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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Frog Infections

The photo above is of a healthy frog.
Most often overlooked is the health of the frog on the horse's hoof.  Frog infections are easily missed by owners and vets.  A horse can pass a vet check and have a serious deep frog infection.  I have seen farrier's overlook bad frog infections.  The horse is usually labeled as having navicular or some other cause of lameness.  In most cases, none of these horses have navicular, they have a deep infection of the central sulcus.  This type of infection presents itself with closed bulbs, contracted heels,  a slit for the central sulcus or decayed frog in place of the sulcus, and/or curved bars which pinch off the frog corium preventing proper circulation and function of the frog.

For healing to take place, the horse must be barefoot and trimmed in a natural balanced way.  Disinfectants and anti-fungal ointments must be applied on a regular basis and the foot must be kept clean and dry.  The hoof needs to be scrubbed clean with an anti-fungal shampoo and then treated on a daily basis.   The best treatments I  have used that work are Thrush Magic, Well Horse Thrush Off, No Thrush and my own mixture of oregano oil and grapefruit seed extract equal parts.  These must be injected into the central sulcus.  There are many products on the market that work well such as White Lightning.  Finding the right one that works for your horse and it's environment is important.

The horse's environment must be clean and dry.   You will not be able to clear the infection if the horse is constantly in an environment that is damp, and wet and is the breeding ground for yeast infections and fungal infections.  Sanitize rubber mats and other areas in which your horse stands.  If you board your horse, there are many different horses that may use the same cross tie, wash rack etc.  These areas are perfect breeding grounds for these infections.  You don't know if the horse before you has an infection.  If they do, it can easily be transferred to your horse in these areas.  These areas can be sanitized using bleach and then hosed off.

The photo at the top of the page is the left front present day. The photo below is the left front a year ago with the infection.  Under that one is the right front with infection and under that is the right front one year later.  This horse passed a thorough vet check with this serious infection.  Take note of how the bulbs in the photo above are opened and spread and compare that to the one below, where the central sulcus is a slit and the bulbs have folded in closing off the area, creating a perfect breeding ground.  The frog in the infected foot is compressed and narrow, and the frog in the healthy foot is spread and plump.  These photos present an obvious difference.

Please check your horses frogs.  If you see slits where there should be a central sulcus you have an infection.  If your horse never seems quite right, something off but you can't pinpoint it or are a little tenderfooted, check the frog.  It is essential to their soundness.
    

19 comments:

  1. I wish I'd seen this 4 months ago. My gelding had a terrible infection in his central sulcus for too long before I was finally alerted that something was wrong. Been treating with No Thrush and he's finally on the road to recovery.

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  2. Stick with it, sometimes the infection can be stubborn. Be sure you are getting it deep into the crevice of central sulcus. Let me know if you have any questions.

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  3. Hi, I don't know if you're still watching this blog, but I've just realized thanks to you that my horse likely has a frog infection that has been there for years. No vets ever saw it, nor farriers. Her frog is almost non-existent. She's a pasture horse, in Nova Scotia and sanitizing everything is not an option. My other mare is fine by the way. Is there still hope that her frog can be brought back. I'll check back periodically to see if you've noticed this and been able to answer the question. Anyway, thanks for the photos, it's given me a starting point anyway.

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  4. Hi Debrah, yes your horse's frog can regrow given the right treatment, trimming and care. Is she shod? If you can send me some photos I can see how she can be helped. what is her diet? Is it just pasture grass? What type of grass is it? How old is she?

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  5. Hi there, thanks for getting back to me. Unfortunately I don't have a camera to use, but I did find the following link to a horse called Athena, and her feet look pretty much like my Sierra's. Sierra hasn't been shod for years, and I rasp them down every few weeks. Her toes aren't long, heels are good, but the problem is the ground mess. In Nova Scotia, our winters are damp and then frozen and then it takes forever for the frozen manure to thaw enough so we can scrape it away from the feeder area and these two have no sense to walk away and do their business, in one end and out the other where they stand. If I win a lottery I'm going to insist on redoing the footing with pea gravel, but for the time being it is what it is.

