Spongy and shredding frog

TrasaM

TrasaM

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Good advice really appreciated folks. I ride my friend's old boy and when I pick his hooves out I noticed that they are smelly. Today I noticed that one rear frog in particular is very spongy when pressed and is shredding badly at the back. Tried to google it and am coming up with trush being the likely culprit. If this is the case what is the best treatment. I told his owner about it today and she sprayed it with meths. He's barefoot and sound on soft ground but more careful but no lameness on hard surfaces. No lameness apart from a slightly arthritic front right which stops once he warms up. He's not on any medication.
 
It does sound like thrush. There are many over the counter treatments available to buy to treat it :) I have used a homemade water and tea tree oil spray, others swear by purple spray or a specific product for thrush. Scrub out feet with water then apply topical product of choice, and makntain good hygiene within the stable :)
 
Hi, in the first instance, I would get your farrier down to trim the frog and get rid of the diseased material. If you have no stabling, I think the only thing you can do is wash the feet with hibiscrub, and then maybe use the sheep foot rot spray. Or, as said, Field Paste.

Good luck x
 
I had the same problem with my mare, used to Hibiscrub her hooves and with a tooth brush get into all the cleft to make sure all is clean. Once given chance to dry I then used gold label frog oil, stinks and need to wash hands straight away, do this for a week and my mare's feet have cleared up. It can be used on the soles as well, noticed that since using it (touch wood) she seems to have no issue's marching along the stoney drive :)
 
hi i have one of mine who suffers with thrush ive tried everything but found the best thing so far to be apple cider vinegar and tea tree oil mixed with water sprayed every time i pick feet out,working so far :)
 
Thank you all. I'll be off to the grocers before I ride tomorrow for cider vinegar..think I've got tea tree and hibiscrub and a large supply of used toothbrushes. That failing we will resort to pharmaceuticals :) hopefully I will get it stopped before it get any worse.
 
I have similar problems with mine - he has constant slightly smelly feet, even in drier weather. He is also barefoot, out 24/7, on a well drained paddock. The trimmer keeps his frogs well trimmed and gave me some white powder (legal) to mix in water... she said it's better than hibiscrub as it's more durable. It keeps it under control, but it never seems to completely go.

I tried a new product in my tack store the other day - some anti-fungal stuff by equine america, I think it was. It was expensive but I saw an immediate difference and now it has run out again they have deteriorated again, so I guess I'll be getting some more of that. Why is the most expensive option always the best?
 
Mine lives out 24/7 in wet and rainy Scotland, and thrush is our main enemy,

At present, I'm having surprising success with a spray made up of cider vinegar, tea tree oil and a good few spoons of zinc sulphate powder (GoldenHoof sheep foot bath - comes in a giant sack and lasts a long long time - have mine thanks to Skippys Mum on here, one sack will probably spray the feet of a whole livery yard!).

Every day I pick hooves on the driest part of the field I can find, and then spray spray spray until all crevices and cracks are clean.

Thrush has not been seen since September :D and horse is unusually rock crunching at the moment.
 
Thanks for the advice. Today I mixed a bottle of cider vinegar (Tescos finest lol) with a bottle of Tee tree oil..Picked out his hooves and gave them a good scrub. The fronts were pongy as well and one of his rear ones looks quite bad. Anyhow no one said about proportions so I hope I've got it right. Cant say i
Liked the smell of it much but Charlie seemed ok about it. If I add in the sheep foot stuff how much do I need to add? Does it have to be cider vinegar? :):)
 
It's a home made conconction, so I tend to use about half and half water and cider vinegar, up to about half a litre, and then add about 10 drops of tea tree oil and 2 teaspoons of the zinc sulphate. However, there is nothing to stop you experimenting with more or less of anything, since I just made it up based on ingredients of other popular thrush treatments :D (Naf ProHoof stuff is basically zinc sulphate, some purple colouring, water and a large price tag). Most of the RedHorse and Aromaheel stuff has tea tree. The cider vinegar... I have just used white vinegar in the past, it's basically antifungal and antibacterial.
 
Lol..:D I think I've just given him a rather expensive foot treatment. I will water it down before I use it again then. I couldn't find the spray bottle so I sponged it on liberally. Am sure the extra Tee tree oil won't harm him anyhow. The way he is right now I suspect I'm better off with a stronger solution. :)
 
TrasaM said:
Lol..:D I think I've just given him a rather expensive foot treatment. I will water it down before I use it again then. I couldn't find the spray bottle so I sponged it on liberally. Am sure the extra Tee tree oil won't harm him anyhow. The way he is right now I suspect I'm better off with a stronger solution. :)
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When we had a problem, I did drip neat tea tree into the gunky bits - no harm blasting everything to get it started ;)
 
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