Wall seperation

I've got a draft horse that has some hoof wall seperation actually pretty bad. Sorry no pics. They had been useing a barefoot guy that was taking lots of wall out to get rid of the chips and cracks and the horse was walking around on the sole about half an inch of sole below the hoof wall. I cut all the sole back and just got the foot flat. I should have put shoes on it but the feet where so chipped and cracked up I wasn't sure it would help and with the wall seperation I wasn't sure I could nail it on properly. My question is. Should I clean that seperation out good and pack it with something? Then if possible put shoes with pads on? I'm not really sure where to go from here. Thanks.

Very interested to hear more. I took on a horse that was brought back from the auctions. The feet were atrocious. I got them looking much better but there is a lack of hoof wall and not enough to nail to in my experience.

Not to derail but to throw out more info. I was wondering if there is an infection in the white line and I'm just back pedaling by removing hoof wall.
Maybe we should be soaking the feet in white lighting or something?
Are you confident that you can nail shoes on the next go around? I've seen the horse twice so far. 4 weeks apart. The feet still look pretty rough and didnt have enough wall to nail to as he is still walking on his sole.

I was thinking of casting him with a pad for concussion inside the cast but didnt want to trap bacteria and do more harm.

I hope I'm not stealing your thread. I wanted to make my own on the topic and you posted yours
Did you take pics?

P.S. My horse has only has a size ~1 shoe

I'm fairly certain it's not WLD. And I dought I will be able to nail to it in a few weeks either. This horse wears a 6 it's a big foot. I'm thinking on going back out there cleaning It out good soaking it in iodine and packing that keratex hoof putty in the seperation. I may be way off on my thought process.

I was thinking something along the same lines for treatment. I want to get a shoe on it though to get the sole off the ground. He was pretty lame when I 1st saw him and now he shows no sign of lameness in the pasture, ripping around. The sole had some seriously thin/sore spots. Most are gone at this point but he is really thin at the tip of the frog on one foot.
On my last visit out there I had the owner order a hoof supplement and start applying keratex hoof hardner.

my 1st visit

Maybe we can get some other suggestions as well.

yes, why do you ask?

Series 3 Sigafoos. Any time one has a wall separation impression material and CS crystals in the areas that one is not comfortable debriding.

You can get the EXACT SAME ingredients as White Lightning for a whole bunch less money by buying this product -
Oxine AH - http://www.amazon.com/Bio-Cide-Inte...=UTF8&qid=1378468891&sr=8-1&keywords=oxine ah
Activate it my mixing equal parts 1:1 with white vinegar.

I use this mixture full strength by squirting it into separations or cracks using a large plastic syringe. No need to bag and soak. You can treat all 4 feet with a 2oz mixture doing as follows;

1. As you trim each foot, apply the mixture to the infected areas.
2. By the time you get all the way around the horse you can start over by picking up each foot and squirting another application of the mixture into the infected area.
3. Go build your shoes - giving the stuff time to work.
4. Make another pass around the horse applying the mixture to each foot. This should give the required 20 minutes contact time for the Oxine to kill all the microbes it can contact. In my experience on a bunch of horses over the past few years, using this stuff full strength instead of soaking and bagging is faster, less messy, costs less, and more effective.
5. If I am going to glue over any areas that are infected, I apply Mersol (Merthiolate - the pink stuff that contains tincture of mercury) and then dry the area with a heat gun. Unlike iodine or other anti microbial products, the glue will bond to the horn right through the Mersol. I have been using Mersol under every patch or glue job for more than a decade and never had anything grow under the glue. Also never had a glue line failure due to having Mersol on the horn surface as long as I dried the horn out with a heat gun and applied the glue while the horn was still warm to the touch.

I realize that you can't buy Mersol from the usual distributors because it is not longer manufactured. I dilute the Mersol in 99% Isopropyl Alcohol at 1 part Mersol to 4 parts alcohol. As long as the mixture still has some color it still has enough poison in it to kill the microbes - AND it dries faster with the additional alcohol.

When I heard that Marjie Jansen stopped making Mersol I bought up as much of it as I could find. I still have 18 pints of the stuff. By diluting it with alcohol I have been able to make a pint of Mersol last about 3 to 4 years and in the past I have wasted a lot of it by pouring it on the foot from the bottle instead of applying it just to the area I'm treating with a small brush or a syringe.

If I'm not going to glue over an infection I use Durasole to treat the area following the Oxine treatment. I haven't had good luck getting glue to stick to any horn I've treated with Durasole - YMMV.

At the rate I'm using the stuff I'll run out of it when I'm 125 years old. If anybody wants to buy some of my Mersol stock contact me by PM. It has to be shipped by truck because it is flammable.

Regrettably, Oxine AH does not appear to be available in the UK
The most suitable alternative I can find is Vanodine V18

Gary, Look for "Chlorine Dioxide."

So will any chlorine dioxide solution work the same as white lightening Tom?

David, I would give it a try just to find out. It is pretty easy to see if the stuff works because it completely removes all the fine black microbe stuff from the horn. If it has a faint chlorine smell after you activate it that would be a good indication that it is producing "gas." That's the cool thing about the chemistry. Once activated it is constantly off-gassing for about an hour. It is the gas coming out of the liquid that penetrates the very fine cracks and crevices of a WLD infection. No need to cover the foot or soak the foot, just keep enough of the solution on the infection that it stays wet for about 20 minutes. Silly idea trying to enclose the foot with a bag to help the gas "penetrate" - you aren't going to increase atmospheric pressure in the bag like it is a hyperbaric chamber. Also great for getting rust off your tools . . .

Il have a look for some, tried ordering white lightening last year but they said was too much hassle to get the import licence so I had given up and resorted to thrush buster

Jacob, you basically described every barefoot draft horse in the southeast. Is the horse lame? I would try just a plain keg shoe without the pad. Pull side clips on the shoes and drive #8 nails. Reset in 4 weeks. Treat for WLD before applying shoes. Most likely the horse won't start growing any foot as long as he is barefoot.

Draftshoer, thank you for the advice. I'm not sure there's enough foot to nail anything to. I thought about using a glue on shoe. ? Even if it stays on for two weeks, that's two weeks more than she's getting now. Thoughts?

I think before I tried to glue a five pound hunk of iron on I would just try making a "shoe" out of super fast. If it lasts a couple weeks then you can reapply for another couple weeks then maybe you'll have enough foot to nail to. The conditions would have to be perfect to keep a size 6 shoe glued on, even for a couple weeks. A size 6 foot is on the small side of draft foot sizes but that is still a lot of weight to throw around for glue to hold. Also be sure your client is ready to set their pocket book down cause that much acrylic work will run into money fast.