Below you will find a few photos journals with a writeup underneath each. First is Gracie. She has a terrible hotspot on her back. We have queued up several photos from the first few days to show you what to expect, along with “after” photos.
DAY 1. This is the cleanup look at what the hot spot looked like after trimming away the hair.
DAY 2 – Morning – You can see how the power from the previous day has absorbed all the mess and drainage. At this point just puff more NT powder onto the wound, and gently pat it so it covers the wound.
DAY 2 – Afternoon – This photo is important. There are 2 aspects to look at. On the right side of the wound, you see proper scabbing. On the left, it’s back to “open.” What happened is the drainage overpowered the new NT-created scab. Not a problem. We simply cut away the part of the scab that had detached, then re-dusted a couple times during the day. The Goal is to get the scab formed ASAP.
DAY 3 – The scabbing has been fully achieved. Now we are going to dust 1-2 times a day going forward.
Day 15 – This healing is looking great. It’s at this point that we determined that Gracie’s hotspot was likely started by some sort of bug bit / sting. When the scab shrunk and fell off, there was a bright red pinprick that stayed angry for awhile. Gracie likely licked and knawed on that spot, eventually turning it into a hot spot.
DAY 20 – Healing is complete. The hair will continue to regrow and in another week, there will be no sign of the wound whatsoever.
CASE STUDY 2 – Oakley
We did not take this series. They were sent in by a customer. She said the time frame was right at 30 days with full hair regrowth. It’s interesting that this customer was a sales rep for another animal health company, which sells its own hot spot product. She had used her company’s product for a month prior to starting NT Canine with no success. Photo #1 is where she stopped and switched to NT Canine. She was very gracious to tell us about her experience and even going so far as to give us photos.
APPLICATION NOTES:
Gently clean the wound and remove debris. If wet, dry the area.
Puff the powder onto the wound, gently patting the powder so it covers the entire area. Use several times a day until a solid scab forms.
Do Not Wash or remove the formed scab.
Once the scab has formed, dust 1-2 times a day during healing. The scab will shrink in size, ultimately falling off to reveal fresh skin and hair regrowth.
** You DO NOT have to wait until the true hot spot forms. Usually you can catch the issue when it is still in the rash stage. Inspect the licking area for a rash. If present, begin dusting right away.
NT Canine is all Natural. The pet can lick it, but it tastes terrible. The majority of dogs chose not to lick. But so dogs can’t help it (like Gracie above) Normally you won’t need to use a cone, but be prepared, just in case. If allowed to lick, we won’t be able to get the scab formed – the key to NT Canine success.
When using NT Canine for Wounds, you will follow the same protocol as above.
This is Tinker. A wild dog that arrived at our farm one day. Once tame enough for us to touch him we began using NT Canine of his terrible skin fungus. You can see the results! Here is Tinker’s story. A GREAT READ.
DANGER…A HEEL CRACK is a WARNING SIGN – Thrush Alert!
Hi, I’m Heath Kizzier, VP of Four Oaks Farm Sport Horse Rehabilitation and Reconditioning Centre, and Four Oaks Products. The cover photo above is the same horse Before / after treatment with No Thrush Powder (AKA NT DRY in Canada and EU) The dimple in the heel on the right is what we want. Let’s look at another before / after example below. These were provided by Josephine Trott, PhD UC Davis during a clinical trial of No Thrush powder, [Published in the Horse’s Hoof Magazine, Issue 41- Winter Issue 2010]
NO THRUSH Powder Photo Journal – 37 Days Total
Below we will discuss how to fix this, but first, let’s discuss what a heel crack (Sulcus Crack) is:
A “heel crack” (an opening into the sulcus) is the number one warning sign of thrush. These cracks are not natural. In fact, they are wounds created by bacteria as it seeks a way to get inside the foot. The tissue between the heel bulbs is soft and pliable, so the bacterium burrows in and creates a breeding ground. This breeding ground is warm and moist inside, so until we completely eliminate the crack, we should expect a thrush invasion at least 3-4 times per year.
Normally people only treat for thrush when they see and smell the “black goo.” But with sulcus thrush (thrush inside the crack) you can’t see or smell the goo – so you literally don’t know it’s in there. Often, though, what you do know is that your horse is mysteriously going “off” several times a year. It “comes and goes.” Perhaps you start treating muscles, hocks, and stifles, but the horse is still just… off!
In the case of sulcus thrush, the horse is Off because his heel is infected and he is walking with a toe-first landing. He can’t land on his heel. If he is a barrel horse or jumper, (or any sport horse), he absolutely can not perform at his best because he can’t properly plant his foot in the sand.
The result of toe-first landing???
