White line Disease

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elliefiz

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Hello everyone

Just wondering if anyone has any experience dealing with white line disease and how they treated it? got a horse with crumbly feet in the yard got my OH to shoe her last night (hes a farrier) and he thinks she has white line disease but her hooves have always been bad so im not sure if im trusting his diagnosis or not!(hope he doesnt read this!)
 
I would probably trust his diagnosis, but it would have been easier to treat while the shoes were off. The easiest and most effective treatment is a 10-minute soak in 1:2 dilution Milton liquid per hoof. You don't want to be soaking a shod hoof though as it makes the nails rust. If he's a farrier though he could remove the shoes again, but on the other hand the more times the horse is re-shod the worse the crumbling is going to be. I would definitely do at least one soak next time the shoes are off.
 
Dont know if he used anti bac or not i wasnt there when he did it tho saying that i havent seen him using it before nor any of the farriers who work in the yard
Yep he put shoes on her because she is competeing this weekend tho she wears aluminium shoes because they are much lighter I remember being told years ago that jeyes fluid kills off the fungus that causes it and then all the fungus needs to be all cut away tho he says there is a specific treatment available for it he is going to track it down for me is it a rare ailment because i have never heard of anyones horse suffering from it?
 
No it's not at all rare. It is something those of us with barefoot horses are constantly aware of, and we have to pay special attention to picking out any gravel etc in the white line so it doesn't open up and get exposed to infection. The trim also helps to keep the white line tight.

Owners of shod horses rarely see the state of their horse's white line, but that's not to say they aren't vulnerable to WLD. I had a nasty shock a couple of weeks ago when my shod horse was briefly out of hind shoes; one hoof was particularly bad. Like your OH says, it is responsible for a lot of crumbling issues when horses struggle to hold a shoe.
 
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It is something those of us with barefoot horses are constantly aware of,

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Really???? It's never crossed my mind.
 
Ive heard of it before from my days doing my pony club tests and stuff but never put any pass on it- the usual never happen to me attitude!!just googled it and realised how serious it is if undetected it causes all sorts of problems up through the leg so Im going to have to start treatment asap does anyone know what the specialised treatment is called?the Oh said he would find out for me but if i knew what it was called i could google it
He thinks it is just in one hoof but is it easily spread to the others? like any horsey mummy im starting to panic now!!
 
The treatment he meant could possibly be Cleantrax, which is supplied by EPs. I can't find anywhere online where you could get it but if he's a farrier he may know. You have to mix it up in a gallon of water and use a long soaking boot. The gravity inside the boot pushes the product right up the white line to penetrate the furthest reaches of the infection.

Some owners of barefoot horses use Cleantrax routinely twice a year, but it is a faff.

That's why I suggested Milton liquid - easier to get hold of and you only soak for 10 minutes (1 part Milton to 2 parts water in a soaking boot or small container). One of the BF guys, Peter Laidely I think, uses neat Milton on the white line itself, but never on the frog. Another product I routinely run around the white line is Absorbine Hooflex Thrush Remedy.

Don't panic, there are more horses out there with WLD than people realise, but of course it's advisable to treat it. You may need to do several soaks, depending how far up the infection goes.
 
We get lots of it here, shod or not. Its caused by a mycosis which, in order to survive must have an anarobic environment. The treatment here is to cut away the hoof wall to just above where the crumbling ends and exposing it to the air. You have to keep the area clean and disinfected but for now no one has come up with a single treatment to kill off the mycosis as its pretty resistent. Squirting hydrogen peroxide into the area will introduce oxygen and will help although its not a cure. Be careful, it can be spread to other horses via blacksmith tools! Mairi. Ps, if you tap her walls with a hammer, you can hear where the crumbling is as it makes a hollow noise. Hope its a false alarm.
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OK, White Line Diasease (WLD) is an absolute **** to deal with.
What happens..: Nail in hoof rusts, Iron ions dissolve the transmembrane linker proteins (glue) holding the hoof cells (squames), this allows bacteria in, which further munch up the subsance between the cells-in effect creating a motorway for fungi to enter. The fungi organisms are large and expand pushing the hoof cells apart- crumbling the hoof wall...i.e. what you see is the brittle crumbly hoof and black white line.
Treatment: Horses that suffer badly from WLD are often calcium deficient. Alfalfa has a really good source of calcuim bound to protein, which makes it easier for the horse to build good hoof with!
Farriers formula was specifically designed with this problem in mind... try it! (I know the wonderful lady who designed it! and its the only one that has been subbject to university trials and published in the vet record)
Also hoof disinfectant- apply daily to clean hoof, an iodine based one (iodine and t tree oil e.g.ff hoof dis).
My horse (who we needed for a world championship) had very very bad WLD. we tried everything. The above schedule is what I recommend to all my clients and it works given time. It took us 6 months to improve his horn quality.
As a good rule dont put it on your horse's hoof unless you can put it on your face!
 
