Possible White Line Disease!

[FancyHorse]

I think my guy might have White Line Disease. My farrier says he has very soft, mushy feet-if feels as if you can push your tumb thorough it. While trimming it just flakes off, it never gets that apple peel effect like most horses, his hoof walls will also crack around the bottom at times. My farrier also, has a hard time getting the shoes to hold to the foot. He lives in a very dry place, with daily exercise, and farrier visit every 4 weeks with daily feet picking by me! Does this sound like White Line Disease? From all the reading I have been doing, it sounds as if he has the early stages, but it doesn't really give me any type of treatment, other then cutting out the hoof wall, which is in the more advanced stages? Any suggestions, besides the obvious of calling out the vet?

[madelyn]

You could try some things.

Soak his feet in Epsom salts and Betadine. Dig out as much as you can. Use Venice Turpentine painted on the bottoms to harden his feet. Pack in Hawthorne hoof packs and wrap with quilting (cut outs of old mattress pads are GREAT) and use mac boots or vetwrap.

Put him on a biotin supplement, and get in some hoof epoxy to shore up his feet when they crack. Use Hooflex on the coronary band to stimulate growth, and hoofmaker on the wall for moisture.

Good luck, it will take up to a year to grow new feet.

[FancyHorse]

The thing that gets me is that we don't notice any type of infection anywhere. I wouldn't even know where to have part of the hoof cut out!!!

[Regal13]

OK, here goes.... I had a gelding with very similar problems last year. My farrier told me to use products by Keratex, he said it's what he used on his own problem horses.

1) Like madelyn said, dig out as much of the mushy parts as you can. Squirt the keratex nail hole disinfectant all over the entire bottom of the hoof and into (as best as you can) the nail holes from the top.

2) Let the disinfectant dry, and then pack the hoof with the keratex hoof putty. This is some weird stuff: you knead it until it gets sticky, you pack it in and then it hardens solid. Before it hardens completely, I put a layer of brown paper towels (like the gross kind in public restrooms) over the bottom. It helps keep the gravel and dirt out until the pack hardens completely. I changed the putty every other day.

3) Finally, I used keratex hoof hardener twice a day in the beginning and then once a day after about a week.

Now that my gelding is better, I use their hoof gel every other day, all the time. I know I sound like a walking advertisement, but I really can't say enough about their products. They are a little pricier than some others, but it's worth it.

This is the website: http://www.keratex.net/default.htm and you can purchase right from the site. They have good descriptions of everything and directions too.

Hope this helps!!

[madelyn]

The digging out part... Use a thin metal hoof pick and pick out his feet. Pay special attention to the outer part of the sole, inside the white line. Dig in a bit with the hoof pick. Anywhere it crumbles keep digging and scraping until no more of it crumbles.