Lame! (Sorry its a bit long)

[Cliqmo]

Ten days ago my gelding was quite lame without any obvious lumps or bumps so we called the vet who diagnosed thrush in his frog

I was horrified as we have never had a horse with it before and I always assumed it was avoidable by good management; however our gates and troughs are quite wet and apparently wet feet can harbour this sort of thing?

I had the farrier out who trimmed all his feet back (he is currently barefoot as only 4yrs and not yet riding out) and tidied up the frogs. Subsequently I have been absolutely meticulous with managing the condition (thanks HHO for the tips!) and fortunately it now seems to be dry and looking good (no black patches or smell, just a pea sized hole in the main part of his frog)

The reason for the post is that he still doesn't seem 100% sound and I wanted to ask you lovely people whether this is likely to be residual pain from the thrush or a new problem?

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. No expert ali_m but when I bought my ned from the riding school he had stinky thrush in 2 front feet and a bit in the hinds too. But he wasn't lame at all. I thought the thrush has to be really bad for it to make the horse lame??? Or maybe your ned isn't very stoic! I can't help wondering if maybe the thrush was secondary to whatever has been making him lame but the vets have stopped at that without investigating further. Wonder what others think?

 

[toomanyhorses26]

we had a horse with terrible thrush and he was never lame either would be thinking it was something else personally

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

thrush is just uncomfortable (same infection as humans get, just different location) but I don't think it makes horses lame...... well maybe slightly off, but not OMG MY HORSE IS LAME lame....

maybe there is an abscess or something further up that needs to be release or something along those lines? so i might be tempted to recall the vet!

 

[Marchtime]

I'd ask your farrier what his opinionis. Definitely don't agree with the problem being simply the thrush. Sometimes farriers are better with problems in the feet than vet.

 

[Cliqmo]

Oh piffle! Not what I wanted to hear

Should I call the vet/farrier now? or wait a while to see if he comes truly sound/goes really lame again?
I treated the thrush (aka the filthy red herring!) with a daily wash (his feet were always clogged with wet mud when he came in) and alamycin spray which is an antispectic spray with broad antibiotic properties- could this have inadvertantly treated the real reason for the lameness as he is definitely better than he was?

 

[Cliqmo]

Forget last post I just got back from the stables and he is LAME again