hoof care post colic surgery
My 28 yr old Thoroughbred gelding had surgery to remove a large stone from his intestine in January, he has been barefoot for years now and missed a trim while in the hospital. He was trimmed on the 13th of Feb and my trimmer had concerns that he may abscess and he has a bad thrush problem (something we had been dealing with prior to the surgery). Since his trim he has been understandably sore as the trimmer cut back a lot of overgrown hoof and he now stands in a smaller, enclosed stall that doesn't dry out as well (temporary while his surgical incision heals) so his hooves are 'soft'.
Has anyone had any experiences like this? my trimmer suggested we cut back on his alfalfa pellet supplement ( a bucket with his morning and evening flake or Orchard hay) to take out excess sugar in his diet. But he has lost so much weight post-op that I'm worried what might happen from cutting back on his calories.
Posted Feb 24, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC
Cutting sugar is a good call- there are lots of commercial feeds now that have low non structured carbohydrates (NSC) and low starch with a higher fat content, so he will still get calories.
Movement is so important to horses' feet- can you hand walk him at all?
And getting the thrush under control will go a LONG way toward helping him. Even a little bit of thrush can make them sore and impede growth of things like healthy sole. For topical treatments there is a cow mastitis treatment called ToMorrow Dry Cow that's super awesome at clearing up deep sulcus thrush- it comes in plastic tipped syringes that you can just inject into the nooks and crannies, pack with cotton and a hoof pick and leave it for a day or two at a time. A 50/50 mix of athletes foot cream (clotrimazole active ingredient) and neosporin is Pete Ramey's favorite. I also like White Lightning but it's very labor intensive to apply. Ask me if you want the scoop on how to do a good one- instructions on the bottle are shit.
oh thanks! Yes we have been combatting thrush because his stall doesnt get any sunlight since its enclosed, his old stall did but had a tree shading a large portion of it so the pee spots rarely dried and he would stand in the muck. We moved him to a better stall just a few days before he had emergency surgery so I can only hope the thrush problem will improve once he gets back to the other stall.
I have done the 50/50 mix and the White Lightening methods (your too right about the labor), currently Im dousing with Thrush Buster when I can. my trimmer suggested Clean Trax, have you used it? is it similar to these other products?
Thank you again for the help!