Howdy Friends! In a conversation about Thrush, I decided it would be good to share one of my responses. Hope some find this helpful.
“ALSO, thrush enters the hoof capsule through a weakened white line (lamina), not along in the frog seam as most believe, then travels along the top of the interior sole (within the hoof capsule) to settle in the frog crevices.
Another key to preventing thrush is proper trimming that prevents stretching the lamina. Keep the toes the proper length!
It’s very easy, but don’t forget the thrush fungus lives in the soil and stalls once contaminated, just like ringworm.
A side note, when Robbie & I still had our dairy farm we one winter had an outbreak of ringworm in our yearling heifers. I asked our vet how we can sanitize our heifer barn to get rid of the fungus. He said, “burn it down.” Fungus can’t be effectively sanitized.
By the way, when I got Kessy, she had thrush so bad in both front feet it crawled up her hoof wall in the lamina all the way to the hair line. You can still see the damage it did to the connective tissues by means of fine lines in her hoof wall. Had I not gotten her, I have no doubt she would not have survived. And her then owners never knew! ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.
