White Line Disease - Kevin Bacon or Anti-Bac

[HorseyTee]

So my boy has never had the best feet.
He has never been shod, and is unable to be due to having a very thin hoof wall. His feet crumble easily and seem to chip a lot. He's not worked much, so isn't being trotted along roads or anything. He has biotin which seems to have made a small difference. He's never foot sore or careful so I don't feel like he's in any sort of pain or discomfort with his feet.

He's recently had a trim with a new farrier, who has diagnosed white line disease (he did recommend the vet to confirm). He said either Kevin Bacon's ointment or Anti-Bac ointment should make a big difference and get the hoof healthy again. His feet aren't mega bad, just gets lots of small chips (more so than normal feet should) and a bit crumbly along the white lines on the sole of the foot.

 

[Antw23uk]

Post some pics if you can. Personally dealing with white line disease now and I treat much more aggressive than that! Scrubbing, soaking, sole cleanse red horse (I think) spray and paste. Its a bit of a slow burner is white line disease as you are waiting for healthy hoof to grow but you cant be complacent with it.

 

[HorseyTee]

Post some pics if you can. Personally dealing with white line disease now and I treat much more aggressive than that! Scrubbing, soaking, sole cleanse red horse (I think) spray and paste. Its a bit of a slow burner is white line disease as you are waiting for healthy hoof to grow but you cant be complacent with it.

Thanks, i'll take various photos of his feet when I go up later. I'll show the worst and best feet. The farrier thinks it's in all 4 feet too, most likely from the bacteria in the ground getting into his already weak and chipped feet.

 

[Circe]

The only thing that worked for my tb is keratex hoof disinfectant - and I tried a lot of remedies .
Kx

 

[doodle]

Kevin bacon made robins white line disease worse. I think it just soften hoof even more. What helped him was shoes off, all the disease cut out, scrubbed each night and alamycin spray put on. Also Formula4feet, simple biotin didn't help.

 

[Cecile]

Kevin bacon made robins white line disease worse. I think it just soften hoof even more. What helped him was shoes off, all the disease cut out, scrubbed each night and alamycin spray put on. Also Formula4feet, simple biotin didn't help.

As above ^^^
I had one come in last year with white line (Seedy toe), farrier cut it right out, I scrubbed twice a day with a wire brush and sprayed on alamycin, farrier checked it every few weeks and touch wood no further problems since

 

[HorseyTee]

Hmm interesting.
When both of you had the bad parts cut away, did you still find you were able to turn out as normal?

 

[Cecile]

Hmm interesting.
When both of you had the bad parts cut away, did you still find you were able to turn out as normal?

Yes turned out exactly as normal but I did scrub the foot and apply alamycin twice a day

 

[Tegan]

Another vote for keratex. I use the nail hole disinfectant. Also recommended by my farrier. I would check what Kevin Bacons product it is that your farrier recommends. I can't see that the standard hoof grease would help but I have used another Kevin Bacon product which was a small bottle of black tar which was specifically for thrush and white line disease which was good.

 

[HorseyTee]

Thanks everyone.
I will get some photos of his feet so you can see what the damage actually is.
And i'll have a shop around for those products too.

 

[doodle]

Yes he was turned out as normal. I was worried that he would be foot sore without shoes but it had got to the point that shoes were falling off as the hoof would break off up to the nails. So the nails were getting higher and further apart which was just spreading the infection. He was in overnight so I just scrubbed and sprayed when he came in it night. Shoes didn't go back on until the disease was totally gone. It took a while. His feet were trimmed as normal but only actually needed a few more bits of disease cut out the first trim.

Alamycin (which is the same as Terramycin) is prescription only. But my vet would prescribe 3 at a time and I bought online which saved money.

 

[DD]

coper sulphate, brilliant mix with Vaseline pack into white line.

 

[tallyho!]

Very hard to treat white line disease with a moisturiser... packing might help to rid the fungus if that's the issue... hooves don't absorb a lot in various studies - even soaking in water they only showed minimal surface softening and oils can make it worse as it can feed certain bacteria and fungi. First things first, treat the infection.