That barrel horse will take wide crow-hopping turns, ruining your time. The racing thoroughbred must shorten his stride to avoid the pain (not good in a race!). The worst scenario is for jumpers and eventers. Every time that horse takes a jump he will take extreme impact on an improperly angled foot. That is guaranteed to cause soft tissue damage in his legs and back. At our Sport Horse Rehabilitation Centre we’ve seen dozens of incredible Jumpers lose their career due to this.
The Good News: There is a solution. We can help regrow the heel back to its healthy (closed) state with NO THRUSH / NT DRY Powder.
Before we start the “Product Talk,” let’s discuss exactly what occurs inside the Heel Crack
WHY ARE HEEL CRACKS THE PRIME CAUSE OF RECURRING THRUSH?
Simple answer… Because when we horse owners no longer see the black goo we stop treating. We think we have beaten back the thrush and we move on to other things. But the truth is, that was a temporary fix because tomorrow a whole new host of bacteria will find its way back in there. There is no way around it. Then, when moisture is introduced via rain, urine, or even water bucket slop-over, thrush has everything it needs to restart the infection process.
WARNING: If you have been using a liquid thrush product, whether you buy it or make it yourself (ie: Bleach, peroxide, alcohol, or vineger) be sure to research the ingredients. If it is caustic, do not use it on sulcus thrush. The term “Caustic” means that the PH level is excessively high or low. If it is caustic it will, of course, kill bacteria – however, it also damages live tissue. EX: Bleach, even a 10% solution, absolutely destroys open tissue.
Photos provided USDF Gold Medal Winner, Kiersten Main. 30 day total NT use.
Now we are going to discuss how to use NO THRUSH ® Powder ( “NT DRY” in Canada) to solve this problem and get from point A – to – Z.
STEP 1. (This will work in all weather conditions, so don’t wait, thinking that a powder won’t do it’s job. It will. )
Clean the foot with your pick. If the footing is damp, use a rag to wipe off any excess moisture.
MOST IMPORTANT: Puff plenty of powder into the heel crack.Don’t be shy. Use your hoof pick to wiggle and manipulate the powder all the way inside. Your horse might be sore from the infection. If so, be as aggressive as he will let you. Over the course of a few days, the lameness will lessen as the product dries up the sulcus tissue and you can get more firm with your application. NOTE: We need enough inside the heel to Absorb, Draw and Dry the infected area.
Puff the powder into the clefts, around the shoe, and then brush it in with your hoof brush. Make sure every bit of sole, frog and heel are scrubbed with powder. Be vigilant with the nooks and crannies and skin tags.
In normal circumstances, it will take 3-7 days to eliminate the bacteria breeding ground. (No more black goo or smell inside the crack.) See the photos below to review a terrible case of Sulcus thrush. (NOTE: You will know when this is complete when the heels become very firm (instead of spongy) and the horse begins walking in a proper “heel-landing” gait, instead of toe-landing.)
DAY 1: On this horse, all this thrush is internal. This is the worst because you can’t actually see the black goo. The actual frog and sole look fine. The thrush lurks below!
DAY 1: Dusting with NO THRUSH Powder. Note how the powder is wicking up the moisture inside the sulcus? It works that fast.
DAY 4: This is great progress. The crack is closing and the heel tissue is reconnecting properly. Also, his heels are much, much firmer. He is no longer lame. NOW ON TO STEP 2!
Step 2.
No! We are not finished. We have eliminated the breeding ground, allowing things to firm up. BUT now we need to get the heel fully closed up and “sealed.” If you stop now, a new troupe of bacteria will jump right back inside the crack.
Fortunately, step two is simple. Just keep dusting. Brush the powder into the frog and clefts and get the powder into the sulcus crack. Dust 3-4 times a week until the crack heals over. With a typical case, this should take 30-60 days, depending on how deep the crack was. One note on this… If you have been previously using a caustic thrush product, it will have damaged the internal tissue. This means that it will likely take a bit longer to get from A-to-Z because it takes time for that tissue to recover and become viable again. Just be a bit patient. After working with thousands of thrush cases I have never seen a sulcus crack that did not properly regrow. NO THRUSH® [ NT Dry] will also allow the clefts regrow. A horse prone to thrush will almost always have collateral grooves that are too deep around the frog. Be sure to always dust the clefts as well as the heels. NT will allow cleft regrowth. [Quick note. Notice I made the statement about that NT will “allow” the clefts to grow. NT Dry does not Make tissue grow, it Allows it to grow.
