I Have a 9 year old gelding, recently diagnosed with mild ring bone in the left fore foot. He has been on and off lame with this. He also has had several abcesse's in the right fore which has caused more severe lamness than the ring bone. I have had my shoer square his toes, place wedge pads, with medicated padding. This helped quite a lot. However, the abcesse'd foot grows at an alarming rate. After two weeks with the new shoes, he has grown out and lost the right shoe. Is the healing process of the abcess's causing this un-natural foot growth? And will it continue? Any one else had a similar experience? The horse is 16.2, and has been prone to abcess's since he was a 2 yr. old. Thanks for any thing you can share!

Sorry, I don't have any information about the abscessed foot growing faster -- that does sound very odd. However, last week when I was at the feed store, the owner was telling me about this product called White Lightning. It's supposed to be the best thing for thrush, white line disease, and abscesses. It's antfungal, antisporicidal, etc. and is supposedly the same chemical used to rid government buildings of Anthrax years ago. If you do a quick Google search of "White Lightning hoof," the company's website should come up. The feed store owner is always in the know on the latest and greatest stuff and is always reading horse books, magazines, etc., so I really trust him. Luckily, the White Lightning is also relatively cheap. Hope that helps!

Hey! Thanks for the reply. This White Lighting sounds interesting, I will check that out.   Thanks!

You're welcome. The website is http://www.grandcircuitinc.com/products.asp?cat=57, for anyone interested. The feed store guy told me that you don't have to buy the special soaking bags -- they're basically very large, tough baggies. Any type of thick, waterproof bag will be fine. You just have to make sure the top is sealed off, like with duct tape.

Good luck! And, if you do use the White Lightning, please let us know how it works. I'm curious (although, I certainly don't want to have to deal with an abscess!).