However, in the main, white line disease can be stopped completely just by finding the trigger that causes it or trimming to make sure that the flare is under control. Too much flare at ground level will stretch the white line and let all manner of germs to proliferate and cause a problem. Flare is caused when the wall is weak or too long.

I would take a good look at the wall and see where you are in terms of wall length/vs plantar surface - is there enough contact or is the weak wall taking the brunt?

Take a look at diet - I saw an immediate improvement with a decent mineral/vit mix and purely grass based diet - for some reason alfalfa did not agree with her - scurfy skin - particularly heels, and constant white line disease and abscesses. Since she has been on purely grass nuts/cobs her hooves have got extremely thick and very hard to rasp! You might just need to fiddle around with the ratio's of minerals - it's usually the culprit - some need more copper, some need more zinc but no horse in the UK needs iron - it's in abundance in all forage and grazing according to surveys and analyses done by agricultural labs e.g. D&H, Saracen, ForagePlus etc... many supplements for leisure horses are now omitting iron - D&H namely.

 

[LeneHorse]

My farrier recommends Baktakil spray.

 

[DD]

Very hard to treat white line disease with a moisturiser... packing might help to rid the fungus if that's the issue... hooves don't absorb a lot in various studies - even soaking in water they only showed minimal surface softening and oils can make it worse as it can feed certain bacteria and fungi. First things first, treat the infection.

However, in the main, white line disease can be stopped completely just by finding the trigger that causes it or trimming to make sure that the flare is under control. Too much flare at ground level will stretch the white line and let all manner of germs to proliferate and cause a problem. Flare is caused when the wall is weak or too long.

I would take a good look at the wall and see where you are in terms of wall length/vs plantar surface - is there enough contact or is the weak wall taking the brunt?

Take a look at diet - I saw an immediate improvement with a decent mineral/vit mix and purely grass based diet - for some reason alfalfa did not agree with her - scurfy skin - particularly heels, and constant white line disease and abscesses. Since she has been on purely grass nuts/cobs her hooves have got extremely thick and very hard to rasp! You might just need to fiddle around with the ratio's of minerals - it's usually the culprit - some need more copper, some need more zinc but no horse in the UK needs iron - it's in abundance in all forage and grazing according to surveys and analyses done by agricultural labs e.g. D&H, Saracen, ForagePlus etc... many supplements for leisure horses are now omitting iron - D&H namely.

excellent post

 

[HeresHoping]

Very hard to treat white line disease with a moisturiser... packing might help to rid the fungus if that's the issue... hooves don't absorb a lot in various studies - even soaking in water they only showed minimal surface softening and oils can make it worse as it can feed certain bacteria and fungi. First things first, treat the infection.

However, in the main, white line disease can be stopped completely just by finding the trigger that causes it or trimming to make sure that the flare is under control. Too much flare at ground level will stretch the white line and let all manner of germs to proliferate and cause a problem. Flare is caused when the wall is weak or too long.

I would take a good look at the wall and see where you are in terms of wall length/vs plantar surface - is there enough contact or is the weak wall taking the brunt?

Take a look at diet - I saw an immediate improvement with a decent mineral/vit mix and purely grass based diet - for some reason alfalfa did not agree with her - scurfy skin - particularly heels, and constant white line disease and abscesses. Since she has been on purely grass nuts/cobs her hooves have got extremely thick and very hard to rasp! You might just need to fiddle around with the ratio's of minerals - it's usually the culprit - some need more copper, some need more zinc but no horse in the UK needs iron - it's in abundance in all forage and grazing according to surveys and analyses done by agricultural labs e.g. D&H, Saracen, ForagePlus etc... many supplements for leisure horses are now omitting iron - D&H namely.

I was just coming on to say similar, so will say this with bells on. Diet is key, here.

You also suggest he doesn't do much - doing more could help improve things significantly. The more hooves work, the stronger they become.

I am also one for the aggressive approach - I am a believer in iodine. It costs £10 from your local farm store for a 500ml bottle and can be diluted in warm water, used to scrub with a wire brush, and then painted on neat - every day for a couple of weeks. Then give it a rest for week, and repeat for 10 days. Rest for a week and repeat for a week.

In the meantime, I would introduce some roadwork and maybe build in an extra hack or two so his metabolism gets a bit of a boost, too.