Step 3
PREVENTION:
Thrush is not “curable.” Once a horse has thrush, he is susceptible. When we look around our barn, it’s obvious: Some horses get it, some don’t. So once we have eliminated the active thrush and repaired the heel crack, it is good practice to continue using NO THRUSH® on a regular basis (We recommend once-per-week. and a bit more often in wet conditions to keep the frog and heel firm). The powder will keep your horse’s feet healthy and firm, and thrush-free. We have 70+ horses and dust every horse every Friday, no matter what. Friday is known as “Dust Day.”
ESSENTIAL HEEL CRACK PRO TIPS. For some excellent Pro-Tips and even more education, jump over to this post. If you plan to go after your horse’s heel cracks, you will want to read this so you know exactly what to expect.
SOME FINAL WORDS:
Once we come to recognize the patterns of thrush and frog disease and understand how the heel crack plays a crucial role, we will catch the warning signs far in advance. We will readily notice gait changes and temperament changes. In short, we will become proactive instead of reactive. This proactive attitude will save time and money. A year’s worth of NT maintenance is far less expensive than one call to the vet.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope this was helpful. If you are struggling with this problem and have questions, Call us. I’m pretty sure we can help. With over 70 horses at our Four Oaks Farm Sport Horse Rehabilitation and Reconditioning Centre, I’m pretty sure we have seen it all.
Dear Heath / No Thrush,
I am looking forward to receiving my Release [Muscle Wash]. I have had such incredible results with No Thrush that I am pretty certain that I will see great results with Release as well.
My gelding could have been the poster horse for No Thrush. When I purchased him in April of 2011 I had no idea that I was also buying the worst case of thrush I had encountered in almost 40 years of horse ownership. He also had the worst case of thrush that two farriers AND two vets had seen in their entire careers. The thrush had eaten his frog and was working hard on destroying his digital cushion in all four hooves. All of the experts agreed that my gelding would never be sound and that the best thing to do was euthanize him.
I was not willing to give up.
We had big plans for that horse!
I tried almost every thrush product on the market and many homemade remedies that are not on the market. I battled that thrush for SEVEN long months. There would be slight improvement, then he would be back to being lame. Picking his hooves became dangerous because his hooves were so sore. I learned that he was Insulin Resistant and that IR horses are prone to thrush. I changed his diet but the thrush continued. I was losing hope.
Then one day I saw another boarder poofing some stuff on her gelding’s hooves. I asked her what it was and she told me it was this great stuff called “No Thrush.” I had seen the stuff somewhere online and had considered trying it, but didn’t because I had already spent HUNDREDS of dollars on other thrush remedies that did not work. She told me that if I ordered No Thrush and if I did not like it, she would buy whatever I had left in the bottle for what I paid for the full bottle. She would even reimburse me for shipping. I felt like I could not lose, so I ordered a bottle that night.
I received my first bottle of No Thrush and really put it to the test the very first day. It was pouring down rain and my gelding was standing fetlock deep in yucky mud. I poofed his hooves like the video showed and left convinced that I had just wasted my time and money.
The next day I thought differently. I picked his hooves and immediately noticed that his hooves did not smell foul. He did not seem so tender when I scraped the mud out of his hooves. Intrigued, I re-poofed his hooves that day. And the next day. And for the next couple of months. His frogs grew back. His lameness went away.
Excited, I booted him with Renegade hoof boots and started riding him. I started training him. I started competing him. I did several endurance rides and also some competitive trail rides. I did parades and obstacle competitions. I trail rode him thousands of miles over the next couple of years in seventeen different states. He won his very first ECTRA competitive trail ride! He became the Number Six NATRC (Novice Division) horse east of the Mississippi River! He became the Number Ten ACTHA (Pleasure Division) horse in the whole state of Alabama!
And he did it without a single lame step.
Unfortunately, my gelding’s story stopped last summer. About four months ago he had a bizarre colic episode and had to be euthanized.
About a month after his death I acquired a little rescue mare. I did not know that she had a locked up sacrum when I got her. The chiropractors have done what she can and she is sound, but the little mare still has muscle spasms in her lower back and hip area. They say there is nothing they can do for the spasms. They say that the mare will likely be a pasture ornament for the rest of her life. They say that she will always have the spasms.
Maybe she will.
Maybe she won’t.
I am going to see if Release can make a difference. And if it does, you will be the first to know! And if it doesn’t, then I can honestly say that I have tried everything worth trying.
Thank you for reading. And thank you for giving my gelding a couple of good years of life.
Sincerely,
Sheri D
This is a real photo. What is it, you ask? Well, we had to do a lot of investigation, asking a dozen vets, and only when we went to the most seasoned farriers did we find someone who had seen it before.
