structures become wet, soft and dirty..

Also do you feed her a foot supplement? like farriers formula or formula forfeet. tis brilliant for growing stronger and better hoofhorn and preventing thrush and seedy toe, even if she doesnt normally suffer from those, it would just help with building a stronger hoof all round.

All this above advice was only given to me by a highly specialised remedial farrier that I was lucky enough to use on a one-off occaision. He does not reccomend the use of hydrogen peroxide, I think this makes the bacteria infection worse as its adding more oxygen for the bacteria to feed off (?) I know this farrier sounds like a walking commercial but his advice proved to be a godsend. Its so simple and basic, yet no normal farrier would ever bother to tell you this. Dont think it would occur to them!!
 
The hydrogen peroxide was given to me by my vet for her seedy toe so I'm only following her advice (that goes for the cleaning the toes with a toothbrush and the Virkon).
I used Keratex hardener last year on her feet and it did absolutely nothing after two months. I'm using Cornucrescine because that was what I tried after the Keratex and it really worked. She has been on Formula 4 Feet for two weeks now.
I'm waiting for my vet to call back now so I'll wait to see what she says.
 
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My vet just told me to stop worrying so much!!
She's sending me some pevidine and terramycin to use instead of the Virkon and hydrogen peroxide. I've got to clean her feet every day for a week, then every other day for a week, then every third day, then twice a week until the seedy toe grows out. Farrier is due next week so that should help it too.
Thanks guys for the advice
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