Thrush???

[notadumbld]

Our new colt's mama came up very lame in her right front. Will walk but very gingerly. Don't see any evidence of injury; no heat or swelling. The vet was already at the house to remove the stitches from Mars' little face from when he ripped his lip half off so he checked Dani over as well. Did a pressure test but there were no soft areas, no abcess seen, no heat. The frog was tender and a little smelly so he thinks thrush. I guess I didn't realize thrush was so painful. Bad timing on this since we're supposed to take mama and baby to the ISR inspection Sunday. If she's too lame to be stable in the trailer I won't risk the trip. But that messes up getting the foal registered.

When we got Dani three weeks ago she was to have seen her farrier the day before but he didn't show because of the extreme heat. Our farrier saw her a few days later and said her feet were pretty long and lots of flare cracks. Could this be why she got thrush? We've never had a problem with Fiona, Lucy or Legz and I know the paddock can get ishy when it's wet.

Any advice appreciated!

[Heather T]

Hey - sorry to hear that you're having issues.

Thrush is a fungus - alot of people think that horses who's feet are constantly wet get it. We have sand - lots of dry sand and have a mare that gets it often - and sometimes really badly.

We use Thrush Buster - it's in a small container and it's bright purple. Just clean out the hoof really well and cover the entire area - way into the crevices - with the Thrush Buster. Let it dry a bit before putting the foot down. With repeated treatments it will go away and the frog will come back healthy.

My farrier and vets say that a high sugar diet will encourage Thrush and fungus growth, so if you have her on a sweet feed you may want to consider changing to a pelleted feed if this persists. We're on a pelleted feed now - my problem is cookies! My father loves to give cookies - he's just a softy.

Hope this helps...she should recover quickly once you start your treatments. I have a recipe for a homemade mix too that works great but it takes a little longer to start working and it sounds like you need it started yesterday.

Best wishes.

[notadumbld]

She's on pelleted grain but we started her on some beet pulp, oil and BOSS last week because she was losing so much weight and she already gets 8 pounds of grain a day plus 9-10 flakes of hay. The baby is just sucking the life out of her!

[amby]

Heather, thanks for the tip about the sugar diet....Casper ALWAYS has thrush....I have been using Mane n Tail Thrush + Antibacterial Oinment
But it seems I can never get rid of it....
When he is going to the trainers next month he is coming off of the sweet feed and onto Oats

[risingrainbow]

I know about babies sucking the life out of mares and one of my stables for that is rice bran. It's fat, fat and more fat without adding any sugars. I used it with Vee during her pregnancy when I couldn't keep weight on her. Then once the twins were born, I increased it even more to help get her weight back up. She's still getting 3 cups of rice bran twice a day to keep her weight good.
You just have to start out slowing and work it up gradually to the desired amount.
If you start it out too quickly it will give a horse the plops. So if the stool gets too running, just back off a little and go from there. Lots of horses on rice bran will have a little bit softer poop but it will still be in little round balls, just soft ones. That seems to be normal, but if it's not holding the shape of those balls or doesn't even start out in them, back off a little. But it sure is a good way to get some fat to a mare. The vets here think it saved the twins lives.