Thrush: Phew! Stinky Feet!

Thrush is very common, and it typically is a mild disease that can be easily treated. More importantly, it can be prevented with adequate foot management and good stable husbandry. However, if you choose to ignore these preventive measures, or you come into possession of a horse with thrush, it needs to be addressed immediately and aggressively as complications and chronic lameness issues can resu
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Thrush is very common, and it typically is a mild disease that can be easily treated. More importantly, it can be prevented with adequate foot management and good stable husbandry. However, if you choose to ignore these preventive measures, or you come into possession of a horse with thrush, it needs to be addressed immediately and aggressively as complications and chronic lameness issues can result. Thrush can be very insidious in the early stages, and it can become severe enough to cause permanent lameness.

Foot Anatomy Hoof anatomy

First, let's discuss some descriptive anatomy of the foot to better understand the problem. When looking at the foot from the bottom, the hoof wall circles from the lateral (outside) heel around the point of the toe (the dorsal surface) and on to the medial (inside) heel. The frog is the brownish/ black rubbery-textured triangle with the flat base at the heel and the point two-thirds of the distance to the toe (see page 92).

The remainder of the whitish structure on the bottom of the foot is the sole. The frog has a central invagination or groove called the central sulcus, and the deep grooves at its junctions with the sole are the lateral and medial sulci (sometimes called the paracuneal grooves). The tissue of these structures is considered epidermis (skin). As it grows out toward the surface of the foot, it goes through the process of keratinization (toughening to a horn-like consistency), making it firm and durable. The frog is softer than the sole because it is not completely keratinized. The keratinization process basically is the conversion of the live (and therefore sensitive or pain-feeling) deeper layers of the foot's epidermis to the dead (and therefore non-sensitive) superficial layer

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Michael A. Ball, DVM, completed an internship in medicine and surgery and an internship in anesthesia at the University of Georgia in 1994, a residency in internal medicine, and graduate work in pharmacology at Cornell University in 1997, and was on staff at Cornell before starting Early Winter Equine Medicine & Surgery located in Ithaca, New York. He was an FEI veterinarian and worked internationally with the United States Equestrian Team. He died in 2014.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
305 votes · 305 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!