CleanTrax

Poor Buster, he's so abused.

I soaked his front hooves in CleanTrax yesterday to try to get ahead of his white line problem.  He hated it! Of course having a gallon of liquid tied to his leg was scary. I was going to do both front feet at the same time but I decided to do one at a time so it didn't panic him more.

CleanTrax is a small vial of powder that turns into chlorine dioxide when mixed with water. It's active for 90 minutes, giving you time to soak each hoof for 45 minutes. Using the full gallon supposedly creates more pressure to push it into the hoof better to kill bacteria and fungus. I hope so. It doesn't hurt live tissue and supposedly doesn't discolor hair, but it will discolor your clothes. It smells a bit like bleach, and feels a bit like bleach on the skin.

Of course he went back and stood in the pissiest, shittiest spot in their corral when he was done. That's helpful, I'm sure.

I think that "white line disease" has a dietary component. A bit of feed that is too rich, a bit of laminitis, and the lamina is compromised, it stretches and deteriorates, and then microbes get in there and you have a mess. That's why it's so common in donkeys. They need poor forage. Mine have been in a dirt lot for a while now. I need to do some more fencing and soon I can put them out on dry grass. Some of the pastures are overgrazed and all that's left now is birdsfoot trefoil, which is a lot like alfalfa. Not good! The cattle tore down some of my fence and we're almost done fixing that. Apparently my neighbor will be fixing his fence in the fall.

Buster got a different saddle yesterday. We've been having g Troy le with his saddle rolling when I mount and dismount. We'll see what happens with the new one.

I gotta get to work! Have a great day!