So like many barns, mine was closed for over a month and I was not able to see my horse. We are finally back in a limited basis. The first day back in, I picked his feet out and gave the frogs a good scrub with Dawn dish soap and applied liberal amounts of Go Dry thrush treatment. I was hoping for improvement, but now today, one frog is completely gone and another only has a small piece at the heel bulb. I know this is normally frog shedding season, but this is not shedding. It’s not there at all. I’m going to get some Tomorrow Dry Cow in case there is some sulcus thrush going on. I could not detect any cracks in the heel bulbs today. He’s not particularly ouchy on it which is good. My question is, what is my next step? Do frogs grow back? My horse has never had hoof issues in the entire 13 years I’ve had him. Now he’s a complete mess. Any ideas?
There’s a sulcus but no frog?
And yes, frogs grow back, and when they’re not rotting off as fast as they grow they can recover fairly fast.
The entire V shaped section is gone. I’m worried as advanced that it is, it may have spread into the hoof wall. If he’s not lame on it, can I assume it’s on the mild side? I don’t have the option of treating it regularly since can only go to the barn a few days a week for now.
I had an interesting experience with shedding frogs this spring. Maresy was living on a wet field and frogs were very ragged. I finally got out a hoof knife and pared off all the loose bits. Once they were gone I was amazed how fast the frog regrew.
If he doesn’t have thrush you can smell and isn’t lame I’d treat with something like iodine on the days you can.
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Good to know they come back quickly once the thrush is under control. The foot with no frog doesn’t smell at all. I scrubbed the crap out of the one the did and will hit it with iodine as much as I can. Thanks Scribbler.
I had to get rid of thrush on my gelding’s back hooves. It was in the sulcus and wasn’t too bad but there little pockets and grooves so it wasn’t easy to clean. I was using betadine scrub but he didn’t like it, maybe it was stinging. My regular pharmacy had chlorhexidine scrub OTC. It is thickened so I could squirt some on and scrub with gauze squares. It did a really nice job and it was easier to apply the treatment because it didn’t have to soak through so much gunk. I think the brand name is Leader.
I have good results with dissolved copper sulfate mixed with ACV. I’ve used GoDry and Tomorrow as well. Also, oregano oil, have to be careful with that one. Fluid Film / lanolin for prevention and mild thrush.
I’m currently using the copper sulfate and ACV. I think the go dry / tomorrow is only effective against bacterial infections. If it’s a fungus issue, the oregano oil or copper sulfate is better.
Is it possible he ripped it off? Happens here when wet turns to rutted footing (drying mud or frozen) and the frog is soft. Seems to happen toward the bottom the most. Usually there is some flap remnant that you might need to pull off. It can look like the bottom part of the frog started to rip off and can even flip over. Not related to thrush. And also not quite shedding—too much trauma to the frog. If the foot and ground dries out it will grow back pretty quickly.
My horse was on 24/7 turnout for the first time ever last winter and she had some terrifying looking feet come March but everything grew back as normal 
This year I did some clay foot packing (I forget what it’s called … sole something) and thrush treatment as a preventative and it helped a lot with the overall condition of her feet. Her frogs kind of fell off again a couple weeks ago but she’s not lame and my farrier wasn’t worried so I just try and also not worry and hope for drier days!
When you lose that much frog, use something gentle to keep it clean. Many of the products which work great on normal frogs are too severe to use on sensitive new frog tissue (or even in very deep cracks on old frogs).
Treat it gently. There will be nowhere for thrush to hide anyway if you have lost all of the old frog. Just keep it clean and uninviting for thrush and bacteria.
I would just use something like sudocrem or another zinc based nappy rash cream. Or the chlorhexidine is also another good suggestion.
My mare had wicked thrush and lost the front of her frog and her sulcus area was cracked along the bulbs.
I washed it really good with dawn and a scrub brush, cut off any ragged bits and doused her in thrush buster. I scrubbed her again after 2 days and then made a mix of diaper rash ointment, monistat, athletes foot cream, it has to be a certain kind I can look it up if you want, and then neosporin. Pete Ramey idea on steroids lol.
I used an old wormer tube and a turkey injector syringe with the needle removed and got it in every nook and cranny she had left. I also shoved cotton pads in her sulcus areas stuffed with the concocotion, the idea is as the sulcus grow out, the pads push out, if the sulcus is an affected area.
Then I still scrubbed her out with dawn and redid the entire mix and pads every other day. She had a new frog in about a month, I was amazed how much better it looked and how full the new one was! Another big thing is compression of that area to stimulate blood flow and growth. Even if you can only get there Monday, Wednesday and Friday, riding if you can, lunging, or a vigorous handwalking make a huge difference!
** The other thing I made sure of was that I treated her when she came in for the night, so I knew she would be in a clean well bedded stall after getting scrubbed clean and her creams slathered in so they would have time to set in and work without mud and dirt mixing in right away. She kept a clean stall so that helped too lol.
If it were my horse, I would use Tomorrow Dry Cow. You can order the syringes on Amazon. I would use 1 a day for a week, injected in every crevice you can find.
Whoa whoa. You can use Fluid Film on horse feet?
I was skeptical at first, but my trimmer insisted it was the best product. I believe the idea is that the lanolin helps maintain a proper moisture barrier. I don’t think it will heal up deeply embedded thrush, but minor soft spots and as a preventative it works super well. Also seems to help heal and prevent the little cracks my guy used to get in the hoof bulbs. I spray it on the outside of the hoof as well. It works better if you can apply it and then let Horse stand for 10 or 15 mins on concrete or rubber mats.
My horse is barefoot, not sure how it would work with a shod horse.
I’m going to have to give this a try. I did the underside of my truck last fall with a case of the small cans I got on sale, and have 1 or 2 cans left over. The concept makes sense!
My best horse somehow had the tip of his frog nearly come off recently and we went to the vet hospital as I wanted to ensure that the corium wasn’t at risk.
They recommended basically a hoof poultice of sugardine (Sugar + Iodine) for a couple of weeks. Mix iodine and sugar to a syrup like consistency, soak in gauze pads, apply liberally to the foot, wrap. Change every 2 - 3 days and keep the foot dry. Every two days if the gauze comes out white, every three if it’s still kind of iodine colored.
After three weeks, his foot looks reborn. My farrier was incredibly impressed. The iodine hardens everything up, and the sugar acts as an antibacterial in large doses.
https://www.horses-and-ponies.com/health/equine-first-aid/how-to-make-and-use-sugardine/
It had better results faster than most commercial products on the market that I’ve tried.
I found zinc oxide, generic extra strength diaper rash cream, mixed with copper sulphate powder more effective than tomorrow. That’s just my experience. But it stays where you put it and is great with super thin tip curved syringe to get and stay in deep sulcus cracks.
I use a glove and smear a good amount on the rest of the frog but need the syringe to get into the sulcus crack.
8 Oz’s of diaper rash cream and 2 tsps copper powder.