This is what we came up with:
Prior to this picture, this horse had suffered from significant canker. That issue was eventually controlled, and the “normal” canker tissue growth was no longer present in the sulcus. (NOTE: Canker tissue looks like goopy cottage cheese and ultimately overtakes the sulcus and clefts. )
We believe, however, that the abnormal (excessive) keratin production found a new path. Instead of growing under the horn and bottom of the foot, in the anaerobic environment canker prefers, it funneled the tissue grow out the back of the sulcus. The result is fascinating.
This horse was sound and the “horn” did not cause any pain. The horn was firm and substantial. Every 6-8 weeks it needed to be cut off, only to start growing right back again.
This mystery is only marginally solved, so we’d love to hear from you if you have encountered something similar!
Here we have cut/pasted just a few of the wonderful No Thrush reviews at www.ValleyVet.com.
Great product!!
April 19, 2021 by CONNIE B.
“I have used this product for years now. My horses frog and central sulcus looks great!”
December 27, 2020 by JL (United States)
“Works well on “scratches” leg fungus too.”
Great product!
May 19, 2020 by Karen L. (WA, United States)
“This is my go-to product for my horse who tends to get thrush in our wet Washington environment. The powder makes it easy to push up into all the crevices and it works better than any other product I’ve used.”
A Better & Faster Way to Beat Thrush!
March 10, 2020 by NONA J. (GA, United States)
“Works so much faster than liquid Thrush Buster. It dries the Hoof, Frog & Bulb through desiccation. Thrush is a anaerobic microbe that thrives in wet, non-oxygenated environments. Dry oxygenated environments kill Thrush.”
Highly recommend!!
March 23, 2019 by Jan
“A great, more natural product!! Helped horse heal from scratches in less than one week and hot spots on a friends dog!!”
Will never be without this
January 27, 2018 by Kaykaypee
“I purchased a horse with some of the worst sulcus thrush I have ever seen. Look at the examples on he products website – his feet looked like that. My results were just like the pictures too. You must use as directed and you should have the same results.”
October 2, 2017 by VICKI (CA, United States)
“Quickly knock out thrush in deep crevices.”
Verified Buyer
“Great buy”
February 9, 2017 by MYRA K. (KY, United States)
“This is easier to use than the liquid thrush products.”
Verified Buyer
“Great buy”
October 3, 2016 by LISA M. (IN, United States)
“The only product to successfully resolve deep thrush.”
By far, the best for thrush!
August 10, 2016 by Nemo
“My Irish Hunter has suffered from chronic thrush for the past couple of years. I’d use a product (pick almost ANY liquid, I used it), and none completely got rid of the thrush or improved the health of his hooves. He had chronic sore feet when I rode him.
On Easter, my horse underwent colic surgery. It was touch and go for 10-days at New Bolton (they did a superlative job), and once he was home again, he had to have stall rest for two months. As clean as I tried to keep his stall, I knew I’d be dealing with horrible thrush. His feet were quite stinky. I first tried a gel product that was well regarded. Worthless. Then I found No Thrush and read up on it. I liked the concept of a dry treatment that would not only treat the condition, but also deal with the cause — moisture trapped within the hoof and frog crevasses. Because of the severity, I treated him nearly every day for two weeks. I could immediately see the difference.
At three weeks, my farrier came to pull his shoes and trim. He immediately remarked how much better the feet looked and how much healthier they seemed. Months later, with regular use, two of the four frogs are completely healed — no cracks — and the other two cracked frogs are almost completely healed. One has been a little more stubborn than the others, but it’s coming along with no sign of thrush.
The best part: I just rode Romeo for the first time since surgery, yesterday. He was like a different horse. Walked out on the gravel farm road, no hesitation, no dead-dog lame gait. I feel he was saved, not only from his extremely serious colic surgery but from years long, chronic thrush that never seemed to abate. BUY THIS PRODUCT. You won’t be disappointed.”
July 24, 2016 by Caillou
“Having used ALL thrush products, including the soaking products, this is the most effective thrush product I have used. It’s the easiest for application too! Also, what I love about this, is the new growth is HEALTHY that attests to the healthy bacterial balance in the hoof still remains:)”
May 6, 2016 by Kaylyn W.
“Easy to apply and working well on my geldings heel cracks”
Love that it’s dry!
January 21, 2016 by Trappersfriend
“I have been using this product for over a year and it’s the only product I found that truly gets rid of thrush overnight. It is amazing!”
Love this stuff!
December 16, 2015 by KDW22
“Dry thrush treatment makes so much sense! This works really well and quickly. Doesn’t take much so the bottle lasts a while. This is also amazing for rain rot, although treating a larger patch of rain rot will use up the bottle fairly quickly.”
Before we start the “Product Talk,” let’s discuss exactly what occurs inside the Heel Crack
