White Line seperation

[tilly]

What are the commen causes? Mine has some seperation occuring in her right front foot, about 1cm but it is getting deeper. I have a great barefoot trimmer who has recommended some solution that she must soak in for 45mins. He says it's an infection and only ever gets worse. I had a feeling it was caused because she developed a 'flare' in that foot, i thought from a bad trim (by another farrier) or the onset of laminitis (founder-flare?) but he says it is an infection and had nothing to do with the flare and will only go away with the treatment. Can trimming alone not sort it? I guess not if it is an infection, but i didn't think that seperation occured because of an infection?

[Yann]

From what I know flare or a bout of laminitis could have weakened the white line and allowed the infection in, but once it's there it does weaken and destroy the laminar connections all by itself. All you can do is kill the infection and wait for decent connected hoof wall to grow down. Trimming alone won't sort it out.

[katypoo]

From my understanding.....
Flare pulls at the white line and causes it to lose its integrety slightly. White line disease is an oppurtunistic infection that occurs in many (geographical) areas naturally for some reason and some horses are particularly prone to it.
So... white line disease is about, your horse has a stretched white line (aka a flared toe) and therefore slightly vunerable in the white line area so the disease takes a hold.
Unfortunately it doesn't just go by itself, it has to be treated and one thing used to treat it is Cleantrax solution which is what your trimmer has recommended (remember to desensitise your horse to the big blue bag used for putting the Cleantrax in and plastic bags before you attempt it!!)
The separation has occured probably partly because you horse has flare and the hoof structure is pulling (grr I can't quite explain what I mean here sorry) and mostly because the white line disease damages the white line an causes the area to crumble - my horse has a hole in the front of her foot where it is still growing out.
When you do the Cleantrax treatment you will notice that the foot starts to crumble (almost don't panic, only where the diseased bit was) and all the old infected bits will fall out gradually, then it id down to waiting for the foot to grow and the hoof to be renewed so you have a whole new tight white line with no disease.
This is what I have learned and I am not a professional so I am likely to be wrong about parts of it.
If in doubt ask your trimmer thats where I learned everything I now know about feet from
Good luck with the cleantraxing

[marigold]

Tilly
Read Yanns reply it is the same as mine 'katypoo' but much more concise!!!!!!!! Sorry not bothering to log in and rambling again ;D

[tilly]

Katypoo, i thought your explanation was very concise too! Thank you very much both of you. It all makes perfect sense. So Cleantrax it is then...she won't like that blue bag!!! My damn pony, one problem after another.....!

[PD]

Great advice. Tilly set a side about 3 hours to do this though, you need to soak each foot for 45 mins, then remove the cleantrax and wrap the foot back up in the plastic bin liner for another 45 mins, the fumes carry on working for this time. You can use the same solution for two feet (one straight after the other) as the solution keeps active for about 1.5 hours.
Be careful not to over dilute, the instructions say to use so many gallons, but they're US Gallons with are smaller than English Gallons.

[tilly]

Thanks PD, will check that out, had no idea US gallons were different to ours. I just can't imagine my mare standing there for that long, but i guess i'll just give her a haynet and lots of smooching!

[Mrs Craig]

Hi Tilly,
Tis true, you do need to treat it, or it simply won't go away. It just rumbles on! One thing to remember is to test the soaking boot with water first!!! That way, if your horse freaks out, you haven't wasted the Cleantrax.

Should the Cleantrax still be a spill-disaster, I cheated and used concentrated virkon brushed over the whole hoof solar aspect. It meant repeated applications, but was much cheaper (for me it was free, shhhh!!), but no waiting around for my impatient pony and I simply do a routine brush-on every few weeks, mixing a little powder with water to make a paste. Haven't had problems with WLD for almost two years now I think and his frogs are blooming lovely!

For anyone else thinking of using virkon, don't bother buying the Virkon E from tack shops. It's the same as standard virkon and has EAT added (Equestrian Added Tax!).

[naria]

Tilly I use Antibac for this which may also be worth a try if soaking is a no go. I put it on the sole, frog, under the rim of the shoe & into nail holes & any other cracks. It works well for me but unless you wear rubber gloves you WILL smell of eucalyptus for ages!

[tilly]

will write all these down, never heard of em! Thank you experts of WLS, got no shoes to worry about so maybe some direct applicartion may do the job as it is her first attack and only a v small bit (not that i have anything to compare it too) but my trimmer had been disecting dead horses (don't ask!) the day he showed me a whole foot with severe WLS and it was horrible (guess that's why the horse was dead enough for him to saw off it's foot!) Thanks again!

[marigold]

Just wondering about where to get virkon and antibac from?? Not overly keen on spending hours with a horse that thinks she can't move! Thanks

[naria]

Marigold I get my Antibac from www.tfp.co.uk if that helps you. Delivery seems to be quick & the price is good.

[june]

Another option is to soak in borax solution. You can buy borax in Boots. The dilution is 2 tablespoons to a gallon of water. Soaking once or twice for 10 minutes is usually enough to treat all but the most serious WLD. Cleantrax is good stuff but the soaking process is so time consuming it is probably worth trying the borax option first.