Thrush/rotten frogs on field kept pony

[Toffee_monster]

Harry had lovely clean feet today since the snow has cleaned his legs off lovely, meaning I could have a proper look over his feet.

His front feet are fine apart from some chipping on the front wall, however his rear hooves are a different matter. Although they don't look too bad on first look, He has bruises on the walls (which i knew about but havent caused lameness) and has a couple of bruises on his soles as well by the look of it.

He had a bit of thrush earlier in the autumn which seemed to clear up but now his frogs on the hinds look like they are being eaten away. There is no usual thrush telltale signs but his frogs look disgusting, very wet and soft and almost As if they are rotting away.


He is barefoot and lives out, comes in once a day but I have no stable. What would be the best plan on action for this problem ? I have invested in some hoof boots to protect his hooves from bruising when working but no idea about the rotting frog?

 

[Batgirl]

Get farrier/trimmer out to check ASAP

In mean time I would be disinfecting the hooves regularly with something like Iodine (I have used a gold Label Iodine solution, weak enough to use regularly), special hoof disinfectant, a friend uses sole paint. I have hot tubbed using borax with some success.

Obviously people don't like to soak softened feet but sometimes it is the only way to get right in. I have also used a big syringe to get it 'right in there'.

 

[KatieLovesJames]

Red Horse do a field version of sole paint which I think is very good it's called Field Paste?! I think

 

[Bikerchickone]

Red Horse do a field version of sole paint which I think is very good it's called Field Paste?! I think

^This, I've got field paste, it's great, you have to get it from the Red Horse website though, don't think it's available in shops yet.

 

[BAILEY67]

Harry had lovely clean feet today since the snow has cleaned his legs off lovely, meaning I could have a proper look over his feet.

His front feet are fine apart from some chipping on the front wall, however his rear hooves are a different matter. Although they don't look too bad on first look, He has bruises on the walls (which i knew about but havent caused lameness) and has a couple of bruises on his soles as well by the look of it.

He had a bit of thrush earlier in the autumn which seemed to clear up but now his frogs on the hinds look like they are being eaten away. There is no usual thrush telltale signs but his frogs look disgusting, very wet and soft and almost As if they are rotting away.


He is barefoot and lives out, comes in once a day but I have no stable. What would be the best plan on action for this problem ? I have invested in some hoof boots to protect his hooves from bruising when working but no idea about the rotting frog?

My pony suffers from Thrush and during last summer it got quite bad. His frogs were soft and wet just as you say your horses are.
I rang my vets for advice who were, as luck had it, coming out to do his vaccinations the next week so during that visit they looked at his feet and prescribed terramycin (think that's how its spelt) and to apply this each day along with a hibiscrub wash and his frogs have healed and hardened up beautifully, so much so i only now treat him once a week with the terramycin to keep the bacteria at bay.
I always ask the farrier for his opinion each time he is shod and so far all good
However my boy is stabled with rubber matting so i could control the ground conditions more than you can with yours being out all the time.

If i were you i would be speak to vet and the farrier and see what advice they can give and/or perhaps look into some hoof boots?

http://www.cavallo-inc.com/us/Simple-Hoof-Boots

 

[MissMincePie&Brandy]

I have got a can of tetracycline spray from the vet. It's a green antibiotic spray and it seems to be excellent at keeping thrush away. One of my horses is quite prone to thrush, but an occasional squirt of that if I think there are signs that it might be starting to get a bit thrushy and it's gone again.

 

[Suechoccy]

terramycin = sheep/cattle foot rot spray

It's a prescribed medicine but if you can get hold of it via a farmer/farm vet/etc it's cheaper than via a horse vet.

 

[Charem]

My horse is terrible for getting thrush. He was on box rest up until fairly recently and being such a wet, disgusting horse he really suffered with it. I tried all the usuals including terramycin to no avail. Then someone recomended sudacrem to me. I disinfected his feet with hibiscrub solution, then dried with a clean towel and then finally covered his frog and all the nocks and creveses with sudacrem. Within a week it had completely dried up and hasn't returned. First time my boy has been thrush free since last summer.