I mentioned it a little bit in the last post, but-
It's happened. I was afraid of this. Solomon's stall is pretty small, and always kind of wet. Whenever I am out there to see him, I pick wet bedding and manure out of his hooves, and he now has thrush. It's in his front right hoof, and his back feet look fine, but his left hoof might have a bit too. If I could I'd give him a nice paddock or pasture, but I just volunteer at the rescue and they don't have any place to put him besides this little stall.:<
So I found this site:
http://www.horsekeeping.com/hoof_care_and_lameness/treating_thrush.htm
it says to mix iodine with sugar to make a paste and brushing it on the affected areas after cleaning the hoof. Is that a good treatment?
I wish I could do something to improve his stall situation. I probably can't safely shovel it out because of my back, though they're supposed to do that every day at the barn anyway. Maybe some fresh dry bedding would help for a little while? I'm not really sure what I can do as a volunteer. :/ But I CAN try to heal his feet.
3 comments:
Sugardine is fine for thrush, or iodine but NOT tincture of iodine (the very small bottles, clear liquid, extremely strong smell)! You'll want an iodine solution (commonly called Betadine) which is a dark brownish orange color and has a fairly strong odor, but not as painfully sharp as the tincture of iodine. You can also use a diluted bleach solution- half bleach and half water- in a squirt bottle or spray bottle. Saturate the really thrushy areas with whichever solution you choose. This will mainly be the grooves alongside the frog and in the bulb of the heel. The solution will kill and dry out the fungus. If you use the tincture of iodine, you should probably dilute it out (like 5:1 or 10:1, that stuff is STRONG) and use it sparingly. Try to keep all the liquid on the hard sole and hoof surfaces and not let it run onto the skin or hairline since it is irritating and drying. Good luck with him, but yeah it's mainly a stall maintenance issue. If they'll let you, you can get the biggest, cheapest bag of kitty litter (non-clumping if you have an option) you can find and dump it in the worst parts of his stall. It might make it harder for the stall cleaners to clean, though, so make sure you check first.
Thank you! Luckily the iodine I bought was the solution, so I didn't have to mix it. His frogs are good and soaked now. He has orange hocks now. I joked that he was now a dun since he had stripey legs. :p I tried to keep it off his hair and skin, but wasn't completely successful. I got a lot more on my fingers than on his hair though, haha. I have a feeling the orange isn't coming out of my nails.
Certainly want to try the kitty litter trick. I'll ask about that. :} Thanks for the advice!
I would recommend the bleach solution. It is effective and cheap. And not so messy.
Post a Comment