Really unpleasant - please helpe- maggots in foot

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nic83

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Hi

I don't post often, but have tonight found something really unpleasant in my loan horses hoof and I need some advice. Well it is in the the heel to be precise - maggots (eugh!)

I blasted them with the hose, washed out with hibi scrub and the iodine sprayed it, as it was all I had access to.

What is the best form of treatment? I am going to ring the farrier tomorrow but wondered if anyone had any advice as I feel like a very bad mummy at the moment.

Also, what can I do for prevention, he does have very deep cracks in his heels, and I'm worried this may reoccur. (Have only had him on loan this summer but worried if he will be prone to it in winter/wet/mud. His feet have at times seemed a bit thrushy, and I have disinfected and it has seemed to have gone away.

Would be very grateful for any advice
 
Id have left the maggots in and let them do there work.

Maggots eat necrotic tissue.. dead decaying tissue, they clean the wound.

Other than that, what you have done is fine. farrier will advise you tomorrow, may cut some deal tissue away and may suggest polticing.

Maggots might see like a bad thing.. but they are really gets little angels.. only thin flys are good for.

Lou x
 
This only happens in the summer. Lots of different treatments work. Iodine or hydrogen peroxide or purple spray. Doesn't mean you are a bad person nor does it mean poor management. Just means your horse likes to rest a foot after he's stood in pooh. Just spray feet every few days with purple spray in summer.
 
OK, thank you for your advice, I feel a bit reassured now. It was a hideous shock when I picked his foot up though!

I will seek farriers advice anyway and continue with cleaning as I have been.
 
there is a horse we are treating at work that also came in with maggots in his frog, something i had never seen before, we treated it by cleaning the foot out and spraying betadine in there that was 4 days ago and it has dryed up quite well but were still spraying betadine everyday.
best see what farrier says though hun.
 
It is true that some maggots only eat dead flesh but there are some which will eat live flesh, like those that cause fly strike in sheep. Unfortunately you can't tell by just looking at them.

The best treatment to kill maggots without damaging the tissues of the foot is to squidge on some ivermectin wormer, like Eqvalan., into the creases and crevices.
 
And if they are busily feeding on dead flesh you have to ask yourself, WHAT dead flesh????? Sorry, but I'd never leave live maggots in any area on a horse, unless they were actively being encouraged to help tidy up a wound in a difficult place that you already know about. And remember, maggots don't just appear out of nowhere, they hatch from eggs laid by various kinds of blowflies. And blowflies carry disease while they yomp from decaying bins to dung piles to muck heaps before they lay their eggs. Think fly strike. It can kill small animals.
 
There was a thread on this last year. These are maggots which have hatched out of eggs laid on dung stuck in a foot. So in the summer the life cycle happens very quickly. As far as the maggot is concerned its warm (lovely weather), dark (crevices of foot) and lots of food (pooh yummy). It can happen to any horse that likes to rest a foot, giving time for fly to lay eggs. They are not going to complete their life cycle because there is not enough food once the pooh has dropped off or foot is picked out. But if the foot is permanently packed with dried mud the flies don't lay their eggs and any maggots would have nowhere to crawl to.
 
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