It's About The Horse

PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9038

Thanks Blue...sounds like something you could do on a regular basis to prevent thrush during soggy times.
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Clarissa · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 12:32 pm Post subject:

I took these photos this afternoon of Jude's front foot showing the extent to which the rot has chewed away at the fresh hoof growth of the last 4wks. It has totally eaten away all that has grown recently & I think it is worse than it was a month ago. It astonds me how it only eats the heels away.

I posted more about what I am using as treatments & the horses wearing boots etc in the thread about Sonny's feet.
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Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

Clarissa · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 6:26 am Post subject:

Whacko!! We’ve had 4wks of basically dry weather with only 3 moist nights! That’s the driest spell since this time last year!

Early this morning we had a short shower.

My horse’s feet have stopped growing. These 2 photos show Jude’s abscess that broke out in the coronet band back on 3rd May & what it looks like now. It has hardly grown down at all. Also you can still see the top 3rd of the crack I investigated & posted a photo of on 22nd Feb. So in 4mths it has only grown down 1.25” which is not much. This hoof underneath is in reasonable condition other than the one heel platform which is gone.

I didn't trim the RF this time because I wanted to keep weight off that heel because it seems to be repairing. Compare them to shots I took back in late May when the rot got really active again.

These 2 below show her other front which is not doing so well but this is the one with the sloughed sole that won't let go. I'll try to let the walls grow down a bit now even though this hoof has that extra thick sole.

All horse’s feet are looking much better now that they have had a month to dry out & there is not much sign of active rot, even though due to not growing there isn’t a lot of new hoof showing yet. They are all walking well enough although each horse has 4 different feet of differing shapes. Some have 2 heels on each hoof but no heel platform & maybe a heel quarter crack, some have no heels or 1 heel & WLD, or quarter crack & no heels. Most are showing a new tighter angle growing down slowly, Cassie has wavy lines coming but in the larger scheme of things that is not a big issue since Jude’s got that wavy for a while too but are getting better now.

Currently I am trimming their feet every 2wks to unload the walls so allow the new angle to grow in unfettered even though there is hardly anything to remove due to slow growth. I was leaving flares, WLD, folded bars, anything that gave them something to stand on. However now that their feet have dried out & beginning to harden up, I have been conservatively trimming out WLD, folded bars, reshaping heels, platforms & frogs, unloading quarter cracks & flares. For the first 2.5wks of this month all horses had their boots on fulltime. Since the days & nights have been dry, I left the boots on only checking a boot on each horse daily. All boots have remained dry & fresh smelling inside helping their feet even more. The paste has been most helpful in that department I think. I made it out of beeswax, TTO, copper sulfate & borax. The process I used was to scrub the hoof thoroughly with water getting all dirt out of all nooks & crannies & drying it, then applying peroxide, then drying, then ACV & allowing to dry, then the paste plastered all over their soles & pressed it into all nooks & crannies. The boots kept their feet clean & dry while there was no rain or wet foggy nights creating wet grass.

All horses appear to be producing soles that will slough off eventually. Jude’s have been at that point for months but because she needed them for protection of weakened sole I didn’t cut them off.

It’s been a very long haul & most likely some readers of this thread see my methods as way unorthodox which is correct & some have had differing opinions for treatment & management of my horses but they aren’t here doing the hands on. I would love to have had help, still would actually. I have had 3 fully lame horses that in reality should have been stabled in sterile dry conditions but that has not been possible & the weather has been against me all the way for a solid 12mths now causing them to have wet, muddy conditions. But finally I see a light at the end of the tunnel & I hope that if the weather is favourable I should have sound horse’s feet again in another 4-5mths…..just in time for the next wet season!

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http://clissats-own-page.blogspot.com/
Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

Clarissa · Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:14 pm Post subject:

On 3rd May I posted that an abscess had popped out on Jude’s front foot. Here’s a photo of it today.

See how little growth there has been in the intervening 4mths. Very frustrating when trying to trim out incorrect shape.

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http://clissats-own-page.blogspot.com/
Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

becdubie · Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject:

Wow that's very slow growing. During the summer my horses grow that much out in about 2 months. I can tell this year because Bubba has a Ring showing from when he was sick. So interesting how everything they go through can show up intheir hooves.

They are starting to slow down growin a little now cuz the weather is getting cooler. You're in your winter now aren't you? Will he grow faster when summer comes?
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-Becky
There is more than one right way!