Thrush March 2013

March 2013 blog on thrush

White arrows on picture depict thrush areas, red arrow is thrush free.

The frog and hoof is supposed to be harder than the material that the horse treads on.  I suppose that is true everywhere except here in the Pacific Northwest.  That is a good chunk of the reason that a lot of people are convinced their horses cannot go barefoot here…. The foot is fighting 10 out of 12 months to be what it was designed to be….a difficult thing here because of the moisture.

Number one thing to invest in is a hoof knife. There are right and left handed ones. I have one of each.  It is important to keep the frogs trimmed up in between trims.  Keep the edges beveled and neat, flaps trimmed away.  The thrush has less places to hide and you can get the product where it needs to go easier, and use less of it.   A chip brush is useful to apply the product and squish it in good. A wire toothbrush is also useful to get in all the cracks and crevices and get them cleaned out on a daily basis.  Have the shoer/trimmer trim away any diseased tissue and clean up the frog clefts, and show you how to do it yourself, safely.  It is easier than it seems, and if you go slow and careful, it is hard to screw up too badly. A healthy shedding frog isn't something owners should be afraid of maintaining between trims.

Thrush is a disease of the frog.  It is a combination of yeast, fungus and anaerobic bacteria that flourish in tight cracks and deep central sulci, and it always needs to be treated.  Thrush gets trapped in the frog central sulcus and gets infected, causing a deep crack, where it is supposed to be teaspoon shaped.  Thrush eats sole tissue, causing the commissures to get deep.  Soreness, sensitivity, and lameness can ensue.  Unhealthy frogs can look shriveled, shrunken or greasy .   Thrush creates a burning, itchy sensation in the frog, and stalled horses with thrush will stand in their urine, seeking relief from the discomfort of thrush. This creates a huge problem because urine contains ammonia, and ammonia breaks down the protein in the frog, making it even more susceptible to thrush.  Thrush doesn't always stink and have a discharge, and many owners and vets miss it. It is possible for thrush to thrive in feet with hard dry frogs.  I have a friend (I know, shocking) who is a bodyworker who works in S. Cali and Nevada a lot, and she has seen a uptick in thrush conditions there too, where it hardly ever rains. She believes it is environmental.  Predisposing causes of thrush include wet unhygienic stable conditions, poor routine foot care, prolonged confinement, overgrown ragged frogs, and long, contracted or high heels which produce deep sulci.  People mistakenly believe that thrush is something horses only have when the footing is damp and filthy. Once established in a hoof, thrush lingers on through the summer driest of days, creating extreme discomfort for the horses that have it.  If left untreated long term, the infection can make it’s way up to the digital cushion, where it can develop a pus pocket.  Imagine walking on a blister.

Owners should be able to use a sharp hoof pick with a point as sharp as a pencil to deeply and thoroughly probe the entire sole and frog, including the central sulcus, using between 3 to 5 pounds of pressure. (enough to turn your finger nails white)  Hose the feet out thoroughly, scrub the cracks and crevices with Dawn dish detergent or clean water, and a long bristled plastic scrub brush (a regular floor scrub brush works fine), rinse thoroughly and treat them for thrush.  A good idea is to scrub feet out when bathing their horse or on a weekly or monthly basis to prevent thrush from starting. Most horses "bad manners" for foot handling are a response to the pain of having thrushy feet cleaned.  Working on these extremely painful frogs is hazardous business, the pain response is often stronger than if you are working on an open wound, is so be careful!  Think of it as a bacterial infection in the horses foot, an open wound, and institute a daily scrubbing routine to accelerate the healing process. Use a scrub or wire brush to get the frog and all the cracks immaculate, then flush the frog with running water, dry it with toweling, put on a product of your choice.  Cleaning infected feet daily and thoroughly is the best way to insure that your treatments won't be a waste of time or drag on for months.  One aspect of the treatment that most people disregard is the importance of really cleaning the frog thoroughly on a daily basis and prior to treatment. Depending on how severe your horses thrush is, cleaning has different meanings. "Cleaning" can mean picking out the hoof thoroughly once or twice a day for mild thrush that is a fine black line at the bottom of the commisure with a hoof pick. "Cleaning" can also mean a total foot bath with Dawn dish washing detergent with a good brush scrubbing in the wash rack if you have an infection that is taking more than a week or two to clear up.  Yeast  is the white stuff that coats the new frog when a frog has shed. Yeast in a healthy foot IS okay and doesn't need to be treated. Treating it is over-kill.  Fungus  is the black stuff you see when you pick out your horses feet for the first time in a few days.  It can create problems if left in the foot for extended periods of time if the hoof is compromised at all.  A healthy frog is thick and full when mature, with a tough leathery texture.  This durable protective covering is called the Horn. An immature frog still looks healthy with a leathery skin, but smaller and obviously undeveloped.  A frog that's shedding has a loose Horn and feels spongy as opposed to hard. It may be loose enough that it can be pulled back from the emerging immature frog, which is often covered with a white cheesy looking layer of yeast and occasionally a little black thrushy film around the edge. Leave any frog that is securely attached, snipping off  lifted portions, and use a hoof knife to very gently scrape off yeast and the dark thrushy film. By the time a frog begins to shed, it is a simple flap of insensitive tissue that can be trimmed as if it was a flap of dry skin. Don't pull it off! Use pruning shears or your hoof knife.