    I admit at this point that one of the problem has been that in the last year plus, I've gotten slack about picking their feet (that changes now) because we've been building and moving and fencing....but at the same time, I don't really recall her feet ever looking much different and I've had her 16 years and she sees the vet and dentist every year and until the last four years, a farrier every 8 weeks and no one ever said anything to me. I just happened to come across your blog (and others) and could finally see the difference.

    So now I've started soaking her feet once per day in a weak Lysol solution and then I'm drying them and giving them a drenching in Betadine. The ground is very dry now and they are on a slope so the drainage is excellent. Now if only they weren't such pigs and crapping absolutely everywhere! Can you tell me if the vet can sell me an anti-fungal ointment or can I get it at the tack shop. Obviously I've never looked for it. I feel so bad for her but when we got the girls, we relied on the experts that we dealt with and it was never mentioned. Anyway, we'll deal with it somehow. And soon the pasture will be available to start introducing them too and then they'll be walking around more too which should help right?
    Anyway, thanks for any suggestions that you can give me.

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  6. Hi wingedwolf, just checking back to see if you had responded to my first reply but for some reason it didn't go through, so here goes again. First of all though, thanks for replying.

    Both my girls are pasture pets and haven't been shod for about six years. I rasp their feet about once a week and they have pretty decent hooves, following a natural trim or mustang roll type foot. Their diet is hay and about a yogurt container or less of a basic pellet just as a treat to get them into the barn.

    Sierra has always had ugly frogs and from the time we got them 16 years ago til now, not one vet or farrier (when I was shoeing them) ever mentioned their frogs. I'm sure that living in BC Canada, where the rain seldom ends, and they were standing on wood chips much of the time didn't help (kept them damp) but now we live in Nova Scotia and in winter, the ground freezes solid for about four months and since they stand at the feeder and the food goes in one end and out the other, they wind up standing on quite a pile of poo but it doesn't thaw out all that fast so that we can scrape it away and the result is again, wet, dirty footing.

    So now that I'm aware of this problem, I'm addressing it so far with a Lysol soak every day, a topical spritz of betadine when I pick their feet a couple times a day and fortunately the ground is dry so that will help I'm sure. I would give you a photo to look at if I had a camera. Here's a link to a foot that looks like Sierra's worst foot: http://www.healthyhoof.com/case_studies/Athena/athena.html

    I'm thinking too that from now on, in spring, when I still can't get the mess scraped up, that when I pick their feet, which I intend to do religiously from now on, a slosh of lysol mixture 'just because' would probably be a good thing too. If I ever win a lottery, my first priority will be to improve some more on the overall footing, although they already are on roadbase (rocks/sand/dirt mix) and are at the top of a slope. Anyway, that's my story, and we're going to lick this problem. And again, thanks for responding and any advice would be appreciated.

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    1. I checked out the photos on Athena. What you also have to check for on your horse is the height of her heels. If the heels are too high and/or curve in towards the frog in what is known as contracted heels this will also cause the frog to shrink in size, grow more narrow and allow deeper crevices for fungal infections to hide in.

      Now that you are aware of the problem, the lysol soaks should help. It's good that right now the ground is dryer so you have a chance to get it cleared up. I have had good results with a product called thrush off. You can order online: http://www.well-horse.com/ It tends to stay on longer even when the ground is damp as long as you are able to let it dry first before they walk on the damp or wet area. The betadine is okay but in my experiences doesn't clear it. It keeps it under control but for some reason just doesn't get it all. What is important is that you get it into the central sulcus area of the frog. The frog needs to be saturated with whatever antifungal ointment you are using so it will penetrate into any of the little cracks or crevices. Do you best to control the environment. I understand it is difficult, perhaps you can put rubber mats where they stand often to keep their feet out of the mud. Because they tend to stand at the feeder and then poop there also, maybe if you had the rubber mats, it would be easier for you to clean the poop away before it gets so frozen. Just a thought. Do the best you can with that. The lysol soaks should give you a good headstart on this.

