Frog injury

[Critters Everywhere]

I read the thread below & it sounds similar to my problem, but thought I'd try for some more information & suggestions...

One of my mares (retired pasture ornament) managed to slice off pretty much all of the 'callus' part of her frog. She took it right down to the point where you can tell one more layer of cells & it would have been bleeding (rather like when you s****e your knucke on a sharp edge).

After very thoroughly cleaning the whole hoof & sole with the hose, I washed it (the whole sole, not just the frog area) with betadine, then soaked several gauze pads sized to her hoof sole in betadine, placed them on the bottom, held everthing in place with vetwrap, then did the duct tape. Her 'bootie' basically is the same one you would do for an abscess, or a thrown shoe on a very thin-soled horse.

With her bootie, she moves fine & bears weight normally (well, as normally as a horse this arthritic ever does ;) )

I have her confined so she can't get out into the muddy areas...muddy areas being essentially the whole property until the end of May (I live in coastal Washington state and it normally rains every day in April & we seem to have started in March!)

My main questions:
1) Would you change the betadine to something else? Furazone maybe?
2) Is it better to keep it a moist pack or a dry pack? I have sterile hospital-grade teflon?-coated gauze pads that I could use sans betadine that would not stick to the frog.
3) How long would you expect it to take for the thick 'dead' callus part of the frog to grow back?


Thank you all very much for your help!

[Jeanie Connors]

Critters, without seeing it, I would say it will probably be fine within a couple days, the more-tender structures will toughen up themselves without having to regrow a new callousy area, and she will be fine :) . Again, without seeing it, if you are sure it needs something more, I would recommend wrapping without any treatment. There was no bleeding, so there should be very little need for any type of topical treatment, but the wrap will keep the area clean and somewhat protected.

If the mare isn't sore on it, I'd recommend making a duct tape "pad", then wrapping her hoof with the pad on the bottom, and duct tape around the bottom portion of the wrap, encasing the lower hoof in the tape to keep her from wearing right through it, and turn her out as normal. Movement, concussion, using that area will all help those tissues to toughen up again.