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  Discussion on Deep Thrush Cures
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Posted on Tuesday, Oct 9, 2001 - 9:27 am:

My young horse (Guinness) has nice strong feet, but he is prone to thrush. Lately, it has eaten into the cleft of his frog. I didn't realize the extent of the damage until my farrier told me it went really deep. I had worried about it before, and had called the vet. He prescribed soaking in Epsom salts and iodine, followed by thrush buster. Problem is, this really hurt Guinness. My farrier, as soon as he saw the condition of Guinness' feet, said that the prescription was not helping. He has suggested a daily treatment of cleaning out his feet, flushing the wounds with a 10 percent bleach solution, and packing the wounds with cotton saturated with neosporin mixed with a 1 percent cortisone solution. He also said to alternate what I soaked the cotton with with the solution mentioned above, lamasil, and a feminine hygiene product for yeast infections. He said the prescription the vet had suggested was old school, and was only hurting Guinness. Why don't farriers and vets talk more? Anyway, I wanted what Dr. O thought about the suggested treatment of my farrier.

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 10, 2001 - 7:02 am:

Alicia,
Since the thrush is painful I presume sensitive tisssue is exposed. Treatment for thrush differs when sensitive tissue is exposed.

There is no need for the cortisone in this condition. Otherwise this is an interesting combination of antimicrobials. If it is uncomplicated thrush the antifungals are not needed as this is purely a bacterial problem.

This may be effective but not having used it I am unsure. For how we recommend to treat thrush see the article. This has always been very effective for us and since many of our horses are Walking Horses that were padded up for years and developed contracted heels, we have a lot of experience treating thrush.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 10, 2001 - 12:50 pm:

DrO,
Yes, the sensitive tissue is exposed. I did read your section on thrush. I stopped using the betadine soak, because my farrier said that soaking his feet was bad. I am flushing out the wound with a 10% bleach solution, I suppose I could switch to a 10% betadine? What is chlorhexidine? Can I buy it in the drug store?
The reason my farrier said to use all the stuff I pointed out is because he can't tell what all is growing in there, and said we should treat for as much as we can (ie, bacteria, fungus, and yeast), which didn't seem like a bad idea to me. He did say to start off with the antibiotics for two weeks.
So, would you recommend switching my flushing ingredients to the betadine and chlorhexidine instead of the 10% bleach?
Oh, by the way, he is not lame any more. He is a very brave horse, however, so I am not doing too much with him. He had a green stick fracture on his cannon when he was younger, and wasn't lame on that!!
Thanks for the help!
Alicia

Posted on Thursday, Oct 11, 2001 - 6:13 am:

Chlorhexidine is the active ingredient in Nolvasan solution and can be obtained from the veterinarian. The problem with bleach is that it has no residual action at all, it very quickly evaportates or is inactivated by organic matter. However depending on severity and how well other conditions are controlled some have found it effective. If you have problems these are options you have.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Aug 22, 2002 - 11:07 am:

Dr. O,
I posted about Guin being lame in his left front. Could this problem (above) cause some kind of defect in any of the bones of the foot? Could the infection have been so deep that it damaged the internal structures? If so, I assume it is too late to do anything about it. Is there anything I can do if this is the case? I have my vet coming out in a couple of weeks to x ray the foot (I may do both).
Alicia

Posted on Friday, Aug 23, 2002 - 6:30 am:

Your proposition here seems unlikely. See my post to your other question Alicia for more.
DrO
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