One other thing about White Line
Disease. One of the reasons that “packing” it doesn’t
solve the problem is that the disease is actually “eating” the
white line….the boundary area between the hoof wall and the
laminae. The powdery residue you see is not actually the organism, it’s
the “sawdust” left over from it “gnawing” on the white
line. It provides a very effective barrier between the organism and the
medication. The medication can’t “run down” into the
organism, since the infection is ABOVE the packing. Sometimes in advanced
cases, you can tap on the hoof wall above the infected area and it will sound “hollow”.
This is an indication of how far up into the hoof wall it has reached.
And yes, just like “rain rot”,
it shows up for no logical reason. Also like rain rot, it’s my
understanding that the organisms that form the symbiotic relationship to cause
the problem are “naturally” there in the foot anyway. “Painting”
the foot with merthiolate when the horse is shod seems to act as a preventative
because it breaks up the ability of the causal organisms to form the symbiotic
relationship.
From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rides2far@xxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005
2:27 PM To: darste3@xxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: FW: [RC] white line
>>>WLD is actually quite rare and in most cases I find it comes from either
laminitis or flaring (flaring causes tearing of the laminae).
What I'm
calling White Line comes in WAVES. Nobody has it, then the whole community has
it. When I see the first sign of it on one horse I check all the horses
(neighbors, relatives, etc) that I tend to be "on call" to help. Much
easier to treat it once at the onset than to have them calling me up wanting
help when they need packed, etc. If we have a dry spell in the middle of
the summer, then some rain, it appears. Not around spring when horses are
getting laminitis, not in the winter when they're standing in mud for months,
at the end of the summer.
