Tomorrow Trial
People in the horse community often recommend Tomorrow Dry Cow Mastitis Treatment to treat thrush in their horses' hooves. But does it work?
Let me start this post by saying I am aware of how lucky I am that Violet has good feet. I do not take that for granted at all. However, there is always room for improvement, even with good feet.
This has been a particularly wet year so far, and I have noticed that Violet's central sulci on her front feet were getting deeper than usual. While she didn't have obvious thrush, it did seem like something might be brewing in there.
After some internet research and consulting my friends, I decided to do a trial of Tomorrow on her feet. If you aren't familiar with it, Tomorrow is a mastitis treatment for dry cows that can be picked up at your local Tractor Supply or online. Tomorrow is cephapirin benzathine, which is a cephalosporin antibiotic that has also been known to work as an antifungal in animals.
While this doesn't sound promising for clearing up thrush in your horse's hooves, it has a huge following for this off-label usage. Additionally, because it was designed as a mastitis treatment (wait for the irony of this soon in a future post), the application syringes are very narrow and actually perfect for the sulci in horse hooves. So, I figured why not, I would give it a try and see if I saw any improvement in Violet's feet, specifically the depth of her central sulci.
Because treatment of thrush is an off-label usage, there aren't formal instructions on how to proceed. I decided on applying Tomorrow to her feet every day for 7 days and once a week thereafter. If there was particularly bad weather coming, I may have treated an extra time per week. Without further ado, here are my results from February to June.
February 7, 2023
Week 4 of a 5-week trim cycle
Treated every day for a week
February 24, 2023
Week 2 of a 5-week trim cycle
Treated 1-2 times a week
March 8, 2023
Week 3 of a 5-week trim cycle
Treated 1-2 times a week
May 10, 2023
Week 2 of a 5-week trim cycle
Treated 0-1 times a week
June 10, 2023
Week 2 of a 5-week trim cycle
Treated 0-1 times a week
Overall, I saw a reduction in the depth of her central sulci on both front feet. This wasn't the most scientific experiment (and sadly I missed photographing April), but I still thought this would be good information to share with other horse owners considering this treatment for their horses' feet. I hope this helped!
I absolutely love learning about horse care, and I spend a lot of time researching this topic. However, I am not a veterinarian or a farrier, so the information here should not be taken as veterinary or farriery advice for your horse.