Hoof Soaking
Hoof soaking is a great tool that we often use in the barefoot world, probably a little more often than in the shod world, simply because soaking is much less effective if a shoe covers the very area we are trying to soak.
Frequently I will advise clients to soak for thrush, white line invasion/disease, bacterial invasion, laminitis, founder, contracted heels, absesses, and sometimes, navicular. These conditions are the most common conditions we soak for.
Hoof soaking is far better than just applying a topical treatment to the hoof. Soaking with warm water and a solution will soften the hoof, allowing the medication to penetrate deeply and get at that junk we're trying to get rid of.
There are several different products on the market, some made just for horse hooves, and some made for other uses, but have found their way into the hoof soaking arena.
First of, lets briefly discuss what NOT to use. Basically, do not use anything toxic that you would not want to soak your own feet in. No formaldahyde, clorox, turpentine, etc. These products kill healthy bacteria along with bad bacteria. They are indiscriminate as well as toxic. A hoof requires healthy bacteria to stop the bad invaders, so we want to preserve them as much as possible. We can do that with the following products listed in order of simplicity and low cost.
1) Dawn dishwashing detergent: This is the simplist and easiest and you may not need to use anything else at all. Use warm water and scrub, scrub, scrub the bottoms of those feet. Dawn dish detergent should also be used as a scrub before ALL hoof soaking. Soaking a dirty hoof does absolutely no good at all. Why Dawn? It works. It kills germs and fungus. It's cheap and smells much better than formaldahyde!
2) lysol all-purpose cleaner. NOT the one in the brown bottle, which contains a carcinogen that we should not keep in our homes or stables. After scrubbing the hoof with dawn and warm water, the hoof is placed in a soaking boot and a solution of lysol and warm water, mixed according to bottle directions is added to the boot. The hoof is soaked for 20 or 30 minutes.
3) Oxine and citric acid crystals. This is one step up from the Lysol, and works on more stubborn conditions. A solution of Oxine, Citric Acid crystals and water is mixed together and used the same way as the lysol above. (1 quart water, 1oz Oxine, 1 tsp. citric acid crystals) Of course, clean the hoof with Dawn first. Both the Oxine and the crystals can be purchased from Amazon for about $24 for a gallon of oxine, and $12 or so for a small container of the crystals, plus shipping, of course. I do carry these products in my vehicle for my clients. Let me know if you'd like some. This product does not require plastic bag to contain fumes.
4) White Lightening. This is a fuming product and the hoof needs to be sealed inside of a bag for the fumes to be able to penetrate into the hoof. More time consuming than the above methods, but may work in more stubborn cases. White lightening can be purchased from Grand Circuit Products. This runs roughly $50 or so for a gallon.
5) Clean Trax. This is a very expensive product, but is touted to be a one-shot deal. Most folks I know say it does take more than one soak. This is a fuming product and feet need to be enclosed in a bag and soaked for 45 minutes while the horse is standing still. Last time I checked, I think it was about $20 to soak two feet one time. You can google Clean Trax to find a dealer.
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| Arm yourself for the war on thrush! |
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| Fill a couple of jars with water when you fill your troughs, set in the son, and they are always ready! This boot is a soaking boot from easy care. I've had this boot for years and it's soaked about a million feet and still looks geat. |
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| Lyrik getting his foot soak. He's an old pro at this. He gets to run around while it's soaking and I can do other chores. Simple |
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Hoof Soaking can be a really simple part of you and your horse's day. I like to pick a quiet time. Feeding time is usually not the best time for me, but it might work great for you as your horse can get his hoof treatment while nibbling hay out of a hay bag. If don't have warm water at the barn, leave a couple jars out in the sun all day..It'll be toasty by evening. I use a gallon jar for general scrubbing, and a quart jar to mix my solution in. Start off by thoroughly scrubbing the affected foot or feet with warm water and Dawn. Rinse well, making sure to get ALL the dirt. After cleaning, set the hoof in a boot, add solution from your quart jor, soak for 20-30 minutes, and whal ah, you're done!
Easy, easy.
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