Whats your thoughts on this frog? *Pics*

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ru-fi-do

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Whilst waiting to hear from my farrier I thought I'd post some pictures of my mares frog. The cleft of her frog seemed to form a hole that looked little bit thrushy/pussy. I've been keeping it clean with saline and drying the area, she hasn't been exposed to any wet, we've had no rain for weeks, she comes in in the day for 6 hours on a clean dry straw bed with matting. She does have a tendancy to stand in her poo but i've always had a strict routine of picking her feet out whenever she comes out the stable. The only thing I can think is of she hs sweated on the rubber matting as her bulbs of her feet are close to the floor???
Yesterday I noticed parts of her frog starting to go yellow, the pictures were taken this morn, most of the frog seems nice and dry but still smells if you move the gap with your finger or hoof pick. I'm hoping my farrier will be able to come today/tomorrow and trim the frog back and have a look, but can't help wondering about the start of canker? Perhaps i'm overreacting?? Would be interested on peoples thoughts.

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from personal experience of canker (3 year case in all 4 feet!) id be very suprised if thats canker. if it is, it grows outwards and goes stringy and bubbly, much like cauliflower!
it doesnt even look like thats thrush, to be honest, just like the frogs need trimming back.
ask your farrier next time hes down :-)
 
Believe me it doesnt loook like canka i had a mare suffer for 5 yearsit was the most awful thing like previous poster said if it looks like cauliflower - my mare had bulging frogs and it was like putty it was yellow kept on gettin very badly infected wheeping and maggots - numerous vets visits prone to abcesses vets gave me the option to go threw operation £650 for them to cut all of the bad flesh off but they said it would come back - in the end it got that bad she was starting to chew it and was severly lame and she had to be pts . at the start it was very soft and wet and yours looks very dry.
 
The body of the frog looks good and dry but the central cleft looks deep and this is where fungal infection takes hold. Soaks in cleantrax, apple cider vinegar or similar will help.
 
As above the foot and the body of the frog looks dry but your mare has very deep clefts, these can habour bacteria and thus lead to infection. With my mare I scrub the frog and cleft with hibiscrub, dry with a towel and then spray with purple spray to help keep it clean. Your farrier will be able to have a good poke deeper if you don't feel you are able to !!
 
Her heels look very flat, is it possible that she may of pierced her frog and that it has then become infected? Smells are generally a sign of an infection somewhere and if so, she may need a course of antibiotics from you vet. Either way, I bet your farrier will be able to tell you.
 
Smell is a sign but not always ime. Thrush can live deep in the central sulcus with little or no smell, black very smelly frogs usually are when thrush has really managed to take hold on the outside of the frog and in the grooves at the side. A deep central sulcus is an indication of possible infection as the central sulcus should not be deep in a healthy frog.
Some pics showing healthy frogs. http://www.right2remainshoeless.com/html/pin_up_s.html

I'd say if you can (gently) poke your hoof pic deep into the cleft then treat for thrush and the treatment needs to get in deep. Just my thoughts I'm not a Farrier or vet.
 
When was your horse last shod in that picture? Im afraid it looks like your farrier hasnt bothered to trim your horses frog/sole for years....Also your horse has more hoof one side of the frog than the other, this shouldnt be the case and needs to be corrected by remidial shoeing from a decent farrier (get your vet to recommend someone).
 
My horse suffers from the same. Sorry not picked out hoof before taking photo.

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It is the dry weather. Mine had thrush in his (not because of poor care I might add). Don't put anything greasy on or in it because that will keep moisture in and air out and will set up ideal conditions for thrush. You can scrub it out with Hibiscrub, dry it and purple spray down the cleft. If your horse does have thrush in there it is difficult to probe down and get the gunge out so my farrier got me to do the following:

Make up a very dilute solution of Jayes Fluid. About 15ml in a litre of warm water. I used a half litre washing up bottle and put just a capful of Jeyes in it. Then clean out the crack as much as you can then use the nozzle to squirt the dilute Jeyes into the crack with force. Hold the foot up for a while to let it penetrate. Do this once a day. Thrush will be gone after 3 or 4 days.
 
Don;t ever let your farrier trim the frog - it is there for a reason and if you trim it you are taking away shock absorbing material

Looks like the hoof is a bit contracted - the only way to fix this is shoes off - keep it clean, use ACV or a soak if you need to. Shoes off will allow it to decontract and you'll get rid of that hole.
 
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