Soft feet

Coolspot

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Wondering if anyone has any suggestions!?!

My Thoroughbred is developing soft frogs and heels. I have been drying them out daily and then applying camrosa to try and give them some protection. He is shoeless and remains sounder this way so I'm reluctant to put his shoes back on. He is currently not being turned out due to the very wet weather and has a good bed of shavings.

Has anyone had any experiance with this?

Many thanks.
 
soft? or soft and crumbly? Being soft could just be from the wet ground, so applying camerosa will just add more moisture, getting him on hard standing for a few hours a day will harden the feet up by reducing their exposure to water. If there crumbly aswell could be something different, probably bacterial? But wouldn't be sure in that case...
 
My horse sometimes gets soft soles in winter and I find scrubbing them with salt water and then drying thoroughly helps.
 
Keratex do a water repellant product that is active for 5 to 7 days you can view the gel on their website.I have some its good.
 
its not a deep litter shavings bed is it? I have a horse with foot problems (just about every foot problem!) including soft soles and I think that keeping the bed super clean helps as amonia from the urine can attack the hoof and make it soft and spongy, and I believe that shavings beds can heat up a lot if they are deep littered?
 
As well as being in a dry stable can you walk your horse out on tarmac/concrete?

It is movement and hard ground that get the hooves hardening up.

Think of it a bit like your own hands.

If you don't do much manual work your hands become soft and not up for a days hard work.

If you slowly build up the work you do with your hands. Digging etc, your hands/skin adjusts accordingly.

If you just stand and hold the shovel, you won't do much conditioning work at all.

Do you ride him out much? (Sorry you didn't say and I have assumed he doesn't get out much). If he does go out a fair bit try and not put to anything on the hooves. Try and harden everything up through conditioning work.

I also find keeping the diet as high a fibre as possible makes a lot of different.

Probably just waffling on about a load of cack but I did try.
grin.gif
 
Thank you all so much for you help!

He is stabled during the day, with a deep litter bed. Unfortunatley I can only ride in the evenings in the indoor school during the week so he's then on sand. At the weekend, I make sure he gets out on a good couple of hacks.

I will change his bedding, to just clean shavings.

I've been using the keratex hoof gel for a couple of days and that seems to be working as well.

Thanks again for all your suggestions. It's only the start of winter so I'm sure I'll have lots more questions befor spring arrives!!!!
 
NAf hood & Sole (not the new pro feet range) will harden the feet and kill off any infections such as thrush and white line disease.

My horses feet got so bad that we have taken his shoes off and turned him away for the winter. the hoof & sole has made him alot more comfortable very quickly. he's also getting fed formula for feet
 
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