Need help and advice about thrush

[fatpony]

Hi
I loan a horse who suffers chrinically from thrush. His owner has had him over 10 years and used many differnat approaches to prevention and treatment but nothing seems to work that well. His farrier had shod him a long time and is very good and says a lot of the problem is due to the shape of his feet.
He is regualrly shod/trimmed and feet picked out several times daily. In at the moment with either bed lifted up during day or put into empty stable during day so as feet can dry out. We have used peroxide, hibiscrub, showering, wound powder and a antimicrobial spray in various combinations but nothing seems to help much
I just wondered if anyone had any ideas that might help especially if some kind horsey vet knew of any new drugs/potions on the market that could help. I dont mind spending money but dont want to waste money on things that dont work
please help!!! any advice would be gratefully recieved !!
thanks

 

[deicinmerlyn]

Red Horse Products are apparantly brilliant.

Purple spray, ensure crevices are really brushed/picked out and clean and put sudocrem in.

 

[fatpony]

thank you
purple spray appears to make him worse unfortunatly
I worried that sudocream might make his feet to moist/sticky but if that is not the case then worth a try
I`ve looked at red horse sole paint just now - it looks quite interesting - may well be worth a try - thanks

 

[vicky_sut]

I have used the red horse field paste, to help it stay put I used a small piece of cotton wool, rolled it in the paste and pressed it into were ever it would stay put and its really helped.
Out of interest how is it due to the shape of his feet???

 

[fatpony]

good tip about the cotton wool - thank you
Farrier says that his feet are very boxy and he seems to have really deep central sulcus on frog at back of frog - he also has deep groove between heels. When feet are dry this isnt a problem but once get wet can get quite smelly and on two feet this central sulcus has now opened up about 0.5 - 1 cm wide and about 1 cm deep and tissue here is quite fleshy and soft.

ETA - the groove between heels is about 1 - 2 cm deep it seems and about 1 - 2mm wide so difficult to clean out thoroughly

 

[Pink_Lady]

Many years ago a farrier told me to pack my old pony's foot with salt and cover - didn't actually try it tho

 

[Lynnie1]

My horse kept getting it in just one foot. Was driving me nuts and I tried everything. In the end started bedding her on beddown and kept bedding very fresh and dry and then treated every week by syringing Hydrogen Peroxide directly into frog. She has not had it now for about 6 months.... Result!

 

[vicky_sut]

I picked up the cotton wool idea from ' barefoot horse blog' but used the field paste instead of sudocreme.
To be honest your horses foot sounds rather contracted I wont waffle on but maybe have a look on the blog I mentioned :0)

 

[K27]

Have had a few thoughts-If the thrush is wet then maybe you could try hot poulticing it -you've probably tried it already.

My horse as a 4 y/old had it and we kept his frogs trimmed well back, even between shoeings, I avoided sand arena's for a short while as the sand can aggravate it, and when he did go in the school, we scrubbed his feet out after with a small amount of betadine/or hibiscrub (or you could use salt water which is just as good if not better), left to dry and then applied an Antibiotic Engemycin spray from the vets, which at the time was the only thing that cleared it up properly.

Fairly recently though my youngster had a bit of thrush and so did one of my others- i can thoroughly recommend Nettex Foot Master spray at clearing it up- if you haven't tried it already- it cleared it up in one go! and ob.v as you prob are doing a nice clean dry bed helps too.

Also I've just remembered another product I've heard good things about but never tried is Anti bac hoof dressing.

 

[katherine1975]

Iodine and sugar paste is good for thrush - haven't tried it myself though.

When my horse had mild thrush I used athletes foot powder and spray which is antifungal.

 

[Mike007]

stockholm tar is the tried and tested remedy. I have never known it fail. 2/3 days . I also generaly pack the cleft of the frog with cottonwool soaked in it. If the tar is too thick ,warm it slightly,or mix with linseed oil.

 

[fatpony]

Thanks for all your replies - some interesting ideas to investigate - fingers crossed one of them will work!

 

[mrdarcy]

What is the horse fed?

 

[Kallibear]

Unfortunatly if your horse has contracted heels (which many many shod horses do) then you're fighting an uphill battle.

Talk to your farrier about ways to decontract the heel and if he can't suggest anything then think about taking the shoes off for a while to let the heels expand.

I had a shod horse years ago who had constant really bad thrush. Nothing would shift it until I had the shoes off and his heels decontracted. After that it basically cleared up itself and he never suffered from it again, even once he had his shoes back on (well shod and not permemantly, so they didn't recontract)

 

[fatpony]

MrDarcy - what would you recommend to improve the feet - I heard zinc is quite important but otherwise need educated

Kallibear - he was unshod for a year or two but it didnt alter his feet or the occurance of the thrush

 

[mrdarcy]

MrDarcy - what would you recommend to improve the feet - I heard zinc is quite important but otherwise need educated

Kallibear - he was unshod for a year or two but it didnt alter his feet or the occurance of the thrush

My question was more about what you shouldn't feed really. Horses are no different to humans in that we are what we eat. So if someone has an unhealthy, unbalanced diet - not enough fruit and veg, too much greasy food, too much chocolate this is very likely reflected in their skin and hair i.e. spots/sallow skin, wrinkles etc. Same goes for horses - if the diet is an unhealthy one, which usually means too much sugar/starch then this is reflected in the quality of their hooves, including the frogs. Healthy frogs will resist the bacteria/fungus that causes thrush but unhealthy frogs will allow the same to take hold and then damp/dirt conditions will allow it to thrive.

So to improve the feet it's more usually the case that you stopfeeding things - any thing that contain molasses for instance and sugar filled horse licks and treats. But you can also add in certain things that will help like magnesium oxide and Yea Sacc and for a chronic problem such as this it may be worth testing for specific mineral imbalances.

 

[dressage-diva]

my farrier advised me to use kevin bacon hoof dressing to help prevent thrush and keep her feet healthy