This probably only applies to critters in the southern states. When I was in Kansas I had never heard of, much less experienced, the hoof infections of white line, seedy toe, or thrush.

But when I moved to swamp country my poor mule got a bad case of whiteline which never did clear up with the antibiotic/fungicides Clean Trax and/or White Lightning. The farriers I used had no other suggestions. They never worked for me.

So when I got suckered (again) by another trader for this horse, it had a half inch crack at the toe of one of his hooves, my now new farrier suggested copper sulphate. I, of course, had unknowingly bought a horse with a fairly bad case of seedy toe.

All that said, the new farrier suggested using copper sulphate in white vinegar solution to treat seedy toe, whiteline, and thrush.

So I took an old pickle jar, bought a bottle of copper sulphate at the local horse supply store and a bottle of white vinegar at the grocery store. I couldn't find any data on the solubility of copper sulphate in acid (vinegar) so in an almost full jar of vinegar I poured some copper sulphate. I kept on adding more until there was still some crystals in the bottom of the jar the next day. It doesn't require waiting for 100% saturation since it keeps dissolving over many days. The solubility must be large.

I squirted the solution into the crack with a syringe about every other day, trying to get the narrow gauge needle into the crack as far as possible. In a couple months it pretty much cleared up but have resolved myself to continued weekly treatment until if I ever move north or unload this horse on another sucker.

When I think of that poor mule and all the money I wasted on Clean Trax and White Lightning .........

Bill,
dip his foot In Formaldahyde daily until it clears up..works on cows also and usually one or two applications, at least for thrush..

We use copper top quite frequently on horses with thrush.

I'll have to give Formaldehyde a try.

BH63

I was talking to our farrier, and he said the problem with formaldehyde is that it is water soluble and would not stay on the hooves long enough to be effective if the horse is not on dry footing.

The paddock where I work, has a few wet spots.

BH63

Watered down a bit bleach is an excellent infection killer.

We use falmaldyhide dips for cattle and horses. its not dry, if it was dry we wouldn't have thrush..

Ray,
I had sheep on my farm for quite a few years. Somehow some of my breeding stock brought in foot rot, even though I ran them thru footbathes. My farm didn't have rocks or hard ground, so the footrot would stay in the soil and pop back up in wet weather.
An old neighbor told me to trim the hoof as far back as possible and then to put copper sulphate crystals in a little kids sock and tape it so it wouldn't come off the effected foot. The idea was to keep copper sulphate in contact with the affected foot. It looked really stupid, but worked beautifully. A mule would take a bigger sock. Might not work on rocky ground. But you're a pretty ingenious guy and coul probably take it to another level.
Bfly

That would probably work well with horse boots.

BH63