01/16/2023
THRUSH
It's been my experience that the best teacher is experience. Be it your own by making your own mistakes, or by learning from someone else’s. Learning from books is great, don’t get me wrong. I have taken course after course and I have learned a lot of valuable information. But some of the best stuff that I use every day is stuff that you just learn from trying it out yourself or talking to some old cowboy or some old fart that’s been there , done that . The advice I have been given over the years has not always been conventional, and sometimes questionable, But when tried, I am rarely disappointed.
I have often been told that I should write a book with all this stuff in it, but given that some of the advice, strong and true as it may be, might get one in trouble with some new legality or something and I really don’t need that kind of energy.
Just recently I was once again asked to write some of this stuff down to share with others. I gave my usual answer and the response I got was rather compelling.
“ look Jay, “ Bernice began. “This is all good stuff that some people might find valuable, and well, you're into writing stories, so put that information into a story about what you did. You don’t have to claim to be a dr or a licensed anything to tell a story about something that you were told by an old cowboy that just happened to work.”
I thought about it for a bit , and you know, she was right. So I think that's exactly what I will do. THis is my disclaimer. I am not a dr, I am not a vet. I do have several tickets, but personally I find no value in the certification, because I learned this stuff for me. If I Just happen to share it , well, there you go. I shared. So that being said, use any of this information at your own discretion, do your own research and be sure you're doing what you believe to be right.
On that note…here we go on the first topic.
THRUSH
Thrush as most of you will know is a nasty fungus type thing that affects your horses hooves when they get standing too long in wet areas and various other reasons. When I lived down on the coast , it got pretty muddy as we lived right on the d**e and there were always wet spots somewhere. You could buy some really expensive stuff down at the tack shop for it , but I didn't like the idea of using nasty chemicals, not to mention they were always very expensive and of course we didn't get to town that often. Besides that , my Dad had pretty good natural remedies that often worked just fine. Back then I was not up on the science behind it , but these remedies worked just fine. He gave me a few options that I used on the rare occasion that I needed them. If I didn’t have one on hand , I would use the other. Those remedies were as follows.
Apple cider vinegar
Borax soap
Mild bleach solution
Ground cloves from mammas spices
Mouth wash
Neem oil.
After discovering essential oils, I would often make a brew of oils that consisted of
Using coconut oil, mixed with any of the following oils
Tee tree oil,
Clove oil
Nutrabiotic ( grapefruit seed extract)
Oil of oregano
Neem oil
Thieves oil.
Just good old cowboy standbys, that always came through for me.
When I moved up to the Okanagan in Bc Canada, It was pretty dry. Keeping horses' feet moist was more of an issue than thrush, So I would just paint coconut oil on their feet regularly, and the problem was solved.
Now, finding a farrier was never much of an issue for me, as my brother's best friend, who gained Brother status, was a farrier. A damn good one at that, as was his father before him. But on one of my moves, I was just a little too far away from Warren for him to do their feet, so I was forced to find someone a little more local. I landed a wonderful lady farrier who used the barefoot method, and things went well for a while until I started to have trouble with THRUSH. It became relentless, I couldn’t get rid of it, and a few weeks later, it was back again, in the dead of summer, spring , winter , it didn't matter. She told me that. A lot of her customers were having the same trouble and quite honestly , I didn't clue in until one day whining to Linda about the issue, she told me about her experience on the subject.
She asked about my farrier. I told Linda how much I just loved her, as I would call her before I would call a vet, as she really knew her stuff and I was grateful to have her. IT was then she landed her bomb.She explained that Their method was not in the horses best favour, and it was a very common thing for horses that have been worked on with the barefoot method most often suffered from THRUSH, among other things, and she recommended I find a farrier that did the conventional method.
As fate may have it, My farrier called me up informing me that she was moving to Alberta, and I would have to find a new farrier.. I made a few phone calls and found a guy that did the conventional type of farrier work and miraculously the THRUSH went away all by itself. Just. Disappeared and I haven’t had a lick of problems with them ever since.
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