The Thrush Saga

I’ve mentioned before that Katai has had awful, deep Suclosis Thrush for awhile and that I found out what it was and started treating in late October of last year. Well I’m still treating for it L

I’ve tried three different treatments for at least a month each and nothing has really worked. The best was when I could scrub out all four with a diluted Clorox solution, rinse, and then squeeze Pete Ramey Goo into the cracks in her frogs but with our temperature consistently in the single digits to double negative digits I just can’t do this right now. I was hoping that the frozen ground and snow would help me out and reduce the need for scrubbing but it doesn’t seem to be the case and I suppose that her interest in standing in poop isn’t helpful.

I’ve been doing research for awhile trying to figure out a solution that would work with the cold. I really don’t mind soaking and scrubbing and all but it is completely impossible in these temperatures and whatever I do needs to be consistent. Finally last night I randomly ran into a new option in the comments on a blog I was reading. The drug is called Tomorrow, which sounds to me like a song in a musical, and is used to treat Mastitis in cattle. However, from all of my following research last night reading hundreds of posts on forums, and blogs it looks like it is a wonder cure. I ordered 5 tubes, which sounds like it will be overkill from what I found and hopefully will take care of this nasty Thrush once and for all.

I am so hopeful that this will finally work since this whole thing has been driving me nuts. I can see how treatment could be lasting this long if I were being lazy, missing treatments, not doing what I’m supposed to be etc. but I’ve been squirting goo into her feet, picking them out extremely well and scrubbing them out with soap and water whenever possible and there is still literally no change. I’ve also changed her diet to include almost no sugars, added supplements that were supposed to help and increased her work to hopefully load her hooves/frogs and increase blood supply to help healing. Finally I’ve got a new farrier who is aware of the issue and did a GREAT trim on her last time which is a few weeks ago now. She is clearly less uncomfortable than she was before but I feel like I’m maintaining and really not gaining on ground on this thing.

I should mention that she is not and has not been lame but she is more sensitive to things like gravel than she should be and she doesn't love having me clean her feet. She was more uncomfortable in October which is what led me to figure out the issue and start treating in the first place and she is loads better now just not completely fixed and that's what is bothering me.

Fingers crossed…

In other news I had a WONDERFUL ride tonight. We are really starting to have some communication and even though she was actually a little naughty I was able to get her to lay off and keep working and we made real progress.