Thrush Treatments That Have Worked For You?

I am glad you are having a vet out soon. Thrush so bad the horse is lying down should not be taken lightly- this is serious.

While I think bleach is perfectly acceptable to use as a prophylactic, I would not recommend it if the thrush is so bad it is causing lameness. If she has very deep center clefts that go up into the back of her heel, often a mastitis treatment used in dairy cows is very effective. I recommend the brand name "Today". I use a gauze sponge like dental floss to get down into the crevice and clean it out. I replace with clean gauze until it comes out clean, then I recommend the anti-biotic be used once a day for 4 days, every other day for a week, and twice a week after that. Apply the anti-biotic without gauze, just directly into the hoof. It is imperative that you continue to use until the frog is solid and healthy again. If you stop too soon the thrush can come back really quickly and undo all the work you have put into healing it. If you cannot find Today (or even Tomorrow) just look for a mastitis treatment in a syringe for dairy cows. Usually the syringes have very flexible tips that fit into crevices very well.

It is very hard to maintain a healthy, sound hoof without a healthy frog. Good luck.

I think the cold soaks may be exacerbating the problem-- the bacteria that causes thrush likes wetness (I know you already know that) so maybe cold compresses or cold hosing would be better to reduce the swelling, not soaks.

I'd try adding a little barn lime in with her stall bedding. It's great for soaking up any moisture and cutting down the bacteria-- just be careful not to add TOO much, as it can be caustic.

I think you're on the right track with the bleach. I would spray her heels AND frog TWICE a day with a diluted bleach solution-- it's not a nice thing to do forever, but as a short-term treatment it's going to help more than it will hurt. The best thing you can do would be if you can trim her frogs a bit (or have the farrier do it) to cut away any excess frog that's hiding bacteria. That will help open up her hoof, allowing you to treat it better and exposing the bacteria to more air (which helps a TON, as the bacteria dies in open air).

You can also try packing her frog clefts with iodine-soaked cotton balls for short periods.

Finally, I know that some people swear by Sugardine. It's just table sugar + Betadine scrub mixed into a paste and applied to all the cracks and crannies in the frog and heel. I've never tried it myself though.

Good luck!

Your cold soaks are making your horse worse. The bleach is killing some fungus but it will not address the bacteria component and it is also killing healthy tissue. The healthy tissue being destroyed by the bleach is just food for the fungus to eat and thrive so you are supplying it with a moist environment with the soaks and good food for propagation. If you have thrush, you want the feet to be dry. Moisture causes the problem. The condition will never resolve with you treating it this way.

If there is separation in the frog at the heel bulbs, the infection is deep inside the foot. If you have lameness the thrush is at a critical state. You need to stop with the soaks and the bleach immediately. I don't know where you are but if you have access to a Tractor Supply store, you need to get mastitis medication for a DRY COW. You get 12 syringes for about $15. Count the box as they have a way of disappearing. Gently clean the hooves. Put the tip of the syringe into the central sulcus between the heel bulbs and push the plunger until the medication runs out. Then put the medication on the collateral grooves as well. Do this daily until there is no sign of the disease. You should see some change, maybe some granulation in two to three days.

I have seen severe chronic thrush but I have never seen a horse stay down because of just thrush. I have seen sore feet from thrush but not to this extent. I have never seen a horse have swelling in their legs due to thrush.This sounds like cellulitis. The IM or oral antibiotics should reduce the cellulitis and it is important to treat that. I have seen a horse' s hoof wall turn loose at the coronary band for about three inches during a bout of cellulitis so watch for this. If all of this is due to thrush, this is an emergency and you should not wait for the holiday to be over. If you are giving her the antibiotics IM, that will not cure the thrush. I have never seen IM antibiotics cure thrush or have any effect on it all and giving it daily is going to throw her gut totally out of balance and she needs some quality probiotics. good luck with her. Sounds critical to me.

Not to be unkind at all, but any vet or farrier who would tell you to use bleach on thrush on your horse's feet is living in the dark ages and hasn't read any new treatment information in the last ten years. Would you put bleach in your mouth? Of course not. That is about what it would be like to put that into the central sulcus of your horse's foot. I am just amazed at the lack of integration of current and correct treatment. There is a reason why she is not getting better. What you are doing is not working and it is harming her.

