Thrush!

[DiNozzo]

My new(ish) horse is prone to thrush both at his last and yard and it seems at this yard too. I've never really had to deal with it before, but its proving difficult to treat.

He is awful with his feet generally which doesn't make it easy for us or him. He is slowly getting better with his feet, but whilst we work on this thrush has taken hold in his front left hoof.

As he is difficult with his feet, the farrier does what he can, but his frog is very ragged looking and he has very deep central clefts.

We are currently trying to be as thorough as we can picking his feet out, whilst making it as nice an experience as possible, and then syringing hydrogen peroxide into his clefts.

Does anyone have any advice for treating and preventing thrush? Any supplements or anything that might help?

At the moment he does have to live out, but his field is relatively dry for all the rain we have had here!

All he is fed currently is grass, a handful of grass nuts and a carrot after his feet have been done or if he has been clever!

 

[Ponio_lover]

I've had a right time with my mare and thrush over the last few years. Never had a problem when she was on shavings but since we moved yards and had to be on straw it's caused my serious grief.
Personally I don't go in for all the home made remedies but did try various shop bought things ranging from: Stockholm tar (good but seriously messy and time consuming), dry mineral powder (expensive but didn't make it better or worse), hoof disinfectant (again time consuming to scrub with it, then dry feet and no difference), absorbine farriers finish (smelt nice, no difference), Gold label frog cream (messy and dropped straight back off). Finally went for Trilanco purple spray for sheep. Cleared it up in about 5 days. Total relief!!!

 

[Ponio_lover]

Should add the spray is quick and easy to use, so good if they mess about!

 

[Zipzop]

Is he shod? Are his heals very contracted making his clefts very deep?
The thrush and especially as it is reoccuring is giving you a huge indicator that something is very wrong. A healthy horse, and by that I mean all round health, does not get reoccuring bouts of thrush.
You will need to attack this from three angles to effectively stop this dis-ease of health.
Firstly, treat from the inside with a good diet. As I don't know what work he is doing or breed/type I'll just give you a generic, good health, good foot health diet.
He will need to have a low starch/sugar base to start with, many people like fast fibre, I use thunderbrooks hay cobs. Secondly, you will need a mineral balancer, not just a balancer, but one that is balanced with regard to the deficiencies in the UK forage, presuming that is where you are. Forage plus or I believe progressive earth do them. These companies have researched this for many years and will be able to tell you that thrush, white line disease etc all stem from poor mineral balance. vitamin E is an interesting one. The horse can only get enough of it if he grazes for something like six hours a day on really good grass, which most of us can't do due to weight etc. A friend of mine supplements with vitamin e when the grass is poor and when the spring came she lowered the vit e dose of each horse and a few of them got thrush. Thirdly, Linseed for omega three. This is a very basic starting point.
Secondly, if he is shod, I would, once the minerals have had a chance to create good hoof, aim to go barefoot. The reason is the foot will be able to function normally. Once the foot is functioning normally, the frog works well, deep clefts start to decrease and hoof problems start to go away.
Thirdly, treat the feet topically. There has been much research on hydrogen peroxide and the damage it does and it has been found to, aswell as clear away the diseased tissue, damage good tissue, so you are leaving damaged tissue behind which allows the thrush to continue. I have had great success with Sparsa Spray from Trinity Consultants. Another good company is Red Horse Products. Rockley Farm, which is a website and yard specialising in rehabbing horses with bad feet, either shod or barefoot, (they have a blog, it's fascinating), recommend using a product called White Lightening which they swear by, and no it's not the cider!
Best of luck, hope this helps x

 

[Haz:)]

I've been borrowing a liveries (chill, she is family anyway) field paste to prevent my boys persistent thrush. It's called Field Paste but not sure what brand. I was skeptical but it really does work! Has kept both our thrushy ponies thrush at bay and kept his hoof healthy.

 

[DiNozzo]

Ponio Lover, we have tried purple spray, and it just doesn't get to where it needs to be!

