Frog support pads - any help would be amazing

[apha-gunner]

My 25 year old rescue gelding was recently given frog support pads on his fronts to help distribute frog pressure. His frog had calloused unnaturally and his frog wasn’t flexing when he stepped, therefore he went toe first. These pads have done wonders on his stride and overall comfortability under saddle. My farrier put some type of fill/pad underneath the actual plastic pad. My guess is this is to keep out thrush? but I’m not sure. I would’ve asked my farrier, but he isn’t very talkative. I’m fine with that due to the fact that he is incredibly talented and has an amazing reputation. Plus he does wonders for my gelding

My main concern is him getting thrush under these pads. His stall is always clean and dry, and he is on 12 hours of grass pasture, but he has access to the dry lot areas next to his pasture. Right now with the rain, the dry lots are super muddy and he loves to take breaks in grazing to roll in the mud.

He has thrush in his hinds and I bought him knowing he had it, and its slowly starting to clear up

How can I keep the pads clean? Did my farrier make sure his fronts are clean enough? Any help or positive encouragement would be very much appreciated

[JB]

It’s common, and usually a good idea to put some sort of filling under a pad for the reason you guessed - keep nasty things from accumulating and causing thrush. Often they are infused with copper, which is antibacterial.

If anything is getting under the pad, the fill material wasn’t done properly.

[apha-gunner]

I can’t tell if anything has gotten under the pad or not because of the color of the filling. There is an opening at the back of the pad where the frog is, and it wasn’t filled up to there. I’m not sure how to explain what I’m seeing since this is my first experience with pads

[IPEsq]

When is he due for shoes next? You can wait and ask the farrier at that time how the feet look when he takes the pads off and whether he would recommend you do anything in wet weather. I had horses in pads from time to time in wet climates, and sometimes, I would shoot a little bit of thrush medicine under the pad around the central sulcus area of the frog, but I’m not sure you’d have much of a gap there with a frog support pad. Since there was something put under the pad already by the farrier, it’s not likely you’ll need to do anything.

[apha-gunner]

Okay thank you, he’s due on the 17th. There is a bit of a gap since only the sole and about 3/4 of the frog got covered. I just bought a new product to try and get rid of the thrush in his hinds, so I’ll get some into the exposed area of his fronts

[khall]

My farrier uses frog support pads on many horses. The filler he uses is either magic cushion (which is great to prevent any thrush or bacteria problems) or dental impression material. If he uses this he will use different products to prevent the thrush from durasol to copper sulfate crystals to pour in pads.

[luvmyhackney]

You’re most likely fine, horses rarely have thrush under pads when the correct filler is used. Don’t be squirting stuff between the pads it can cause reactions depending on what he filled it with. Leave them alone unless farrier says differently.

[apha-gunner]

Okay thank you. I have no idea what he put between the hoof and the pad but I’m going to trust him. He was some heel thrush in his front and I was thinking about putting No-Thrush powder in his sulcus/heel butt crack. It’s supposedly non caustic and it’s gentle on skin. The reviews on the product say that it also works as a powder for scratches.

Would it it be a bad idea to put the no-thrush in his heel if the pads are on?

[stb]

I would think the No Thrush powder might help and couldn’t hurt.

[apha-gunner]

That’s what I was thinking. Hopefully he doesn’t have thrush up front. My farrier isn’t very talkative so I’m not always sure what’s going on

[IPEsq]

When he comes to redo the shoes, just ask him after he pulls these off. How’s the foot looking under there? Any thrush? Anything I should do between shoeings to keep his feet healthy?

[apha-gunner]

Okay thanks! It looks a little thrushy at the heels, so I’m going to do the no thrush because it can be used as a preventative, so no harm can be done from putting it under there.

If he had had any serious thrush he would be lame right?

[quietann]

It sounds very much like my mare’s shoeing setup. The padding my farrier uses is some sort of blue dental material that has a little copper added as a thrush preventative. She’s been shod this way for almost 5 years, and the only times she’s had thrush up front have been when it’s been very rainy and the mud was super deep.

My farrier took the pads out in April because she got really thrushy in front from standing in the mud. She was living outside 24/7 and she had a lovely bedded shed – basically a single stall with stall mats over wood flooring, and shavings. But she didn’t like being in there so was out in the mud. I moved her a week later to a barn that had much less mud and where she would be inside and out of the mud in a deeply bedded stall 16 hours per day. Thrush cleared right up but she was getting a little foot-sore after about 2 weeks, so the farrier put her pads back on and she’s been fine ever since.

[apha-gunner]

Okay thank you! He isn’t in mud and is stalled 12 hours a day, I puffed some no thrush powder in the opening of the pad just to be safe