thrush?! who's right?!

[caradino]

okay... so i was always taught/have seen that thrush is an icky black putrid mushiness that attacks the hoof in the frog area... usually in the clefts of the frog.

last night i was at the barn, and a girl i ride with was complaining that her horse had 'thrush' pretty badly.. but the 'thrush' she saw/was treating was a white, soft, kind of 'film' over the sole. the horse's frog and the clefts of the frog looked, smelled, and felt normal.

what's the deal? what does thrush ACTUALLY look like? now i'm worrying that i've been wrong all this time!

[JB]

She is thinking that the chalky, exfoliating sole is thrush :no:

But neither does thrush HAVE To be black and putrid and mushy - it can be subtle and deep and not apparent from the outside other than a frog that isn't healthy looking.

[caradino]

ok thank you for reassuring me!!

she had asked me to look at the hoof a week ago, because she thought it looked thrushy, but after a thorough poking/prodding/sniffing everything appeared normal, and told her so. but apparently other teenage barn girls also believe that the shedding sole is 'thrush'. oy vey!

[mjrtango93]

That white flaky on the sole that doesn't smell as bad as thrush can still be a bacteria on the foot though. We see much more of that in CA then actual thrush because of the sandier footing and overall drier climate. Depending on what it looked like she wouldn't be wrong to treat it with thrush medication because it does still respond to that. Without seeing it for myself though I can't really tell if it was flaky sole or something more.

[Grataan]

Good advice in this thread.

For the white chalky stinky stuff that isn't really thrush I like to have my clients apply either a dilute bleach solution or strong iodine (I personally like the iodine but there are plenty of good products out there)

I stick them in one of those empty brush cans like for hoof moisturizer so I don't have to mess with a spray bottle or worse, pouring (I always end up red/green/bleached anyway but this cuts down)

[matryoshka]

Yeast is white or yellowish. Horses can get yeast infections in/on their feet. That needs to be treated with a fungicide. I'm thinking that yeast appears to be a film in/on the frog, possibly in the white lines as well. I don't know if you'd see it on the soles.

Exfoliating sole flakes out with a hoof pick.

Thrush can invade rather deep, and it doesn't always smell. However, I associate it with black gunk, not white or even brown.

[caballus]

Yeast is white or yellowish. Horses can get yeast infections in/on their feet. That needs to be treated with a fungicide. I'm thinking that yeast appears to be a film in/on the frog, possibly in the white lines as well. I don't know if you'd see it on the soles. The most *common* places for yeast to be noticed is when the heel bulbs have a deep crevice between them. When a hoof pick in inserted in that crevice it is sensitive for the horse and one usually will pull out a white, cheesy-like exudate that even has a cheesy odor to it. But yeast, certainly does invade other parts of the hoof but just may not be so apparent as when between the heel bulbs. :)

[matryoshka]

I have never encountered yeast in the frog. I've read about it, but not seen it. So far, every case of center sulcus infection I've come across has responded to mastitis ointment. If it doesn't, then I know it is something else (time to try the mix Ramey talks about).