Is he shod? Are his heals very contracted making his clefts very deep?
The thrush and especially as it is reoccuring is giving you a huge indicator that something is very wrong. A healthy horse, and by that I mean all round health, does not get reoccuring bouts of thrush.
You will need to attack this from three angles to effectively stop this dis-ease of health.
Firstly, treat from the inside with a good diet. As I don't know what work he is doing or breed/type I'll just give you a generic, good health, good foot health diet.
He will need to have a low starch/sugar base to start with, many people like fast fibre, I use thunderbrooks hay cobs. Secondly, you will need a mineral balancer, not just a balancer, but one that is balanced with regard to the deficiencies in the UK forage, presuming that is where you are. Forage plus or I believe progressive earth do them. These companies have researched this for many years and will be able to tell you that thrush, white line disease etc all stem from poor mineral balance. vitamin E is an interesting one. The horse can only get enough of it if he grazes for something like six hours a day on really good grass, which most of us can't do due to weight etc. A friend of mine supplements with vitamin e when the grass is poor and when the spring came she lowered the vit e dose of each horse and a few of them got thrush. Thirdly, Linseed for omega three. This is a very basic starting point.
Secondly, if he is shod, I would, once the minerals have had a chance to create good hoof, aim to go barefoot. The reason is the foot will be able to function normally. Once the foot is functioning normally, the frog works well, deep clefts start to decrease and hoof problems start to go away.
Thirdly, treat the feet topically. There has been much research on hydrogen peroxide and the damage it does and it has been found to, aswell as clear away the diseased tissue, damage good tissue, so you are leaving damaged tissue behind which allows the thrush to continue. I have had great success with Sparsa Spray from Trinity Consultants. Another good company is Red Horse Products. Rockley Farm, which is a website and yard specialising in rehabbing horses with bad feet, either shod or barefoot, (they have a blog, it's fascinating), recommend using a product called White Lightening which they swear by, and no it's not the cider!
Best of luck, hope this helps x

Zippo, thank you for your advice. I'll add a bit more information as my OP wasn't that informative.

He is out pretty much 24 hours (in for the odd hour before riding but not often!) on decent grass. He has a good shiny coat, and good hoof/hair growth. He hasn't suffered any other illnesses during his time with me, or apparently in the last 6 months.

He did recently need to be wormed (after worm count, but I can't remember what the count was!) but doesn't at all look wormy.

Feetwise, despite being vile for the poor farrier I think his feet are pretty decent for the care he will let us do to them! although I'll take some pictures tomorrow. At the moment we don't have the option to go barefoot- we have hard stoney tracks and I'm currently too busy at work to put the time into a rehab program as he will struggle.

Noted about the hydrogen peroxide, will order some white lightening!

 

[Nudibranch]

Second getting the diet sorted but in the meantime paint daily with iodine after cleaning. It does not harm tissues, is drying, and most importantly kills thrush! And cheap too.

 

[Ponio_lover]

If it's not working for you then certainly try something different. I feel your pain! All I would add is that not all purple sprays are born equal. The Gold Label one for example is so bad it's almost comical. Coloured water!

 

[Zipzop]

I've been borrowing a liveries (chill, she is family anyway) field paste to prevent my boys persistent thrush. It's called Field Paste but not sure what brand. I was skeptical but it really does work! Has kept both our thrushy ponies thrush at bay and kept his hoof healthy.

Field paste is a red horse product, have heard great things about this company!

 

[Zipzop]

He did recently need to be wormed (after worm count, but I can't remember what the count was!) but doesn't at all look it

Thrush is effectively a yeast infection, which stems from an overgrowth of candida in the body leading to external symptoms. Same as in people. Candida grows in the body only if the body is in a compromised state or if something upsets it, for example, the gut flora, Ie your worming.
It has been shown that thrush can arise after worming, vaccination, change in diet, antibiotics, medications, stress etc. basically anything which upsets the body's natural state enough to let candida take over. A good pre/probiotic could help but beware of things like protexin which contain alfalfa which could cause other reactions should your horse be sensitive. Global herbs do a good natural one called prebioherbs.

 

[Micropony]

Never used purple spray for thrush, but when my old boy got a touch after a longish spell of box rest, the vet gave us some blue spray that's meant to be for foot rot in sheep. I had to scrub with hibiscrub and then squirt with the spray, daily to start with and then gradually less frequently. You can buy some sort of blue spray in tack shops but it has different ingredients, the good stuff is prescription only.

