Almost feels like home

It's been raining almost continuously for 3 weeks now. The girls are off the big field and in their winter paddock, which now looks like a swamp near to the barn. Luckily, they have a hard path from the barn to the water buckets to walk on, plus the barn in which to hang out so they're not constantly stood in mud. However, their legs have been getting muddy every day and, of course, that means Lutine now has a little patch of mud fever on one fetlock. There's no swelling or lameness so it's really just the beginnings of a patch. I washed off the mud today and found this patch so the legs were dried off and copious quantities of Sudocrem were applied to all her legs up to and including the fetlock, above the 'mud line', as it were. I'm not going for the hibiscrubbing/picking routine because I know that it makes things worse in her case. Seems to irritate the skin even more. I've put enough Sudocrem on and I know within a few days the scab will fall off.

Have also just started using, about a week ago, a new product against thrush. Usually Lutine's frogs fall to pieces in the winter as she's always been prone to thrush. However, I used NAF's sole and frog spray for a week or two until this new product arrived, Sole Paint from Red Horse products in the UK. It's completely fab stuff. I got it because it persists better than a lot of other products and has had really good reviews in the UK, which can be extremely bog-like even in summer. Sure enough, I washed off her feet today, ready to apply a second coat of Sole Paint and there's not a scrap of thrush in sight, despite the horrendous weather. Her feet haven't had the chance to dry off properly for more than a week at least so to not have any frog problems is brilliant. The current frogs are tatty from previous thrush attacks and I was painting the product right into various flaps and crevices but there was no tell-tale black stuff in any of the crevices. I think I used it initially for 2 days in a row about Tuesday and Wednesday of last week and have just renewed it a week later. Brilliant! All my horses are going to have this stuff painted on their feet one a week now, as a preventative - though Lutine is the only one I have that has persistent thrush. We are going to have an exceptionally wet winter this year, I can feel it in my bones (and our local farmer friend agrees with me!).

Magic Hoof Gunk

I've been using a great new home made hoof solution to keep on top of Lutine's issues with thrushy frogs and it seems to be working a treat. First of all, I gave her hooves a couple of blasts with White Lightning Hoof Gel but then the weather turned wet again meaning I couldn't use the Gel anymore. So since then I've been spraying her soles and frogs with my home made solution once a day when I pick out her feet and her frogs are now looking better than I've ever seen them.

The recipe is 1 parts cider vinegar to 2 parts tap water and then a big glug each of Hypericum tincture and Calendula tincture. Enough to put quite a colour into the ACV solution. I have the solution in an old coat shine spray pump and give the hooves a good scrub and spray with this at least once a day. The other day I went to pick out her feet after missing a few days and she had some thrush creeping back in there. One pick out and spray and the next day it was totally gone.

The effect on her frogs has been great. Not only has the thrush gone away but the frogs are growing back at a rate of knots and the central sulci on all four feet are much broader and shallower. Also, finally her bars are starting to straighten out and quit overlaying the sole, which we've always battled with previously. I will post photos of the new frogs and bars when I get the chance.

BTW, we're on heavy clay ground here. I say this for info as I'm quite convinced that the bugs depend on the soil type and therefore different solutions seem to kill the bugs better in different geographical areas.