Thrush/White line disease advice please.

lindsayH

lindsayH

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One of my horses has developed a really persistant case of thrush/white line disease in both front feet. It's bad enough to make him lame. We've tried hydrogen peroxide and oral antibiotics from the vet and then salt water as recommended by the farrier. Nothing has worked so far. I've seen all sorts of thrush treatment suggestions, but can anyone with first hand experience of serious cases advise me what would be best? Many thanks.
 
I battled with this and my shetland for quite a few years! The vet sold me all sorts of lotions and potions, the farrier imported a product from the Netherlands to try on him, mentioned my pony at an international farrier conference etc.

Over the years i tried pretty much every product that was out there, stickholm tar (one farrier said to pack white line area with it), keratex hoof putty up in his white line, etc etc.

You really need to find a farrier who is really up on this. I spoke to every farrier that came onto the yard i was on at the time. And what they all suggested i now know would have just perlonged the problem. The farrier i used in the end had the fellowship, and also used to teach at an equine college, etc.

What seemed to work in the end, he had the front part of his hoove removed (vet had x-rays, met with farrier etc), farrier then removed front of hoof wall - it didnt look as bad as it may sound! obviously the air getting to it helps a lot. He then had imprint shoes on. Along with spraying with Bactakill 55.
This worked :)))))))))))

i was told, IF the bactakill didnt work... that i could try what they use to embalm people with..... never had to try that (not sure where i would have got the stuff from!)

My pony had the white line disease, but no thrush, and wasnt ever really lame with it. It all began when a dodny farrier used a dirty nail on his shoe... and went straight up his white line with it.
 
lindsayH said:
One of my horses has developed a really persistant case of thrush/white line disease in both front feet. It's bad enough to make him lame. We've tried hydrogen peroxide and oral antibiotics from the vet and then salt water as recommended by the farrier. Nothing has worked so far. I've seen all sorts of thrush treatment suggestions, but can anyone with first hand experience of serious cases advise me what would be best? Many thanks.
Click to expand...

What diet is your horse on? What's his grazing like? How much exercise does he get - when he's not lame that is?

White line disease and thrush are both caused by an unhealthy weak hoof, via the same process that causes laminitis i.e. the lamellae in the hoof become inflammed and die. When they die it creates gaps where the dead lamellae formerly attached to the hoof wall. Bacteria and fungus invade these gaps, feeding on the dead and dying lamellae tissue. If you have a healthy foot with a tight white line you will never get WLD. To get a tight white line is all about getting the diet right. You need to reduce the sugar/starch in your horse's diet as far as you can - no molasses, no mixes, no carrots, restrict grazing if out on anything other than a starvation paddock, soak hay for twelve hours before feeding. Unless you feed for a healthy foot it will be almost impossible to get rid of the WLD or prevent it returning.

At the same time as getting his diet right (and it takes some time to grow out an unhealthy foot - with those areas of compromised lamellae) you can treat the WLD - soaking in Clean Trax or White Lightening for example. But WLD is the sign of sugar/starch overload so it's all about diet, diet, diet.

There's a good article here:

http://www.hoofrehab.com/end_of_white_line_disease.htm

As for hoof resections - IMO never necessary. If you address the cause (diet/environment) you will grow the WLD out. Hoof resections are great for vets and farriers to feel like they are doing something but if you let nature do it's thing (i.e. allow the horse a healthy diet!) then the hoof will heal itself.
 
My pony had this as a sequel to laminitis. As well as the lifestyle recommendations made by mrdarcy (which we had already implemented), my farrier recommended a spray called Alamycin from our vets. I used it once a day at first, then every other day, gradually cutting down...and it was brilliant. Can't recommend it too highly. The farrier was out this week and said that although you can still tell my pony had laminitis, the WLD has cleared completely. The spray was about £10 but a little goes a long way. (Literally. I had lovely blue fingers!)
 
Is your horse shod? When you put nails into the hoof wall, you are allowing bacteria to penetrate where it wouldnt normally get too.
allow with what mrdarcy said, by removing the shoes and allowing the hoof to grow out and repair, i feel is your best bet. But that is up to whether you are prepared to remove the shoes. Thats something you would have to talk to your farrier about.
I feel that to remove part of the wall would be too invasive, and probably not required.
After a few months of treatment with a non necrotising wash, such as clean trax or milton, you can always get the shoes back on.
 
Iv never had to deal with a horse going lame from thrush but i had to deal with a bad enough case, i cleaned with hibi scrub at a fairly high concern-trait, using fresh clean water for each hoof twice a day, changed from straw bedding to a very deep paper bedding (not the thin type of paper the nice fluffy spongy stuff, it took a while but it went. Your sounds a lot worse though, but you do need to be very very regular, once a day or every other day usually isnt enough. I hope he gets better soon! and BTW i had the shoes taken off, im not sure if this helps any but my mare wasn't in work for a few months anyway so i thought why not! :)
 
Anti-bac. The most effective treatment there is. Cheap and easy to use too,which is such a bonus. Have had to deal with it in various animals for years. This works. Full stop.
 
