Need Opinions Please !

4theloveofjake · Need Opinions Please !

I was cleaning out Willow's feet last night and she was sensitive on the front right foot. Upon further inspection I noticed a round, white, squishy circle area within the frog, up on the side wall of it. I thought it might be an abcess as I have never seen one but my friend said it was thrush and to just put thrush medicine on. I called my farrier but it was 8PM and he hasn't returned my call yet. Have any of you seen this white soft area before and what is it ???

jokersmama

How bizarre! I was just trimming Misty and her frog had some excess material in the central sulcus so I decided to remove it when I cut into it this milky white pus shot out! I investigated it further and it was quite a large area under what appeared to be healthy frog on the outside.
I may have been wrong to do that...?

She wasn't sore or anything but I wonder if she would have been had it been allowed to continue forming. O how I wish I had taken pictures!

Her frog looked beautiful and full it just had a little bit of excess in the center.

I treated it like thrush. I'm not sure what else it could be...? It was in more than one foot too!

4theloveofjake

Oh no, not Misty too. I checked Willow again tonight and the squishy part was not quite as squishy as last night but still not hard like the rest of the frog. I put thrush medicine on too. I guess I have been a bad momma only picking out their feet once a week

Doing it daily now ! My doggone farrier still hasn't called back ! UGH !

Leah

Alona wrote me about her frog-and now your horse!

How odd.

I SO want photos of this. I still can't quite understand what you are seeing.

4theloveofjake

Thanks Leah. It's dark outside now but I will have my daughter take a pic tomorrow when I get home from work. My computer is messed up so hopefully my hubby will be home tomorrow and let me use his laptop. It's a circle up on the wall inside of the frog. It's about the size of a nickel. Her hoof is gray so the white circle shows up. When you touch it, it feel soft, not hard like the hoof. I hope her hoof grows and covers it up. She walks OK and is not limping or hesitating. Do you think it could be caused by a stone ? I have walked her down our gravel road.

Leah

Oh good! I am not sure so would like the photos.

If they are clear enough (and you don't mind) I can always send it to some other hoof people for input.

Leah

Could it be canker?
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Farrie...4/white-cheesy-substance-frog.htm

This one has photos:
http://www.equipodiatry.com/canker1.htm

jokersmama

OMG! I hope not! Gross!

Gillies_mom

Don't worry, pockets of white milky fluid are quite normal in frogs, it's due to the frog being composed of 50% moisture, sometimes this moisture is collected into a pocket, it's a bit like us getting a blister. I just cut them out and disinfect.

4theloveofjake

Gilliesmom, what do you disinfect with ? I don't know if I could cut it out but I could disinfect.

Leah

oldmac_donald

I've never seen one either.

However, on the subject of thrush and frogs - behold! I'm hijacking the thread I know, but it's frog-related, I swear!

Pictures are of the same foot, two months apart. The second pics show Bel's foot a month after moving out to hard rock country.

This is July 2009 (ignore the date stamp), day before Bel lost her foal. The photos make her feet look a heck of a lot worse then they actually are. Soft ground (home, grass paddock). Had just started really attacking the heels, which were trying to contract. Could NOT get rid of the "thrushy" fungus-y frogs.

Second set of photos - SAME hoof. One week after being trimmed.

Since taking her off of grass (she is now in a dirt lot with no rain, loads of rocks and company, and grass-hay 24/7), and out of the damp Kuranda weather, this is how her frogs have changed. I sent her out literally to heal her feet.

FTLOJ, which frog looks more like your girl's? I was treating these ones almost daily with tea tree and a weekly topical soak, plus she was on very low sugar diet. They were pretty squelchy frogs.

Leah

man look at the view out the back of the barn.

I wanna go to Australia.

oldmac_donald

Haha, Leah, that's my mum's garden (and OUR garage - Bel kept trying to check out the treadmill!). I'll make a thread of pictures for you...

Leah

oh please please! I want an ENTIRE thread of photos!!!! Hundreds of photos!

regarding the frogs...cool changes.

Now if you just define those bars you will be BLOWN away at how the frog health improves.

oldmac_donald

I have one cooking for you! Just uploading TOWSANDS of pics into Photobucket (which is having a narnie because of it)

Now, define "define". I used to not touch bars (what bars?) as there were none. Not true, they were just flat. Now I trim them back to the sole plane, so that once the heel corners are trimmed, you get that creamy-coloured V of wall and bar... umm, you know when you look at a freshly trimmed hoof, where everything appears colour-coded?

I KNOW I took those bars right down a week ago...

Oh, and the hoof has just been pulled out of a bucket of water - wait til you see it completely dry!

I'm hoping to get new pics tomorrow - these new ones were taken in a hurry on a mobile phone. The changes in the hoof are weird - the sole has "lost" all concavity and has all these bumps. I think Pete did an article once on hard terrain hooves being "flatter" as the ground did not yield to load the sole, which then migrated down in search of terrain.

Gillies_mom

jokersmama

Interesting...I thought that maybe it was like a blister and the fluid was protecting the new frog material that was not ready to venture into the world. That is what it looked like. I've had two horses do this one was over a year ago and he had two hoof abscesses before that so I figured it was another abscess. Neither one was sore though.

4theloveofjake

This is really odd but the spot on Willow's foot is gone

I can't understand how it could look normal again pratically overnight. I have been picking daily and putting on Thrush Remedy. That's it........It's all a mystery for me

Leah

well crud! No pictures for me!

Glad it is gone but the mystery remains!

4theloveofjake

I know, I was all set to take the pic and then there was nothing there. It was gray hoof again. How is that possible ?? Could there have been a growth on top of the hoof, a fungus perhaps ? dontknow

4theloveofjake

Although it is no longer white and squishy, I noticed last night it is not as hard and strong/thick as the rest of the frog in that same spot. If I press on it, you can see it go in a little and she reacts to the pressing with a flinch. Unbelievably, my farrier has still not returned my calls. I have heard his VM is filled up.......I am not happy about his lack of availablity to even answer a question