THRUSH

In the winter my 15hh grey mare lives indoors most of the time. She is kept on straw and when the weather is really cold she is on a deep litter bed. The problem is that she has recently developed foul smelling, black stuff around her frog and sole. I suspect this is thrush, but I'm now sure. She has had this about a week now. The farrier is due in three weeks time - should I call him out earlier and is there anything I can do to help clear it up?

Thrush is common and rarely causes lamess. However most owners don’t like to see it as it is neither healthy or pleasant. A healthy frog also helps the horses to stay sound as the frog works as a shock absorber and also helps with the circulation of the blood in the foot and lower leg.

The good news is that thrush responds well to treatment. The germs that cause thrush are easily controlled by common household and stable antiseptics such as dettol, savlon or hibiscrub. You are going to get some on yourself so you might as well use something that you would use on yourself.

The bad news that treatment is hard work as daily attention is required, probably for several months.

I should not call your farrier out earlier. What he will do is trim away as much of the ragged, underun bits of horny frog as he can. This will help you to get to the bottom of the problem but is not essential to the treatment.

Start with a cleanish foot. Use your hoofpick to pick out the two grooves at the side of the frog. Usually in thrush the central groove, which in a healthy frog is shallow, is very deep, and this should be picked out as well. Don’t worry if the horse flinches a little. Then apply your antiseptic, either by pouring it on, or even better by squirting it into the crevices with a syringe (not with a needle attached!). Do this every day, or more often if you have the time. If you don’t get bored and give up after the first few weeks then the thrush should clear up. If a lot of the horny frog has been eaten away it will take at least 3 months to get it back to how it should be.

A clean dry bed is best to prevent thrush. If you do use deep litter then you will need to pay special attention to picking out the hooves and keeping them clean.

The frog does sometimes shed itself in quite large pieces and this seems to be a normal if infrequent occurrence. Some other things that thrush can be confused with are wounds, cysts and canker. The frog is sometimes sliced or punctured by flints or other sharp objects and these cuts can become infected if they are deep and may well cause lameness. Cysts of the frog are common and usually go unnoticed: they are small pockets of white fluid which burst open to become dirt filled cavities.

Canker is the scary one. The frog becomes really soft, smelly and stringy in appearance. This can spread to the sole also. The horse is usually lame. Canker is hard to treat and the horse will probably need surgery. Thankfully canker is much rarer than it used to be.

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