Black gunk

[beslagsmed]

Had a Danish Warmblood to put 4 shoes on yesterday. The right hind lateral heel was partly eaten away by some type of bacteria and crud, so knew I would have to do the bar shoe thing. Got to the left hind, was even worse. I was able to put a #5 E-slim up in to the hoof.
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/8/23501001270.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6401854)

Removed the hoof was to find all black gunk, but no white cheesy stuff like I have found on WL hooves before.

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/8/23501001256.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6401855)

After cleaned up.
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/8/23501001211.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6401853)

Made a bar shoe out of a #3 werkman. Had to punch a nail hole in the toe and back in the heel to secure to foot. Sorry I forgot to take a finished pic, batteries were low and it was late. The horse will start a dressage competition this weekend.

[Gabino]

Nice resection,Mike.

What medecine used you for clean these resections? Here,I use formaldehyde 5% about five or seven days.Next.I reconstruct with Equilox.

[farriergodmother]

I ran into two horses like that this week. One owner had the vet out and had rads done. The young vet diagnosed the horse with a knee sprain!!??? I talked with the vet over the phone and never got to see the rads myself. She said there was no indication of any disease of the foot in her exam or in the xrays. The hoof wall was very separated and a crack ran into the coronary band. Under the crack was an empty cavern of black. Low heels, long toe, M/L balance was off. Oddest thing is the vet gave the owner my card and suggested a farrier could help out better, so there had to have been suspicion of a foot problem, not the knee. Odder yet, I've never heard of this particular vet.

The other was a case of horse stepped on the clip and the owner did soaks and then turned the horse out. I get called a month later for the "my horse is still lame" consultation.

In both cases, got every thing cleaned up, balanced and supported and horses and owners are now happy. Feels good. I'll do something tarded to make up for it tomorrow.

[Red Amor]

Very nice work Mike as always

Not haveing a go at anyone here at all just putting forward another Idear useing the KISS system of which Im a big fan

very often I dont fully re sect these if I dont have to and you dont often have to
I excavate the site from the solar view using a pinehurst vet searcher small aperture slim bladed loop knife
this allows me to do a really good clean up and get all the gunk out
the resulting cavity is flushed with an anti bac/ fungi solution of whatever you like or have
I then half to three quarter fill the cavity with copper sulphate and tamp this down firm and plug with a wad of cotton wool and Stockholm tar not making this packing wet , but drier tacky consistency that sets harder and packs in nice just treat the hoof as usual each trim /shoeing time eventually cutting out the green stain left in a clean hoof BEWDY ;)
saves big bucks for the client , horse is often straight back to work n happy

[beslagsmed]

Red, sounds like a good way to do it. I was afraid this one was too deep for that type of treatment. I use hydrogen Peroxide to begin the clean up. It boils all the gunk loose. This time I was caught off guard and didn't have any of my normal cleaner along, so I used of all things - clearacel. This was after I had shaved some of the more thck stuff off with my knife. As far as I could tell, I got it all. Only time will tell. When I was done the horse walked off good. She was to be in a Competition this weekend, so will be interesting to hear how it went.

[Islander]

Hi all ,my 1st post here.just got my computor and found your site,man loaded with info...my question to you guys is,,up here on the island we have had a really wet summer,I have just started to trim an old mare who had blown an abcess out through her front right toe,the owner called me to trim her and I found the hole,it was full of lovely black goo..the owner has been using Koppertox ,but not faithfully,now someone has told her to use just bleach.just love ppl who want to help!!I went to trim the mare again and the hole is traveling up and spreading,anything else I can use that might work faster????she wants a quick fix.....don't they all:rolleyes:any help would be great.....

[calshoer]

I do no recomend bleach, because it just dilutes and goes away as soon as it get wet again. The koppertox is probably fineandf will stick to the foot longer because it is oily. I like thrush buster better, but don't mix them. Im assuming the hole is in between the sole and wall? ONLY If that is the case, this is my recommendation:
Clean out the crevice (carefully) as deep as you can with a pick such as a large horseshoe nail or something. Pour in the medication. Then pack the crevice with a wick of some sort like twisted oakum or "foot felt" . (which is just boat bilge oil absorbant ,I am sure you can find it there at some boat shop ;)) Then soak the wick with more of the same medication. Tell her tto keep soaking it aevery couple of days and change hte wick once a week or so. There is no quick fix. Once the hole is there, it has to grow out.
If it continues to spread even after a more agressive treatment like described above, and large enough to cause some structural issues, it may need shoes to support the hoof and then have the hoofwall covering the infection completely removed. But usually the hole is of no consequence and just has to grow out. Ah... the joys of the wet, wet coast. Patty PS welcome to the forum.

[Islander]

Great thanks for the info.,,we are having a problem with the new fruit and nuts farrier telling ppl to use bleach and or grapeseed oil??? I think I will just drop the ppl who seem to think this new wave shoing is the end all to be and cure my head ache let them figure it out for them self.

[Gary Hill]

You must kill the bacteria and clean the envionment that you put the cleaned foot back into or you are like a dog chaseing his tail. Husbandry is the number one issue to controling the problem. Pitchforks and hoofpicks work better than anything. Good Luck!