Hoof Update 4

In an effort to stay in front of the thrush, I did a Clean-trax soak on Tesla Monday night. If you haven't used Clean-trax before, it is a bit of a production: and hour soak followed by an hour de-gassing meant a lot of quality time in the cross-ties!

Luckily, Tess is very good about plastic bags on her feet (as long as at least one hind is free...hehehe)

As I chatted with one of the barn mates, Tesla kept leaning over the brush box, trying to touch it with her nose, - until I went over and grabbed a brush, then she immediately put her ears at my chest so I could reach them (way to be expressive, horse!) So I turned it into a spa day, with lots of currying, trimming & tidying, and Masterson Method (all of which she loved).

Her frogs were nice & tight on three of the four feet after Clean-trax soak, but I did notice some softness in the frog of the left hind, and when I dug around, sure enough Jackpot, there was a vein of thrush hidden under healthy tissue! ARGH! So I cleaned it out and hopefully that was the last hidden pocket!

In 2 weeks, I'll do another soak (as per the recommendations) and hopefully that will kill any remaining bits....

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with some hoof boots to make sure she is comfortable and moving a lot: more circulation = faster healing, as well as changing up her diet (bye bye alfalfa flake) to see if that doesn't help, and our beloved sugar cubes may get swapped for something a little more healthy...