22/10/2024
‼️ MAGGOTS ‼️
It is very important to avoid this because Maggots will eat deeper into the horse foot and will cause Lameness and infections… 🫣 Which as we all know can lead to far more serious problems for your horses health and wellbeing!
Why? How? 🤔 There are a few reasons for this -
How? - Flys will lay their eggs on muck / poo which the horse stands in and picks up the eggs, wedging them into either of the three clefts (Collateral & Central). Or the fly can lay its eggs directly in the clefts when the horse is laid down or resting its foot. The clefts are a dark, warm & moist environment which is perfect for the eggs to hatch into Larvae. 🐛
Why? (There are many, but here are two reasons…)
1. Most common - As we know some horses grow a lot of foot & frog between trims / shoeing, which make it difficult to access the clefts and clean out every bit of muck which contain the eggs.
2. Least common - Sadly, some people (NOT ALL) do not clean their horses feet out on a regular basis, allowing the eggs / larvae to mature and feast away before being removed from the foot.
I simply dig down and remove all the larvae and flush the foot with anti bacterial & anti fungal products with a syringe, which the customer continues to do multiple times per day until the foot heals over. Worse case scenario - The foot is cleaned and a shoe is applied with some form of permanent barrier to prevent re-infection whilst the foot heals 👍🏻
‼️ It is very important to keep your horse feet clean, your horses bed clean and feet picked out on a regular basis! ‼️
