Thrush treatment

I noticed today that my mare is starting to develop some minor thrush. She has never had it before and last time I had to treat a horse of mine for anything foot related was years ago so I don't remember what I used.

I know there are plenty of store bought treatments, but I think I read somewhere on here about someone using tea-tree oil to help prevent further development of thrush.

On that note, my bf's mom has a slight obsession with Melaleuca products and has given me two different first aid productsa. I have a container of 100% Melaleuca oil (tea-tree oil) and a topical balm similar to Poly-sporin that contains Melaleuca oil, beeswax, wheat germ oil, petrolatum, cocoa butter, ozokerit wax, D-trocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), Retinyl Palmitate (vitamin A), cholecalciferol (vitamin D3).

I have used the topical balm on her for small nicks and scratches and it works great, so I'm not worried about any allergic reactions, I'm just curious if it would have any affect on her feet and thrush, good or bad.

If it would be beneficial, which treatment option would be best, cover the effected area in the topical balm, or packing oil-soaked cotton balls in and letting her stand with them for awhile?

Farrier will be out soon and I am going to ask him if he had ever heard of using tea-tree oil, but I figured I would ask all you on here what you all think as well.

Thanks

The method I have used is this:
Pick out hooves.
Scrub them with water that has a bit of anti-bacterial dish soap (I used Dawn) using a stiff brush.......an old dandy brush is perfect.
Rinse
Spray with a mixture of apple cider vinegar (I use unpasteurized) and tea tree oil.
I did this three times a day for a month and the results were good.

As for the spray mixture, I put about ten to fifteen drops of TTO in about a litre of ACV. You can buy a bottle of unpasteurized ACV and a jug of regular ACV. Take out one cup of the unpasteurized ACV and add to the regular ACV. Let it sit for about a month and you will see it develops the "mother" gets cloudy and there you have a jug at a lower price. Hope this makes sense to you.

This method sounds like a lot of work and it is but you don't have to worry about damaging any healthy tissue.

Another thing is that I made sure he had lots of movement everyday to keep the blood circulating through the hooves.

I hope this helps a bit. There are lots of methods used and I am not saying mine is the best but it works for me

I have always had good luck with Today/Tomorrow. It is a mastitis product marketed for cows. No mess and works well.

A well trimmed hoof is your first step.

I would just like to add that I don't give him anything with sugar or molasses.

He gets plain soaked beet pulp with some ground flax seeds (about a cup a day), a cup and a half of ration balancer, a tablespoon of seablend, and hay available all the time. I usually throw in a handful of black oiled sunflower seeds as well.
I would like to know more about nutrition but he seems to be doing well on this routine. Has a lovely shiney coat, hoof walls are tight, and he has gained needed weight. I might just have to cut back a bit as don't want him to get too fat but absolutely NO sweetfeed.

Oh yes........I forgot to add about the cow mastititis treatment thing. I also did one treatment when doing the spraying and washing.

Good trims are essential too for getting the central sulcrus opened up and also the heels.........again......my experience and I am happy with it.