Standing in wet mud or bedding, poor hoof hygiene and allowing hooves to get overgrown and flared predisposes a horse to gravel. White line disease is often a pre-existing condition on individuals affected by gravel. Clinically gravel is seen as severe lameness, pain on palpation of the coronary band, heat in affected foot, pronounced digital pulse, and exudate from the coronary region.
Diagnosis can be made through the clinical presentation of the disease.
Treatment of gravel involves the application of to the affected area, hot Epsom salts footbaths, systemic antibiotics and the re-sectioning of the hoof wall to allow the direct application of antiseptics such as iodine.
Prognosis for gravel is good if no infection of the third phalanx is evident.
Quittor
Quittor describes the infection of the
.
A penetrating injury to the heels allows the entry of bacteria or fungi into the alar cartilages of the hoof. The pathogen causes necrosis of the alar cartilage and the formation of an abscess in the region of the heel. With time the abscess erupts at the coronary band along the heel and the quarter of the foot.
Horses that
are predisposed to developing quittor, as are those that wear
hind shoes with caulks or grabs at the toe.
Clinically quittor is seen as lameness, pain on palpation of the alar cartilage, wound, swelling and heat over the affected alar cartilage, and as pus draining from the coronary band near the affected alar cartilage. Diagnosis can be made through clinical signs and symptoms as well as by radiography showing increased opacity in the area of the alar cartilages. Treatment is the surgical removal of the necrotic tissue and systemic antibiotics. Poultice and hot Epson salts footbath may be used in the early stage of infection to prevent the pathogen from causing necrosis of the cartilage. Prognosis for individuals affected by quittor is guarded as the infection may spread to adjacent foot structures and may cause osteomyelitis of the third phalanx.
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