ADD: From the research I have done on the No Thrush product, it is .25% bleach/chlorine and I would not use it. You must be very discriminating in putting a product in the central sulcus between the heel bulbs. That substance is going to the very core of your horse's hoof. I would urge you to use the mastitis medication. It will heal the feet and it will not harm your horse.

Add: DO NOT use hydrogen peroxide. Helps provide an atmosphere for the thrush to thrive. Again, you would NOT want this inside your horse's feet.

Thrush is often associated with standing stalled for hours at a time and exposure to the horse's own urine and feces despite meticulously maintained stalls. The immune system cannot function to prevent infections when the immune cells never reach the hoof tissues because standing idle prevents tissue perfusion.

Diluted bleach may be effective and harmless to treat already dead sloughing frog being digested by bacteria and fungi as long as it never contacts living tissue. I never recommend using it. I'm surprised to hear that your vet is advising it. Once the living deeper tissues have been invaded by microbes, bleach will penetrate into the living tissue and kill healthy cells which become food for the microbes and that feeds the infection and promotes deeper invasion of living tissues.

I would stop using bleach immediately. You don't say what antibiotic or by what route it is being administered, but the swelling ascending the leg would concern me as it could be cellulitis which would require correct treatment when considering the risk of bacteremia. I have heard rave reviews for a new product called NoThrush, but haven't personally used it. I do trust the judgment of the people raving about it though. You can google it for information. I do hope that if the swelling progresses or you feel heat in the leg that you will contact the vet for an evaluation.

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Add per NoThrush ingredients

According to the website the ingredients include a proprietary blend of mineral salts, diatomacious earth, absorptive clays and oregano powder. No bleach.

The product is dry, and absorbs moisture that the anaerobic microbes need in order to thrive. Scroll to "How does it work" for this information...................................

http://www.nothrushshop.com/index.html

as you've already said you'll do- call a vet as soon as possible. if she's lame, that's pretty serious.

don't know why your mare has thrush, but here are some methods i've used to eliminate.

1. if possible, trim off any loose flaps of frog so that air and medicine is able to reach infected areas. if you aren't comfortable with doing this, ask your farrier to after the holiday.

2. soak hooves in water for atleast ten minutes. scrub with a mild soap around the frog with a rough sponge or brush. dry thoroughly.

3. soak a cotton ball in bleach. stick the cotton ball on the end of a hoof pick, make sure it stays. act as if you're picking the hoof.

4. buy a product called thrush busters. apply as directed.

5. apply "sugardine" to the clefts of the frog: to make sugardine, mix a povidone-iodine product - such as betadine scrub, solution, or ointment - with white table sugar to form a thin paste. generic povidone-iodine is often half the price of betadine and is basically the same product.

keep the horse's feet as clean and dry as possible. good luck.

My sister's cob is really prone to thrush and we treat with hydrogen peroxide. Use a 6% solution and use a syringe to get it right into the holes the thrush causes. It should fizz and bubble lots. This twice a day should clear it up within a couple of days.

Before our farrier suggested this we had no end of bother with thrush and he was lame on and off with the thrush. Since we started using the peroxide we've had no bother. Once the thrush is gone treat once a week to prevent re-infection.

The treatment recommended by my farrier, which ended up being the thing that works, is to buy some tubes of mastitis treatment for cows, and squirt some in the affected area 2 or more times per day. It is pretty cheap, and works good.

I always use bleach (tiled mold and mildew seems to work the best). I have an old Throughbred that was always thrushy, though never so bad that she went lame. It took about a week and a half to clear up, but it wasn't too bad. Spray the entire underside of the hoof and kind of let it pool up in the groves. Once it clears up keep spraying her every month or so to keep the bacteria down. Good luck.

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I honestly prefer Diflucan (the pill you swallow) over anything else. I refuse to try the other stuff. It just seems icky to stick cream up there to me. =/ Though from what I've heard, the cream is supposed to give immediate relief, whereas with Diflucan you have to wait a full 24 hours for relief. Just depends on your preference. I've had great results with Diflucan.