T-Z > Wickenden, Brenda (5)
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Dougal
Dougal is in his mid 30's and a real character. Each summer he suffers with a bad attack of Seedy Toe. This is very common in donkeys. It very rarely causes lameness, it just looks pretty drastic.
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Seperation
Seedy Toe or White Line disease is a condition where bacteria gets into the white line (junction between the sole and the wall) and causes a cavity. This cavity becomes filled with weak crumbly horn.
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Side View
Dougal has never been lame with this, and each spring it takes a few months of foot growth for his feet to return back to normal. If I didn't clean away all the necrotic horn the bacteria would be trapped between the wall and the laminae and keep eating away at the healthy horn. With some things you have to make them look worse initially to make them heal.
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Growing out
You can see the crumbly horn is starting to grow down now.
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Foot Recovered
Here you can see after a few months of re-growth Dougal's foot has pretty well recovered from this bout of White Line Disease.