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It is very common to see bruising during the hot summer months when flies are bad and horses are stomping their feet most of the day. Wet conditions cause the soles to soften, also making them more prone to bruising. Thoroughbreds, for example, often have very thins soles. Horses that are ridden on rocky terrain or have rough pastures are likely to get the occasional bruise, but horses that are thin-soled or have soft feet can bruise even on soft ground. The most common cause of a bruise is impact with hard ground or stones. The sole is the part of the hoof that most frequently bruises, and the term, ‘stone bruise’ is often used in this instance.
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BRUISESīruising can occur in the wall, the frog, the white line or the sole. Cracks on unshod feet can usually be managed by frequently trimming the feet: try every four to six weeks instead of six to eight weeks. Prevention: Provide proper nutrition, ensure good footing and stick to a regular trim schedule.
#Clean trax horse hoof treatment crack#
Support in the form of a shoe or pad is usually used to help off-load theĪt-Home Treatment: Monitor the crack to make sure it doesn’t get worse, and call your farrier or trimmer in promptly if it does. Your farrier will trim off any flares, thus reducing the stress placed on the foot from the ground surface.
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If left unattended, a permanent fault line in the hoof can develop.
#Clean trax horse hoof treatment full#
It can travel up or down the hoof wall, and penetrate the full thickness of the wall, allowing bacteria to enter the sensitive tissue, and the hoof to move in two separate parts instead of a single unit, both of which can cause lameness.įarrier Fix: If the crack has penetrated the coronary band, urgent care is needed. Symptoms: A superficial crack doesn’t go through to full thickness of the hoof wall and is likely just cosmetic. Other causes include an over-grown hoof, injury to the coronary band, white line disease, poor quality of horn, an imbalanced or stressed hoof or drastic change of environment (such as from very wet to very dry). Most often it is a case of too much hoof flare or poor hoof angles causing uneven and undue leverage that have not been addressed. The farrier needs to figure out why the crack has started. With vertical cracks, however, your farrier will need to assess the depth and severity before coming up with a treatment plan. Horizontal cracks are usually the result of damage to the hoof caused by impact or an abscess, and don’t require intervention. Prevention: You can reduce the likelihood of thrush by ensuring a clean environment, regular hoof care by a professional, exercise to stimulate a healthy hoof and promote self-cleaning, and daily cleaning of the hoof. Using copper sulphate with zinc oxide cream, commercially-prepared iodine gel or Tolnoxequine cream is recommended. The gauze must be changed daily until the odour and black material disappears. These cases can be treated by flossing between the bulbs with gauze until no more black material comes out, and then putting a topical ointment on a new piece of gauze and stuffing it in the crevice. Thrush between the bulbs of the heels is often seen in horses with hoof imbalances such as club feet and sheared heels. This will expose the pocket of thrush and voids in the hoof wall to oxygen, which will not allow the bacteria to survive.Īt-Home Treatment: Daily cleaning of the frog and sole with a stiff bristle brush and application of commercially-made topical products or a seven per cent iodine spray is recommended. White line disease occurs when opportunistic bacteria and/or fungus attack the white line of the hoof (where the hoof wall meets the sole), typically causing a small separation in the white line, which can spread if not attended to.įarrier Fix: Your farrier will trim the hoof so that most of the infected area is cut away. Note that where separation of the hoof wall has occurred, such as in horses with laminitis, for example, thrush can also make its way into these voids, creating a prime environment for white line disease. At this point, there can be pain associated with the exposure of sensitive tissue, and risk of internal infection. Necrophorum bacteria) indicates that infection is rapidly taking over, and deterioration of the hoof has begun. The presence of a black, gooey material (F. Symptoms: A foul odour from the horse’s foot or a greyish, chalky appearance of the sole, are signs that the hoof needs attention. It is commonly found in horses that have upright, narrow feet, feet with deep clefts and on horses with hoof imbalances such as sheared heels. If hooves are not picked out regularly, the likelihood of thrush developing increases.
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It creates voids in the hoof and frog and proliferates, with a wide range of severity. Thrush is a bacterial infection that thrives in wet and/or unsanitary environments and damages the hoof, frog and heel bulbs.
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