I live in the michigan area and the weather here has been horrendous. A drainage pipe has been added to my lease horses pasture however has left him with a mild case of thrush.
I have made a mixture of Apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, and witch hazel. I wanted to know what you guys think of this mixture and if you have had any success with anything similar?
Not sure about your mixture, but I just healed a bad case of thrush with Coconut oil and Teatree oil…
4 parts water 1 part bleach in a spray bottle. Cures thrush and used regularly prevents it. I spray a little on after cleaning hooves and haven’t had a case of thrush in years
Also in very, very wet Michigan!
Thrush issues first make me look at the trim before looking at the mud. Many times, the thrush is caused by a poor trim over mud.
That being said, I did have a gelding who I used No Thrush on with success, even in mud.
I’m not sure a homemade remedy would work. Considering how sensitive that area of the foot can be with thrush, I’d be hesitant to try anything untested.
Thats an old one but a good one, especially if you don’t want to spend a lot. But you need to clean it out and let the hoof dry completely. Nothing will stay on long enough to work if you apply it to a wet, dirty hoof and turn them right back out in the mud.
Chlorine is in a lot of the $$ commercial remedies…and its natural. Just keep it off your jeans.
Good point about the trim and horses with high or contracted heels have deeper clefts allowing more mud, manure and dirt to pack way up inside leading to a perfect thrush nurturing environment.
True. I always bring mine in at night so I always do this at night while they’re standing in clean stalls. Never though about if they’re outside 24/7.
I use a diluted chlorhexidine spray when picking if I see an issue but have mine out 24/7. They are more than fine. Farrier always compliments their feet. I have a little mud by the gate but otherwise not an issue. Out doesn’t mean mud. Dirt/grass is as good as shavings.
I use a 2.5% solution of iodine. Put it in a spray bottle or sponge it on their hooves, whichever they prefer. Always worked great for me.
ToMorrow Gel is a great thing to have for thrush (esp. for getting into the deep sulcus); a recipe another COTH poster shared a while back, and I happened to save, is this:
Bluestone and Apple Cider Vinegar soak.
Soak the hoof in it for 2 minutes once a day and within 3 days it’s practically gone! (Depending on how far along it is)
If it’s rain scald, ticks, fungal infections etc. put it in a spray bottle but water it down. Spray on religiously twice a day.
1tbsp of bluestone to 3 cups apple cider (and if spray bottle 2 cups of water as well)
Bluestone(copper sulphate) can be brought from any local feed/rural store!
We used to bring them in, pick the hoof then use the hose and maybe something like a vegetable brush to really clean out the clefts. Skip grooming except where the saddle sits. Then tack up, ride someplace that’s not muddy (sometimes that was just jogging up and down the driveway for 15 min). Hop off, by then the hoof is pretty dry so brush any dirt/debris off and out of the hoof and spray, squirt or brush on whatever thrush treatment you choose. Then you do your overall grooming and put up your tack while the horse is still on a hard, relatively dry surface and the stuff can absorb… Then you turn it back out.
That little drill keeps the horse off a wet surface and/or mud for about an hour. It lets you really clean the hoof, lets it dry to the extent possible while you ride and allows you to apply the thrush remedy to a clean, relatively dry hoof and stay on it long enough to soak in without going directly back into the wet/muddy environment.
Theres always a way to get things done, even in more minimalist boarding conditions.
http://the266.blogspot.com/2017/04/thrush-remedy-over-years-ive-tried-just.html
I use this “recipe” for a thrush powder.
The best piece of advice I have EVER received was from the former chief farrier at New Bolton Center. He said to treat all thrush like a skin wound. Meaning avoid all the noxious, caustic remedies and use only treatments you would feel comfortable using on a wound on your own skin. Anything stronger will damage recovering tissue and perpetuate the issue.
With his assistance and advice, in days, I cleared up a what was a persistent and deeply invasive case of thrush (to the point of causing lameness) that I had been battling for months. And since receiving his advice, I have not had a single serious issue. If one of my horses starts to develop a little thrush, I scrub it with some chlorohexidine and 4x4s like I would a cut, and maybe apply some sort of skin-friendly antimicrobial topical if it seems necessary. It never develops into anything.
Absolute easiest and most effective…I tell all my trim clients to use it:
1 Part - Simple Green Pro 3 – it’s anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-microbial. Bottom shelf on the cleaner aisle in Home Depot
10 Parts Water
Pick and brush the hoof out very well. Soak for 10 - 15 minutes. For severe cases, soak 3 times a week.
In between non-soak days, pick & brush out well and spray copiously with Athlete’s Foot Powder Spray. It’s cheap and effective. Doesn’t kill good tissue. This way you stop the cycle of dead tissue, which invites bacteria, which invites yeast.
Once the hoof is healthy again, just keep up with Athlete’s Foot Powder Spray as needed.
Also helpful is to remove as much sugar from the diet as possible. Yeast loves and dines on sugar!
When your horse gets thrush first thing to look at is how does the trim look. My horses were in sloppy wet for months. Never an issue with thrush.
Feet are very well trimmed and they never get thrush. I have a bottle of no thrush powder just in case.
Diet apparently make a difference also.
My gelding has total garbage feet, so I’m frequently putting thrush preventatives on him just to preserve what he does have. For quite a while I was doing the ACV based potion, but a barn mate turned me on to using an oil base instead. It works a lot better because it sticks to the hoof better. So now what I do is olive oil (anti microbial vs. reg. veg oil) in a Sriracha squeeze bottle with about 20 drops of tea tree oil and 10 drops each of rosemary and oregano oil. When I switched to this, I noticed a difference really quickly in the health of his frogs. The Sriracha bottle is brilliant because you can squirt the oil right into the clefts and apply it right to the white line. Plus we use a ton of the stuff and always have empties hanging around.
This is sort of my farrier’s feeling as well. He agrees that spraying bleach on thrush might stop the thrush, but it won’t necessarily fix the reason the horse has thrush and it might not be very kind to the skin. His exact words when I asked him about the boarding barn using bleach on all the horse’s feet to prevent thrush was “well…it wouldn’t be my first choice, or probably my second.”
I’ve never had a horse with thrush and mine have been standing in mud for weeks. When I bought my WB mare, though, she had terrible thrush and a terrible trim. And she had been standing in mud. But I think the trim was more of the issue than the mud.
If the horse normally does not have continuous thrush issues, I would probably skip a homemade remedy and go right to something recommended like Tomorrow or Thrush Buster. Then you know you’re treating with something effective. If you’re dealing with constant, low level issues, maybe something like ACV would help.
I’ve been packing Magic Cushion Xtreme in my oldsters hinds every other day, diaper, vetrap, trail boot. Sore soles (soggy pastures) After a few days I’m pretty sure his feet are pickled into a zone of zero organisms.
So if you just need it sorted, I recommend the scorched hoof method 
Durasole will take care of thrush in 1 or 2 treatments.
@Texarkana What do you mean by “4x4s”? I’m relatively new to horses and have not heard that term before. Thank you!
Old thread here but assume she means the 4"x4" gauze pads like a washcloth on the affected area rather then squirting or spraying it?
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