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  7. hi wingedwolf I got a question about the horses frog. ive been volunteering at a horse shelter where abused and unwanted horse live and ive been playing around with this one horse that's a sweet heart and I picked up the hoof to clean it and there is no frog at all its rotted away and I know what its from because I watched a video on why this happens not cleaning the feet and uncleaned stalls but I am wondering can that frog grow back or is it to far gone? thanks

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    1. yes the frog can grow back. It is important to clean up the environment in which the horse lives or the problem will continue to get worse. Keeping the hoof out of the wet dirty stall or manure will give the foot a chance to recover. Have a barefoot hoof care specialist in your area look at the hoof. They will be able to determine what course of action is needed.

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    2. so if you treated the horses feet all 4 of them how long would it take for them to be heathy again the horse is like 27

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    3. In a case like this it may take up to a year. If you have some photos of the feet email them to me. whitehorse@mtecom.net Is this horse barefoot?

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  8. yes its barefoot. I will get some pictures

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    1. ok, great. also give me some history on the horse that you know of. You said he is a rescue. What is known of where he came from? What is he fed?

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  9. Hi wingedwolf. i just found out that this is why my horse has been having lameness issues in his right leg. i had mud scraped out near the barn and am figuring out new footing to put in front of the barn and in the paddock. But, rain is in the forecast, again. i keep the stall clean and he is barefoot. i'm wondering, after putting on ointment would it be a good or bad idea to put boots on his feet? thanks and very kind of you to offer this info to people.

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    1. Yes it is okay to use boots or wrap the hoof with vet wrap and duct tape provided you can keep it dry and remove daily to reapply ointment. If it stays closed up it to the air for too long can fester and get worse.

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  10. thanks for your reply. i really appreciate it.

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  11. Hi wingedwolf, I'm hoping this blog is still live. I live over in the UK and have an aged Arab who has had on and off lameness for a number of years. The vet assumed it was the start of arthritis and advised to medicate when necessary and retire him, which I did. However about a year ago my friends horse was diagnosed with canker and was operated on, it prompted me to start looking in to the health of the hoof and frog especially and I am now adamant that frog infection has been the cause all along, even though my friends think I am wrong. He had smelly feet with black gunk, slits in the central sulcus, flaky frogs that were spongy. I have always had his feet trimmed regularly, but admit my own hoof care hasn't been the best over the years and he was prone to abscesses back in the day.
    I have for the last 9 months taken much better care of them, he then went out for 3 months last summer and when he came back in on 3 out of 4 feet the central sulcus had heeled up and he was sound! I even started to hack him lightly. After 2 months of being back stabled and being turned out in a sandy wet paddock the sulcus on the front offside foot (the one he has always had lameness on) started to split again and he went lame. I started to research again about the frog and after speaking with my farrier decided to try and do something about this. So since January I have kept him out the wet paddock and kept his bed dry as I can. I have cleared out the sulcus daily with cotton buds soaked in disinfectant and used a thrush treatment every other day. The frogs are looking much better, dryer, harder and getting bigger. The sulcus are also slowly starting to close up, though not much change for the last 2 weeks, which is disheartening.
    He was starting to walk out better but this week seemed to go off his feet again and I wonder if I am actually doing the right thing? I don't know how long I expect the process to take? I don't want to give up because I know that he can be sound, he came in sound from the field after 5 years of being lame.
    Any inspiration or motivation you can send my way would be most gratefully received.
    Sorry for the long post!

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    1. Sometimes the infection can be deep and reoccur. It sounds like what you have been doing is the right thing, by keeping it dry, treating with the disinfectant and thrush treatment. Perhaps the type of disinfectant and thrush ointment needs to be changed. Sometimes different bacteria and different horses respond better to one type than what worked for another and can develop a resistance. Also diet wise for him, should be mainly grass hay. No grain. You might want to supplement with an immune support type supplement. I'm not sure what is available in your area, and/or a probiotic. Sometimes the immune support supplement will have probiotics in it. It sounds like his immune system needs some help as well.

      If he is stalled while trying to keep his feet dry, he may be standing in wet bedding and manure which would cause it to reoccur as well as the lack of circulation from being in a smaller area as opposed to when he was out over the summer. These are all things to consider.

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