You’re picking your horse’s hooves and notice a growth. It’s moist, smells awful, and looks kind of like cauliflower. What is it?
It’s probably a canker. You’ll want to bring in either your veterinarian or farrier to confirm.
Thrush or Canker?
Both thrush and canker are a type of infection on the surface of your horse’s hoof. Thrush will eat away at the parts of your horse’s hooves. Canker, however, results in a growth. Both are painful and need treatment.
Treatment for Canker
Most likely you will need your veterinarian or farrier to cut out the canker to keep the growth from continuing. You will want to do this as soon as possible to keep the canker from causing more damage.
This will require care after to keep the wound clean and dry as it heals. Removing a canker requires cutting away some of the healthy hoof tissue, too, to make sure everything is gone. Otherwise, the canker may start to develop again.
Prevention of Canker
The cause of canker isn’t exactly known, but just like thrush, you can reduce the chances of it happening to your horse by keeping your horse’s hooves dry.
See How a Canker is Removed from a Horse’s Hoof
WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT
In the video below, you can watch how Mike cuts a canker out of a horse’s hoof.
