Weird purple heel bulbs?

[impressive_gunner92]

Hi everyone, I have a quick question. Today I was picking out my boys feet, and his heel bulbs were purple on only one hoof. He got trimmed Wednesday and my farrier said his balance was looking way better. He does suffer from deep sulcus thrush and I had gotten rid of every crack except this one. Based off the results of his other three hooves the crack should be gone in another couple weeks. What was really concerning was the color of his heels

He was totally sound w/t/c tonight, but his heels were strangely warm. Has anyone experienced this

here should be the link to the photo if I was successful
http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/friedmas2/library/
you may have to click “recent” to view the photo, technology is not my thing lol!

[Sansena]

Are you sure that discoloration is new to your horse?

I’ve seen this on white footed horses in the past. Because I never noticed a corresponding lameness I never through to ask of my vet what it might be caused by.

It looks as if you have a nice quality photo, so unless I’m misinterpreting it… could it be from bruising? Or Thrush buster (which is the purple thrush product)?

[impressive_gunner92]

@Sansena

Are you sure that discoloration is new to your horse?

I’ve seen this on white footed horses in the past. Because I never noticed a corresponding lameness I never through to ask of my vet what it might be caused by.

It looks as if you have a nice quality photo, so unless I’m misinterpreting it… could it be from bruising? Or Thrush buster (which is the purple thrush product)?

Thank you for the reply!
I haven’t noticed his heel bulbs being purple, I usually see white and dark Grey depending on the foot. He does have a bit of bruising on his hind bulbs from all the crappy ice chunks everywhere, so that definitely could be it!

I haven’t used thrush buster in months, I’ve had a lot more success with some other products

[impressive_gunner92]

I was also hoping someone could take a look at the balance in his hoof. The more I look at the picture, the more flare I see on the right side

[Sansena]

Can’t see what you’re calling a flare. A true flare does not exist on this foot.
Difficult angle to judge hoof shape/ “balance”.

Is your horse sound? Good. Stop worrying! It’s good to read up on things but without a mentor IRL it’s easy to make yourself nuts thinking you’re seeing something that’s not there.

[impressive_gunner92]

@Sansena

Can’t see what you’re calling a flare. A true flare does not exist on this foot.
Difficult angle to judge hoof shape/ “balance”.

Is your horse sound? Good. Stop worrying! It’s good to read up on things but without a mentor IRL it’s easy to make yourself nuts thinking you’re seeing something that’s not there.

Okay great! Thank you so much!! I definitely have a tendency to worry about him more than my girl. He’s older with some underlying heath problems, but totally sound and still loves to work!

[IPEsq]

Did you leave farrier use any thrush treatment maybe? It doesn’t quite look like bruising to me from the photos but could be.

[Scribbler]

Once you start observing your barefoot horse’s feet you will see that they change every single day depending on weather, footing, and wear. It’s actually very interesting. Once I started rasping a bit between trims I started seeing things I’d never noticed.

It looks to me just like your horse’s environment is a bit wetter and that has changed the texture of the heel bulb so the color is more vivid.

My feeling always is, if they are going sound what I see on their feet is within the range of normal.

Btw Blukote which is Gentian Violet is a good topical antifungal spray. It’s marketed as a wound dressing, but works well on mild thrush. So does iodine: put it in a spray bottle.

[Simkie]

Interestingly, I have one that looks like this today and doesn’t normally. It looks like bruising, and may be due to the fact she’s a little overdue, or be because she’s been breaking through the six inches of snow that fell. It’s clearly inside the foot and not external.

[impressive_gunner92]

@IPEsq

Did you leave farrier use any thrush treatment maybe? It doesn’t quite look like bruising to me from the photos but could be.

No he didn’t, that’s why I was so confused. He’s a little stumped too!

[impressive_gunner92]

@Simkie

Interestingly, I have one that looks like this today and doesn’t normally. It looks like bruising, and may be due to the fact she’s a little overdue, or be because she’s been breaking through the six inches of snow that fell. It’s clearly inside the foot and not external.

That’s what I was thinking, my boy could have stepped on some ice and bruised it. He was just done, so I was hoping it wasn’t because he got trimmed incorrectly

[impressive_gunner92]

@Scribbler

Once you start observing your barefoot horse’s feet you will see that they change every single day depending on weather, footing, and wear. It’s actually very interesting. Once I started rasping a bit between trims I started seeing things I’d never noticed.

It looks to me just like your horse’s environment is a bit wetter and that has changed the texture of the heel bulb so the color is more vivid.

My feeling always is, if they are going sound what I see on their feet is within the range of normal.

Btw Blukote which is Gentian Violet is a good topical antifungal spray. It’s marketed as a wound dressing, but works well on mild thrush. So does iodine: put it in a spray bottle.

Thank you, that makes me feel a bit better! I was afraid my farrier has done something to cause the bruising. And okay thank you! I’ve been using sole pack and it works wonders

[Simkie]

@impressive_gunner92

That’s what I was thinking, my boy could have stepped on some ice and bruised it. He was just done, so I was hoping it wasn’t because he got trimmed incorrectly

Yep, if you have snow, I’d be super tempted to blame that, especially since I’m seeing the same thing and have recent snow. And nice to know what I see probably isn’t because my horse is a little long

If you think about it, they don’t usually get a whole lot of touching action on that part of the foot–walking through snow is a little different than anything they’ve had since last winter, so maybe not surprising that we might see some sign of that in some horses.