I’m looking for the best product to treat our TB for White Line. It isn’t white line technically but he has the separation and crumbly hoof wall around his nail holes so my vet and farrier would like us to go ahead and pretend he has it and see if he improves. He can’t go barefoot so it needs to be something I can treat with his shoes on.
We’ve started using Keratex and Durasole but any other suggestions would be great.
Clean Trax is my preferred go-to, but it’s not cheap. And, you need the tall boot for it, or need a makeshift one because of the volume of water.
White Lightning is cheaper for a good bit, and you don’t need all that water.
the point of those 2 is to get the bacterial-killing chemicals deep into tissue, and those topicals you listed won’t do that.
Just make SURE you use regular white vinegar from the store, whatever it is, 5% acid, or whatever. Do not think that more acid is better - it’s not, it will burn the crap out of tissue :eek:
With JB, that Clean Trax is the best – but expensive.
One thing that might help, and I only throw this out there because you said it’s not technically white line – this is around the time of the year where my shod horses out 24/7 start to show a little crumbling and cracking between their nail-holes – it is the only time of the year they do it, and only some of them – they all grow decent hoof, and my farrier is great… but all that stomping at the flies constantly takes a toll on their hooves both inside and out.
This spring I bought fly boots, and so far, no crumbles or cracks… :encouragement:
Yep, if you don’t think it’s truly WLD, then I’d maybe do a 3 soaks in a week with White Lightning, and see how things go. Or, a soak every 3-4 days for 3 soaks.
I know people don’t want to hear this but diet plays a HUGE role in hoof quality, TB or not, as they are known for some of the most un-thrifty hooves in the equine world:)
I get that you need a topical fix “yesterday” but the horse may need a diet change, in spite of the high quality claims made on the bag of feed or ration balancer he is getting now.
Forage is also crucial. If he does not have good pasture, what is he getting for forage? If you’re in a boarding situation, testing is no doubt out of the question as hay likely comes from any available source — that can really make things difficult when trying to figure out what minerals the horse needs to get rid of those crappy hooves:)
Let’s not forget trim quality too. Longer toes can eventually lead to weaker wall quality which leads to nails loosening sooner rather than later.
some horses really need copper nails to get hold of these issues
The reason we have him is because of his crappy feet which prevented him from having a performance career. So it’s a known issue. His diet is balanced, and my farrier works closely with my vet. My farrier consulted with my vet who said to go ahead and treat as if it is white line and see if that helps.
I thought both the soak treatments required the shoes to be removed, due to some reaction with the metal?
I have had great results with Oxine soaks twice a week. Make sure to use citric acid to activate it. I’ve heard of it burning when using vinegar to activate it. Bonus… Oxine is CHEAP 
https://www.healthyhoof.com/articles…Revisited.html
Second Oxine AH. 50/50 with white vinegar. It will rust the shoes a bit but no lasting damage. It doesn’t take much at all. 2 ozs of each in a soaking bag and you’ve never seen cleaner hooves! They will be a bit rusty colored from having the shoes on.
I clean my horse’s feet out before and after riding and I cover the white line with betadine. Every day. I have the best farrier and I feed farriers formula with high quality hay. Also ride consistent (movement) on good footing.
By balanced does that mean copper/zinc/iron has been taken into consideration?
Second this… balancing the copper/zinc to the iron in the diet is very important. High iron in the diet will pretty much negate copper and zinc unless the ratios are balanced… ideally Dr Kellon suggests an iron/copper/zinc/manganese ratio of 4:1:3:3
It will effect hoof health and the integrity of the wall and laminar connection. Which then can lead to problems such as white line, thrush etc. Copper and zinc are very important for connective tissue health as well as the immune system.
I think to be effective and get your money’s worth, all of the soaks need to be done without shoes.
My farrier would arrive, pull the shoes, and go trim/shoe all the other horses on the list while the owner did the CleanTrax soaks. I think the owner only need to do it twice, and the horse had a definite case of seedy toe and white line disease.
My farrier gets used large animal IV bags from the equine vets/hospitals for her clients to use for soaking.
Diet is huge and after years of feeding biotin, but probably not “enough” to make a difference, nothing happened when I stopped feeding it. My horse had better growth when I added copper and zinc (added for skin issues but benefited the feet).
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