What is white line disease?

[Daffy Dilly]

It seems to be mentioned a lot, and I don't know exactly what it is, how to spot it or how to treat it.

And could the lack of proper trim be the reason why we almost fell over earlier? He's stumbling a little more than he should be right now, but I don't think he's footsore?

[jaydevon]

It seems to be mentioned a lot, and I don't know exactly what it is, how to spot it or how to treat it.

And could the lack of proper trim be the reason why we almost fell over earlier? He's stumbling a little more than he should be right now, but I don't think he's footsore?

the white line itself is a very sensitive part of the foot, im guessing that your horse is barefoot, if you do a lot of road work wearing of the white line can cause soreness ect, the tinyest bit of gravel inbedded can also make the horse footy to even lame.. one thing my farrier done for me there was he bent a shoe nail round, so if i spotted anything, i could get it out.

i did google whit line disease and theres lots of info. i would say yr ned dosnt have it, but get a trim done, and ask your farrier abit more about the whiteline. check your horses feet is he wearing them down more on the outsides?

[Iron Maiden]

Mrs P had WLD when her shoes first came off, it was like grey cheesy stuff in her white line that you could scrape out with a hoofpick. I used the Pioneer herbal balm stuff alternated with cider vinegar scrubbed into her white line, that sorted it in a few weeks. She didn't seem to be sore because of it, and she gets bits of gravel caught in her white line quite often because they are still not as tight as I'd like (getting there though!) - it doesn't seem to worry her. Stumbling could be a sign that he's not trimmed properly, Mrs P was a right klutz but as her feet have improved & the flaring at her toes & quarters has grown out she seems to be getting more surefooted :)

[Sammii]

White Line Disease is also known as onychomysis or hollow hoof.

It's a fungal infection of the hoof and it is considered a problem wherever horses are kept indoors.

It's first seen as a cavity or a crack which appears between the white line and the surfce of the hoof. The cavity/crack increases in size and becomes filled with a foul-smelling crumbly material. Lameness is not a factor in the early stages of the disease, but becomes a problem when the integrity of the hoof wall is weakened to sch an extent it is impossible to keep a shoe in the foot.

Advanced cases involve the white line and cause under-running of large areas of the hoof wall. The lesion usually develops at the toe or quarters of the foot; both front and hind feet can be infected.

[Palomino Mare]

its harder to see on a shod horse but wld can be seen often on a shopd horse as deep cracks.

the horses at my yard tend to get it through really wet fields.

they way i describe it is if you imagine the hoof as an orange - the wall is the skin, the fruit is the hoof (cant remember the actual term:o) and the white stuff between the skin and the fruit is the white line. infection in the white line exposes the fruit to the skin, skin cracks.

its easy to treat as long as you commit yourself to it fully

[teabiscuit]

http://www.sbsequine.com/report1.html

an article expaining WLD

[MelanieD]

It usually starts as infection in the inner wall or around nail holes. If it just sticks to lurking in nail holes then its pretty much what hides under most shoes. If anything gives it the opportunity to spread, like even a tiny bit of laminitis or stretched white line, then the infection can spread around the inner wall and white line. If bad then there's hollow sounding bits in the wall when tapped, stinky gunk where the white line sound be and some crumbling ick in that area (though you can get harmless crumbly exfoliating sole in the same area to make things more confusing!). Causes problems with keeping shoes on and crumbly, cracky feet.

IME the white lines of barefoot horses aren't particularly sensitive, they do sometimes get a little stone or something in there but once removed a chunk of wire from a white line and horsie was only very slightly off going downhill, not even quite worthy of being called lame it was so subtle.

I like baby steriliser or clean trax for treating it, milton type stuff for milder cases and clean trax for the stubborn or deep.

Lack of trim can possibly cause stumbling but would want to exlude low grade laminitis or any thrush in the frog causing sensitivity, or bruising.. lots of things it could be..

[Peter Laidely]

G’day All!!!

“White Line Disease” is another one of lots of terms used around the horsey world to describe biological invasion of the non-living hoof capsule…

It is often also called “Seedy Toe”, “Shelly Hoof” or (quite incorrectly) “Thrush”

It is often specifically applied to invasions that get into separations between the hoofwall to sole joint (the Whiteline) or into faults between the outer one or two thirds of the hoofwall and the inner third and/or the laminar connection between the hoofwall and the live parts of the hoof.

The exact “bug” that is involved in the infection is irrelevant as there are over a hundred different groups of Anaerobic (mainly) Fungi and over three hundred groups of Aerobic (mainly) Bacteria that are in the soil all over the world that were created just to eat worn out hoofs (as well as other stuff), and turn them back into plant food materials to keep the grass/critter/grass/critter cycle going around.

These “bugs” are supposed to live in the soil and even on the surface of the animals’ hoofs, but it is abnormal for them to live inside cracks, or faults, in the hoof.

Killing “the bug” is fairly easy… “Milton” or “bleach” type stuff (sodium hypochlorite) or Cleantrax type stuff (oxychlorosene) will both kill any of these bugs that they can actually come into contact with… They cannot kill the hoof capsule because it is already dead.

There are lots of other Poisons, or Magic Potions, that can either kill, clean, or slow the bug down, for long enough to allow the hoof to “heal”. (There are a few of these things that do kill the bugs but also do some other things that we do NOT want!)

However as soon as the horse walks on any ground in the world, the hoof is again exposed to the same bugs.

Killing the bugs again and again just proves that we are NOT solving the problem.

The original cause of the problem is the shape of the hoof, the condition of the hoof material and the cleanliness of the environment that the horse lives in all day.

We need to ensure that our horses live on predominantly hard, dry and abrasive surfaces.

We need to get the correct nutrition (which often means less, not more, rich food). Continual laminitis events, even at low level, weaken the whiteline and so allow faults to develop.

We need to ensure that the hoofs are ridden or rasped so that they do not deform and allow cracking, splitting, or separations. This is part of the reason that “trimming” is so important for domestic horses, and although it is not rocket science, we do need to do it correctly.

And of course it also means that we need to minimise putting nail holes in the hoofwalls as well as covering the bottom of the whiteline for six weeks at a time, so that we cannot keep it clean, nor can it naturally wear and clean itself.

Peter Laidely

[martini55]

Did anyone read the explanation of white line disease in this month's Your Horse?

"It's a fungal infection of the coronet band of the hoof. It is worse in dirty and wet conditions, either in the field or stable, and takes around a year to grow out. To prevent it, keep your horse's feet clean, dry and picked out.'

:rolleyes:


Would milton be any use against WLD? (just out of curiosity).

[Yann]

Coronet band :confused:

Not used it myself but Milton is a popular choice by all accounts.