So, Jeremiah was out today to trim the girls' feet and Kola was acting up a bit, usually she is real good and she shed a frog as Jeremiah was working on her and he found a deep crack in her heel behind the frog which was tender, although she hasn't shown any obvious lameness issues. This is what he suggested I do three times a week for a couple of weeks.
Buy this stuff and clean the hoof crack and squirt in about a half of tube. He swears by it.
So after my trip to TSC, I armed myself with these items, a 20cc syringe with warm water and a tube of "Today", and a clean rag to clean this crack out. Oh and a hoof pick.
I also armed myself with these irresistible treats and a few fresh carrots. I didn't do a fantastic job of cleaning that mud out, but after chatting with Mrs.Mom over at Oh Horse Feathers and a good suggestion of using the hose to clear it out, I suspect Thursday's clean out will go a little better.
And since I had it planned this anyway and had started the cleaning of their shelter before Jeremiah got here, I finished the job.
Here's the general view of the left overs. Yikes!
And if you think it still looks bad, well, you should have seen it before. Unfortunately, in the frozen tundra area, we must wait until it all thaws before we can clear it here outdoors. I think I must have hoisted about eight wheelbarrows total out of here and onto my Neighbor's field.
And while I did that, they did this and enjoyed a few hours of pasture time.
And Mina gorged herself on hoof cookies. I actually started out with a tank top under a sweatshirt, with a zip up sweatshirt over that and a puffy winter vest over that. By the time I had finished, I was down to my tank top.
Stephen and I actually made it to the Horse Forum tonight as well. I wanted to hear one of my favorite Vets speak on gastric ulcers in horses. We actually learned a lot. One of the studies coming out of California suggests that horses tend to do better on a more alfalfa hay. I was always under the impression that sensitive tummies did better on a more grassier hay. Funny enough, when Steve and I thought about it, since I've switched to the 70/30 grass-alfalfa mix from the 50/50 grass-alfalfa mix, I've had more issues with Kola's sensitive tummy. So tomorrow I will order my less expensive 50/50 mix. The biggest thing with cutting stomach acid down in horses is their saliva produced while eating, why its important to keep it coming. So while we were talking with Tracy, the Vet, she didn't have the "why" to the alfalfa hay doing a better job, but we sort of surmised that perhaps it's an increase in saliva during the chewing process because alfalfa in generally more stemmy. Makes perfect sense to me.
10 comments:
Thanks for sharing the crack-cleaning tip, that might come in handy someday! What does that cow product actually do (both in it's original use, and, the use on hooves?)
It's actually a cephalesporin, a class of antibiotics and it's in a cream form. For cows, it injected directly into the cow's teet for mastitis. For Kola's heel crack, now this is at the bottom of her hoof behind the frog, I inject it directly into the crack after cleaning it out to prevent further infection, hopefully to prevent an abscess. She more than likely got that crack related to the weather this winter and perhaps a touch of thrush, which is fungal(fungus isn't treated with antibiotics, but with antifungals ie:yeast infection) but can lead to bacterial because it is open and exposed to crap and mud and whatever else horses step in. Hope that helps. We're talking under hoof between the heel bulbs and not surface or top of hoof cracks.
Look at you! Wow you could give a lecture. You should be on the horse forum. I know who to get a hold of if I have any questions...
You have been working hard! It's amazing what spring brings! Mud and Muck and lots of nasty stuff!! It feels good to get it mostly cleaned up!! And what a great way to clean out and medicate a hoof crack! I would have never thought! Thanks for sharing!!!
You sure had a busy day. Thanks for the informative post on the hoof crack stuff.
I always like to hear about others' experiences with these types of things in case we end up with a similar situation with our horses. Using the hose to clean out the hoof crack is a good tip. I also think you are probably right about the ulcers/alfalfa theory....Good stuff to know!
I feed my boys a small bucket of alfalfa cubes once a day. I read thoses studies a while ago, but I had been doing the cubes all along. Still interesting, since they seem to think something in the alfalfa buffers the stomach acid.
Glad you attended the forum. The amazing thing to me is how many different ways horses can show ulcer symptoms. With my guy it was behavior under saddle. He was fat, shiny, and with a good appetite, but he would get really cranky when I rode him.
Funny emough, Jean, in the lecture, the one thing that was the biggest indicator of ulcers was performance.
My vet prescribed that same stuff for a cut on Maddys hock last summer...it worked great.
Yikes -- lots of hard work, from crack-cleaning to mucking out. I hope the hoof is healing nicely. It's good that your farrier caught it early.
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