I spray a very diluted mix of Lysol and water on the feet during wet times, usually just once or twice a week. Have done the same with bleach in the past. When I say very diluted, I don’t mean 1:2 or 1:3, probably more like 1:10 or less.
My farrier likes ACV. Not as cheap as bleach but still cheap compared to other prepared solutions for thrush.
I had bleach packed in a wound for about 10 days. It didn’t slough off anything, nothing cracked and bled, the wound healed very nicely. Bleach is not the devil.
[QUOTE=gumshoe;7966240]
My farrier likes ACV. Not as cheap as bleach but still cheap compared to other prepared solutions for thrush.
I had bleach packed in a wound for about 10 days. It didn’t slough off anything, nothing cracked and bled, the wound healed very nicely. Bleach is not the devil.[/QUOTE]
http://bragg.com/products/bragg-organic-apple-cider-vinegar.html
Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with a few drops of tea tree oil is the absolute best! Put it in a squirt bottle and squeeze it on every few days.
It’s not that expensive and lasts a very long time. Great stuff!!!
http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/horse-care.html#ha
Great post Texarkana
[QUOTE=Texarkana;7965316]
Bleach isn’t toxic to the environment per se: it’s very dilutely in most municipalities’ drinking water.
But putting a 10% bleach solution on your horse’s feet is not healthy for the living tissue.
People forget that the area that gets thrush, you know, the frog, is non-keratinized tissue.[/QUOTE]
Great post! Thanks for the info, Texarkana.
[QUOTE=beowulf;7964373]
Yes, it is toxic. I would not use it on an animal, ever.
I totally use bleach on my white saddle pads though. But my horses are not sensitive. YMMV.[/QUOTE]
http://www.doctorramey.com/one-thing-tackroom-shouldnt-without/
:winkgrin:
[QUOTE=chicamux;7964612]
From the web site of Dr. David Ramey:
http://www.doctorramey.com/one-thing-tackroom-shouldnt-without/[/QUOTE]
Just saw where chicamux beat me to it. I personally use Coppertox but have used bleach and vinegar as well. My horses are not stalled nor kept in a muddy environment, nor shod, yet it still crops up from time to time when it’s been particularly wet.
Bleach user here. I put about 5 to 1 solution in a spray bottle, set to stream and just apply it to the clefts at the first whiff. Farriers have recommended it around the exit points of abcesses as well. I suppose if you dunked the whole foot in a bucket of undiluted concentrate it would not turn out well but I never had any problems with common sense application.
Lots of uses for a spray bottle of diluted bleach around a barn.
Bottom line, bleach is caustic. No, your horse’s hooves aren’t going to fall off if you use it, but it is caustic. It can damage healthy tissue. So, when that gallon bottle of concentrated chlorhexidine gets diluted at a rate of one ounce per GALLON of water (which means it will last pretty much until the next ice age), plus it kills all the bad stuff, and does not harm healthy tissue, well, that’s a pretty easy decision for me.
And, IIRC, diluted Lysol 4-in-1 also doesn’t damage healthy tissue. There are lots of good, inexpensive alternatives to bleach. :yes:
I use a 1:10 dilution of bleach that I put in a spray bottle and use on my horses’ feet once or twice a week. I live in an area that is very rocky and often very muddy and my horses’ feet look fantastic. I also use a capfull of bleach in the water trough every time I fill it during the summer.
I recommend using the Cow mastitis treatment called “Tomorrow”.
It got rid of my horses thrush in no time! I use it on occasion when I get a whiff of the beginning of thrush, just a precaution!
Has anyone had success with Trushbuster?
I’ve used Thrustbuster, Coppertox, and a bleach dilution (my guy used to have a lot of foot problems…) and the biggest difference I noticed was… nothing. They each have worked pretty much the same way (at least for my horse) in about the same time.
Now, Thrustbuster made me feel like I was doing more because it was colored and I could see it on his foot. And the ground.
But, I never used them as preventative. I was always told regular hoof maintenance was my preventative - i.e. picking, farrier care, and, in my case, a supplement.
My vet told me that bleach does kill thrush and does not hurt the hoof, but that it is not the best treatment for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn’t last. Its effectiveness only endures until it dries up or is rubbed off when the hoof hits the ground. Second, it does not absorb into the hoof really. So if a bit of dirt or manure remains, the bleach only kills bacteria on the surface and as soon as that mud or manure squishes out, all the new mold/bacteria/fungus is still there.
Products specifically designed for hooves will penetrate better into foreign bodies (like bits of dirt) and into the frog itself, will adhere better to the nooks and crannies of the hoof/sole/frog, and will last much, much longer.
Bleach might kill the thrush, but it also burns the horses hoofs after a while. We had customers who loved to used it and after a while the horse refused to pick up the foot. A better alternative is a mixture between formaldehyde and iodine.
Ancient thread.
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