I know only too well the pain of having to do stuff to the feet of a horse who finds it difficult. Said old boy was a shiverer in front, who had to be poulticed for many weeks for the mother of all abscesses and then when he was recovering wouldn't you know it, he got thrush. The poulticing was a two woman job, and after a few weeks he had a bit of a sense of humour failure about it so it involved Domosedan gel as well. Might be worth exploring at least for a few days if it helps you get on top of this bout while you work out what the underlying problem is. Best of luck!

 

[Queenbee]

I know many who rave about Red horse products for thrush, my boy got an evil bout of it last winter, I normally use Hydrogen Peroxide, but tried this, purple spray, stockholm tar etc to no real effect... Iodine killed it within 48hrs

 

[paddy555]

iodine, brush it on, quick simple and cheap.

 

[Bojingles]

My cob came to me with bad thrush in all 4 feet. Shifting it took a while but I found the key was to get it as dry as possible before applying any treatment. So I'd wash her feet out at night, then puff wound powder or gentle talc into frogs, then in the morning apply blue spray (not purple). This shifted it and it's never come back - I pack the feet with Red Horse Field Paste when the ground's wet.

 

[laura_nash]

Another vote for purple foot rot spray from the local farm supplies shop (has a picture of a sheep, cow and horse on the front). I do like Red Horse products for plugging holes etc to avoid thrush developing, but if there is already thrush there then a good brush out and a quick spray once a day with the purple spray. Remember to wear gloves though, or you'll have purple hands for days!

If its really bad and / or not clearing up quickly then I'll use a CleanTrax soak which clears it up immediately, but it doesn't sound like he'd stand for that unfortunately, plus they can't have shoes on so for a shod horse you need to get the timing right with the farrier.

In my experience persistent or re-occuring thrush is usually diet related (could also be poor gut health or a metabolic problem like cushings, EMS, over-weight) so I would also second taking a good look at the diet. For some sugar-sensitive horses a carrot a day is enough to cause issues (my cob is one of these), and of course grass varies massively in sugar levels and mineral profile. Also some horses seem to be more sensitive to mineral imbalances than others.

 

[gnubee]

Mine had recurring thrush when they arrived. Treated with hydrogen peroxide and used silverthrush powder in deep sulcus and flappy bits of frog to keep them drier. Feeding formula4feet appears to have worked miracles for foot quality and we now have much less thrush and fewer abscesses too.

 

[Goldenstar]

Iodine is the thing failing that try canestan cream

 

[VioletStripe]

Iodine, plenty of standing on clean ground as well for feet to air out!!! And exercise - the walking helps blood flow to the feet.
I also second diet - it's so important for them to grow good quality hoof.

 

[millitiger]

Iodine or sheep rot spray- get an aerosol tin rather than pump spray as it gives much more effective coverage and gets into all of the little cracks and pockets which are hard to reach.

 

[DiNozzo]

Thank you!

Have ordered a couple of the products mentioned and will certainly look into his diet. As a starting point with that I've ordered some progressive earth supplements to try, as all he gets at the moment is grass!

Like I say he has a shiny coat and good teeth and has had no other issues health wise.

Not sure if its recurring or more just not got rid of properly!

Having had a good look at his feet tonight his heels are starting to contract although his whole frog is quite wide and fleshy. Unfortunately because the yard has quite large, hard gravely tracks he would struggle to transition to barefoot at the moment, and I just don't have the time now to do it.

The farrier is out again next week so will have a chat and see what we can do to improve his feet. The horse is getting better and better about his feet, and having someone bribe him with carrots whilst I mess on seems to be the way forwards!

 

[Haz:)]

My aunts pony struggled with thrush & laminitis, one of the other. Turns out he had cushings - confirmed by the free testing service from TAL (talk about laminitis).
Could this be the case for your boy?

 

[Ponio_lover]

Interesting to read the stuff about the digestive upset being a possible underlying cause. My mare has recently gone on to some digestive supplements due to being quite gassy. Maybe it was this that actually finally did the job of keeping the thrush at bay and not the spray! Though more likely a combination of both i imagine.