Now we will go through the treatments, from mild to severe, natural to chemical, so you can make an informed decision that is best for you and your horse.

Topical.

•        Usnea tincture is made from a tree lichen that has anti-fungal properties, and has been used as a medicine for centuries.  It works well with mild to moderate  infections, spray or use a dropper on the frog and commissures. Will not throw the horses mineral balance out of wack.  Topically treating the frog with Usnea  relieves the pain and sometimes makes it easier, but if the frog is filthy, it may take $20 of Usnea to cut through the filth.  Scrub feet good first.  It is suggested applying it daily for 3 days then every 3 or 4 days as needed.

•     Tea Tree Oil.  Use it full strength, I use a dropper.  Good for mild or bad infections, will not throw the horses mineral balance out of wack. Hold the foot up for a few moments to let it soak in. One of the properties of TTO is that it can be quite calming without actually being sedating.  Potent stuff....just a few drops in the sulcus is plenty, and a few in the commissures, as it penetrates like DMSO. Even diluted, it can be quite effective. Some info out there indicates that in small quantities, it can be stimulating, more can be calming.  You will go through a lot more of it if you don’t scrub the feet first.  I read that putting TTO in all the crevices, slapping on a diaper, putting a boot over that (it's very wet here and this was the only way to keep the hoof dry) and within three or four days (new TTO and diaper daily) the thrush was gone.  Have not tried this myself, as it is too muddy.  It is suggested using it for 5 days in a row, will have killed the mild infection, longer for deep seated infection.

•       Colloidial silver may work too, haven’t tried it.  Good stuff is kinda spendy.

•       Betadine, antiseptic may work, haven’t tried it.

•    Oregano Oil may work, haven’t tried it.  Got some, going to try it.

•       Over the counter treatments.  Blue stuff = once a week, tried it, didn’t kill it all.  Green stuff = tried it , didn’t kill it all, (both contain inorganic copper, can throw other minerals out of balance) white power, works well in hoof boots….. Read that most OTC treatments are so harsh that they chemically peel the entire frog, leaving a scab-like covering that usually has more thrush growing under it, and only kill superficial thrush, while the hard-core stuff is flourishing in cracks and commisure's.  After reading this, I swapped to TTO, because I saw what was described above, only didn't understand it until I read this.

Soaking treatments, Chemical. Very time consuming for 4 horses, interest waned quickly.

•          Clean Trax.  Tried it. 2x. Didn’t kill it all.

•          White Lightning, couldn’t find where to buy it.

•         Oxine, didn’t try it.

•         Lysol, didn’t try it, A simple reading of the Lysol label and cautions about what happens if it contacts the skin, was sufficient to send me scurrying in another direction. 

• Listerine, full strength, orangey brownish original kind only, spray it on.  Tried it, didn't kill it all.

Soaking treatments, natural.

•          Apple cider vinegar.  Use it undiluted. It is a natural disinfectant and won't get the horse out of balance like kopertox and some of the others will.  ACV makes an extremely mild and effective soak for mild thrush, yeast and shedding frog problems. Haven’t tried it. Dilution: 1 part organic apple cider vinegar : 2 parts warm water. Soak 20 minutes to 1 hour

•          Epsom salt, water, trace minerals. Tried 4x.  Didn’t get rid of it all.

•          Usnea soak = 2 drops per oz of water. A 16 oz bottle needs about 32 drops. Shake very very well before each use. You can make it stronger for more serious cases; its not an exact science. If you don't get results use more drops.  Didn't try it.

• Hydrogen Peroxide, bleach, iodine, sugar-dyne (sugar and iodine). Unfortunately, all of these contain ingredients that destroy the thrush but destroy the frog along with it, delaying the development of a healthy frog, so I didn’t try them.

Tips.

·         Slathering zinc oxide ointment (Desitin) over a thoroughly scrubbed (with soap and water) and treated frog, working the Zinc Oxide into the cracks, helps protect the frog from urine.

·         Pea gravel laid 4 to 6 inches deep provides the best environment for healthy feet. The gravel drains well and scours the feet to remove tattered frogs and lose sole.

Yep, I tried quite a few things, and have come to realize that my horses all had BAD infections going on, since nothing completely cleared it up.  Deep commissures and sulcus’s. Cracks running up the heel.  I have been swapping products every couple of weeks/months to see what works and what doesn’t.  Meanwhile, each time the frog sheds, I get a whole new layer of garbage coming out.  So while I haven’t beat it yet, I am making progress, I think I had an infection up into the digital cushion on one horse. Now, months into this learning curve, I believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I have nice healthy frogs on 12 out of 16 feet.  No more pockets of thrush showing up under the shedding.  I also didn’t scrub the feet clean each time I treated them, I think that was a mistake. That is my next experiment. Let’s see if I can whoop this stuff, while they stand around in ankle deep moisture 90% of the time.