Golly, hasnt it just been the wettest spring ever!?
Finding this is affecting horses in all sorts of ways, but one
of the commenest things I am seeing at the moment is dreaded
thrush. Yuk
Thrush is an interesting one, as often the horses are just
presenting with signs of reduced performance, down to mild
lameness, but its not often obvious until I look at the feet in
infrared what the issue is
These are some pretty typical average pictures of under a horses
hoof and its front lower legs under normal conditions.
These pictures are typical of a horse with Thrush, pretty easily
treated.
The worrying thing is that it seems to be pretty undetectable,
when your not even convinced there is something wrong. Obviously it
takes a bit to get to the stage where its affecting the limbs, but
I have seen this a reasonable amount. Be extra vigilint about your
horses feet, whenever I see a horse that I suspect thrush, the
frogs always look pretty dodgy, if your horses frogs look dodgy,
have a good feel around for heat and get onto some thrush killing
products asap, easily treatable.
Hopefully soon Spring will stop raining on us, and our horses
wont be standing in knee deep mud all the time, I am sure soon
enough we will be complaing about the heat and lack of rain and I
am sure then I will have another update of potential booby traps
for our horses. Dontcha just love it?!