your theory doesnt explain why UNSHOD equines get it! Once the horse has it, the most important part of the cure is leaving the infected area open to the air which means cutting away the hoof wall. Its rampant here and the belief is that shavings play an important part in the condition, acting as an initial host to the "fungi". Mairi.
 
ALSO, there is some evidence that certain horses can be predisposed- whether they are shod or not.
Unshod horses have their white line subject to trauma and microfractures in the white line can act as entry points for bacteria.
The ammonia from urine/faeces in shavings is also implicated.
The main point is that WLD is a multifactorial disease with a complex aetiology, pathogenesis and frequently tricky to treat.

If veterinary medicine was an exact science we would have computers doing the job and I would be out of one.
 
Thanks Everybody for all your help you are full of useful information!!The OH isnt finished his farriery apprenticeship yet so he got his master farrier to come down and look he said that its not WLD he tapped her hoof and there is no hollowness in it though he did say her feet are crap and that she should get a supplement like farriers formula or hoof maker and maybe wear glue on shoes so we can avoid putting more holes in her feet.
 
hi there is no such thing as w l d. what is refered to as w l d is simply an area of lamina that has had a small area of local laminitis, inflamation of the lamina. caused by something from out side getting in.likea nail hole[at quarters] crack [anywhere] or sharp stone into w line[low down], this area will have gone through the stages, injury,inflamation,infection,burnout, and then you are left with a small area of necrotic tissue[ dry, brown like rotten wood] thiswould grow out but in the meantime is a haven for bacteria,fungus etc to grow. [w l d ] so the area must be cut out to expose healthy hoof ,left open for air and can be treated with bleach a couple of times, problem solved
 
hi its me again, did you ever wonder why you,r horse has crumbling feet, i bet he was ok before he was first shod.now in spite of the obvious damage, you, farrier continues to nail on shoesonto crumbling feet, where do you think this will end. i know you mean well and love the horse but you must think for you,r self. the farrier has steel shoes and nails, now that is some first aid kit.that is a sad way to treat the horse, you are not alone,every day all over the world shoes are nailed onto horses, it is bad enough to nail a sound horse ,but to nail anything onto a horse with foot probs is barbaric. you must get sombody to de shoe the horse ,one nail at a time, then trim away all usless hoof horn,back to where you find healthy horn, free from rusty nailholes etc. if your horse has good soles and looks happy enough, turn him out for a week or two untill everything toughens up, if all is well try another period and another untill forever. if you find that after deshoeing that his sole is tender then you must protect his sole for a while with a product such as vettec equibuild and superfast, he wont look back
 
hi there is no such thing as w l d. what is refered to as w l d is simply an area of lamina that has had a small area of local laminitis, inflamation of the lamina. caused by something from out side getting in.likea nail hole[at quarters] crack [anywhere] or sharp stone into w line[low down], this area will have gone through the stages, injury,inflamation,infection,burnout, and then you are left with a small area of necrotic tissue[ dry, brown like rotten wood] thiswould grow out but in the meantime is a haven for bacteria,fungus etc to grow. [w l d ] so the area must be cut out to expose healthy hoof ,left open for air and can be treated with bleach a couple of times, problem solved
 
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