Seedy toe

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no_no_nanette

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3 of our horses currently have seedy toe ... never come across this before, and whilst our farrier is very good and has trimmed the feet back and recommended that we wash feet every day and purple spray the affected areas, I'd welcome any thoughts about other things that we should be doing to treat this? Should we bring the horses in and have them on the dry concrete yard, or are they better off remaining out in the fields? Of course the weather doesn't help .....
 
I think my horse got seedy toe from another horse in the field.

I would get some hoof disinfectant and use that as directed. My vet recommended a spray for my horse's thrush (because he has such deep clefts in his frogs, not my bad stable management!) it was called bactokill 55. That works a treat for both conditions.

Keeping the feet clean and dry is very important, but at the same time a horse needs to be a horse. Is there a drier field the horses could go into until this has cleared up instead of a concrete yard which could cause concussion?

I hope it clears up soon.
 
Thanks so much - have just been researching this on the 'net, and got myself a bit panicked!!!

It seems like people don't know really what sets off the infection, but ours are on several summer grazing paddocks which do get very wet in winter, and we have to watch mud fever when we first put them out on this pasture in the summer, so I wonder if they are just seething with fungal infections???!!!

Opnion seems to be that its often a result of poor foot care and toes being overlong - neither of these apply, as we have a great farrier, and all ours are trimmed every 8 weeks. Interestingly, the only one not to have seedy toe is the one who is shod, so maybe the fact that his feet are just that little bit off the ground makes a difference .... Great recommendation for treatment, thanks, will get on to my vet straight away.
 
I think seedy toe can be caused by grit and dirt working its way up the white line of the hoof, which I guess could be a factor in the shod horse not having seedy toe as the shoe sits over the white line.
 
I understand, I am similar, what a lucky horse you have to be so well looked after.

Both my horse and the other horse were shod at the time, there does not seem to be any rhyme nor reason to seedy toe. Both had pre-existing cracks in the hoof.

I am sure the weather has something to do with it, warm and wet.

It sounds like you are doing a great job and have been unlucky. Hopefully, you can get some of that Bactokill 55 and sort it out soon.
 
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Interestingly, the only one not to have seedy toe is the one who is shod, so maybe the fact that his feet are just that little bit off the ground makes a difference ....

[/ QUOTE ]

Afraid not
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My boy has a touch of it on one foot. My farrier is fantastic and has cut it back. He is shod every 6 weeks and I pick out his hooves twice a day. He comes in at night (in a clean dry stable) and when I bring him in, I wash the 'bad' foot and spray it with blue spray from the vet. It has got better but it takes a long time to grow out.

Keep going with it though until it is fully grown out. Dont stop when it's just getting better as it can come back
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Wet conditions are ideal for seedy toe so, if your fields are very wet, I would bring them in for at least part of the day/night to give then time to dry out.
 
This is great, thanks so much folks - I feel really bad about my mare, 'cos I think that we thought that it had been "dealt with", so were not continuing to daily wash and disinfect. etc, ... obviously we do need to keep on going until we are sure that it has grown out. And the weather is driving me nuts, don't know about the rest of you? I've never before seen such clouds of horse flies, and of course hot and humid does nothing for a condition like seedy toe. The lovely American research student who looks after the horses during the week is also doing some research on seedy toe, and I'lll keep you posted on the results. But just getting other people's experience is soooo helpful.
 
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