white flakes

[KipperWilkins]

I have been told that when you pick the horses foot and white flakes come off that the horse has thrush and that you should try to get rid of the flakes. Also there is a bad smell, :eek: My mom told me that thrush is when you have a spongy hoof. I think that some people are using the wrong terminology and am worried about what the horses have or is this normal. Most of the horses have this. I am afraid that I have been doing the wrong thing by attacking the hoof. Please reply. :confused:

[Gary Hill]

Thrush is black ,inky ,nasty smelling stuff! The white flakes are nothing but the sole shedding itself, no problem there! Hope this helps? Gary

[Jeanie Connors]

Gary is right; the white flaky stuff is just old hoof. I very often take the term "bad smell" in regards to hooves and horses in general with a grain of salt, since it's very hard to determine "bad" from "normal" ;) . I've been blessed with so many offending smells at this point in my horse career, I don't call anything a "bad smell". Anyway, if your horses' hooves really do smell very badly, keeping them clean on a regular schedule will help that a lot, and will also clear out anything thrush-like before it can gain a hold.

[rblumenfeld]

even if the white flakes are on the white lines? i am so scared that my horses has white line disease (AGAIN) and none of the farriers in this area seem to know anything. one farrier said he was all about WLD, and treated it incorrectly from what i have seen. he didn't even do a resection, he just dremmeled out the white line.

please help -- and if you have farrier recommendations for the DE/PA area, that would be great also.

[Jeanie Connors]

RB, if the hoof wall can be left intact, the farrier *will* leave it intact ;) . That hoof wall provides the hoof a lot of protection and should stay where it is if at all possible. It's possible the WLD disease your horse had was minimal and could be addressed minimally.

I have seen white flaky material in white lines, with no separation, no disease. It's just excess tissue that is trying to come off.