My vet recommended copper sulphate in a water bath - it did work for my horse but he was not a chronic sufferer. Maybe worth a try.
 
Get some cotton wool and some pure eucalyptus oil. Soak the cotton wool in and pack it into the hoof - use a thin edge such a a metal nail file to pack it in to all the nooks and crannies such as down the side of the frog. If necessary bandage the hoof to keep it in place.
My farrier used to do this and it clears up everything from thrush to seedy toe. Eucalyptus oil is a powerful antibacterial agent.
 
JustJasper said:
Eucalyptus oil is a powerful antibacterial agent.
Click to expand...

I don't want to knock this idea, but wouldn't an antibac gel or cream do exactly the same thing cheaper and better?

Anyway, I was told the bacteria that cause thrush are in the soil when I had it appear in my animals. It made sense, so I limed the areas they most used (near the gate, etc) and it cleared up with basic peroxide treatment then never returned. Bearing in mind two of my three had it for no good reason and it just kept coming back, I think the lime did a superb job.

Just normal garden lime, like you use to lime a field for hay making, at a rate of a bucketful per five or so square yards (which is quite strong, but it's in limited areas) is what I used. I placed it where the horses walked most often and at either side of the field gate.
 
to add to my other post.
i also had my ponies diet anaylsed etc, everything was fine with it - but you have to get an independent nutritients (spelt wrong i think, but i'm shattered!). The feed company ones - what they advised me to feed a shetland pony were lethal! (and more importantly - he didnt need it!)
I wish over the years i had kept a list of everything that the vets sold me, farriers suggested etc.
At one point, the farrier had me making my own mix up, with some powder (that was bloody expensive for a tea spoonful), Eucalyptus oil, some cream from the chemists etc. It didnt help.

If this really is a case that wont clear up - PLEASE - plead with your vet and farrier to work together to get this sorted - have they actually met up to discuss your horse?
All of the treatments you have to give a while to see if they work, and before you know it, a few years have passed.
My pony actually was better turned out rather than in, maybe as it helped his blood flow etc. Something else i did - and i swear helped..... was i went and bought a horsebox so i could take me paddling in the sea each sunday... i swear down that helped, but obviously that depends on how close you are to the sea and if you have/can get transport.
I also put my pony on D&H Stand Free supplement, i dont know if that also helped but he has started on it when it all started to sort itself out - and he hasnt suffered for about 7-8 years now - if not longer!!!

I really do hope you get it sorted, if you want to pm me feel free as i know how it can get you down when nothing seems to clear it up!
 
I second Mrdarcy's post completely. Thrush and white line disease don't thrive in healthy feet.

Soaks of the feet in apple cider vinegar or a product called cleantrax will help (same as walks in the sea). Clean feet out well, spray daily with a milton solution/apple cider vinegar and pack the central sulcus of the frog with either canestan or sudocreme daily at least.

Do look at the link MrD put up and learn as much as you can about diet etc. Good luck.

This article might be useful for overall foot heath
http://www.unshod.co.uk/

Oh and for soaking old tractor/car inner tubes work well.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I can't seem to link the unshod article direct so click on articles (top of page) and the on the article called 'Hoof health'
 
Thanks for the links. A lot of the info makes sense as he isn't thriving generally. We've run all sorts of tests but the vet just puts it down to him ageing (he's 15). I'm not convinced. He has never been shod, he's an arab and his feet have always been outstanding. He is underweight, on poor grazing and currently fed gold horseage as it's all I've been able to get for 8 weeks. I have 60 bales of hay coming tomorrow. I've cut down his mix, as I was a little worried about laminitis and he also gets fast fibre and oil. The main problem I'm now having is the thrush has spread to the cleft in the bulb of his heel on one leg. It's getting deep and is very sore. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and talk through some of the above suggestions.
 
My daughters pony has WLD is all 4 feet.
To date is has never affected her being able to ride and the pony is quite happy and no signs of lameness.

We've only had her a couple of months, the farrier said her case isn't that bad but he thought she'd had it long time, and was probably off the back of laminitus.
His only advice was good shodding !!

I was rather peeved at this, so did my homework - so many remedies!!

Anyway, I settled to reguarly scrub her feet with Hibi scrub, and I soak her feet in water with bleach - the idea of this is it can get into areas that I can't with the brush and Hibi scrub ie up inside the hoof wall where the infection is.

I also give her a biotin supplement to promote healthy hoof growth.
And I use a treatment painted onto the outside of her hoof to make her hooves harder.

It sounds a lot, but it really isn't that much work and costs little.
It seems to be working, I am hoping that one day I can totally get rid of the WLD, but if not at least manage it so the pony isn't lame and doesn't suffer at all.

I also found the general perception was to shod with WLD, because it keeps the outer hoof wall and inner structures together, otherwise the affected area just crumbles and the pony is more likely to end up lame, basically shodding keeps them more sound.
Have to say though, common sense tells me shoes would hinder getting rid of the infection, as the shoe sits right over the white line area so difficult to get treatment into the affected area - hence soaking, it can seep in!

Good luck, its one of the hardest things to get rid of, I think I will try some other suggestions on here myself x
 
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