A bit of foot advice please - low heel long toe

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scattynuttymare

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I have been keeping an eye of one of my girls front feet for a while now. Was told by vet that she had one 'flat foot' which he thought would be manageable when I first bought her a year and a half ago. My eyes didn't really see it then, not sure if it was because it was only very slight or because I didn't know what I was looking for.

However the last few months it has got worse. To the point where it is looking really splayed and an awful lot bigger than her other foot. You can clearly see that the heel is non existant and the toe is way too long. The foot also has a rippled effect to it. you can clearly see horizontal rings running round the foot and when you run the finger down you can feel how bumpy it is. I'm assuming this is from the long toe?

About a month ago a tiny horizontal crack appeared at the back of the hoof. I didn't worry about it at first but the crack has got longer. Now I'm starting to think its a stress crack from having pressure in the wrong places because of the was the foot is growing. Is this possible?

She is due to be shod next week and I'm going to ask if there is any way the toes can be pulled back a little shorter. Is there a way of encouraging the heel to grow down at all? She is cold shod at the moment. Is there a massive difference between hot and cold shoeing?

I will try and find the camera and get some pictures but I have described it the best I can.
 
I had a similar prob with a TBx I owned.
Vet recommended putting in wedges and having the shoe extended at the back to encourage the heel to grow down.

I can't tell you if it actually worked as the horse was pts soon after.
 
If your farrier is any good he should be able to help you with this problem. They are trained to try & sort these problems. If he can't then have a chat with your vet & they may be able to recommed a farrier who does remedial shoeing, who they've worked with in the past. Good Luck
 
Is the horse in toe clips?
If so, discuss with your farrier about getting some quarter clipped shoes on, this will allow the toe to be brough back abit.

What breed is the horse? I ask this because if he is a TB who is likly to loose shoes every couple of days then alot of farriers would be very reluctant to fit the shoe longer and wider at the heels.

If the horse is not prone to looseing shoes, then speak to your farrier about lengthening the shoe slightly and supporting the heal.

Another possibility if the horse is prone to looseing is barshoes.. but these still come off and cost alot, so are not so adviseable.

Lou x
 
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Is the horse in toe clips?
If so, discuss with your farrier about getting some quarter clipped shoes on, this will allow the toe to be brough back abit.

What breed is the horse? I ask this because if he is a TB who is likly to loose shoes every couple of days then alot of farriers would be very reluctant to fit the shoe longer and wider at the heels.

If the horse is not prone to looseing shoes, then speak to your farrier about lengthening the shoe slightly and supporting the heal.

Another possibility if the horse is prone to looseing is barshoes.. but these still come off and cost alot, so are not so adviseable.

Lou x

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Horse is a TB and hasn't touch wood lost a shoe yet. Was going to talk to farrier about quarter clips.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If your farrier is any good he should be able to help you with this problem. They are trained to try & sort these problems. If he can't then have a chat with your vet & they may be able to recommed a farrier who does remedial shoeing, who they've worked with in the past. Good Luck

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He is a remidial / theraputic farrier so I'm hoping he'll be able to sort it out. I've not contacted vet about yet as I'm not sure it's server enough and its' not causing her any problems. I am hoping farrier will be able to sort it out, I've not ruled out changing farriers and it would be an easy transition as I'm good friends with most of the local ones so would be able to change easily.
 
I had a similar problem with my TB x to the point where she was unsound and off work for some time. She naturally has poor heel growth and grows long toes and unfortunately the farrier I was using wasn't attempting to shoe with this in mind so she eventually became very unsound. My new farrier initially took a fair bit from her toes & she now has a gel called equithane in both front feet which has worked wonders. She is now able to grow some heel and by using the gel and keeping the toes as short as possible she is now back to full work and jumping well. The gel has been used for about 8 months now and is replaced at every shoeing and I am hoping there will soon come a time when we don't need to use it. I would ask your farrier about it but it is very expensive I am charged roughly £60 extra each shoeing but if you are insured you may be able to claim this back. Good luck!
 
Usually a horizontal crack in the hoof wall is actually where an abscess has blown at the coronary band and is then growing down the hoof wall, so I suspect that is what that is.

Are there growth rings in the other feet or is it just that one?

I would suspect (obviously without seeing it!) that the toe plane has been left a bit to high which is why the toe looks long. Unfortunately the under run heels are pretty hard to rectify - the best way I know of encouraging them back is to take the shoes off for a while, make sure they are balanced correctly and walking on tarmac or concrete or something really helps to encourage them back and stimulate the heel growth. Obviously this would have to be something that was done when the time was right, but I personally think it is worth doing (as long, as I say that the foot is correctly balanced in the first place - particularly the toes balanced from the underside of the foot rather than just dumped!).

Hope that helps
smile.gif
 
Im confused as to why your farrier has not been addressing this at every shoeing as you seem to have had the horse for a while? How often is the horse being shod, are you noticing the changes but the farrier is not because she is not being shod often enough?

There are things that can be tried to correct collapsed heels etc but step one would have been to put the horse in double clipped fronts and giving the horse support through the heels with both width and length to encourage heel growth. I am slightly perturbed though as to why this was not done when you bought the horse? Am i missing something here?
 
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Im confused as to why your farrier has not been addressing this at every shoeing as you seem to have had the horse for a while? How often is the horse being shod, are you noticing the changes but the farrier is not because she is not being shod often enough?

There are things that can be tried to correct collapsed heels etc but step one would have been to put the horse in double clipped fronts and giving the horse support through the heels with both width and length to encourage heel growth. I am slightly perturbed though as to why this was not done when you bought the horse? Am i missing something here?

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She is being shod every 6 weeks. She was local to me when I bought and the lady I got her from told me that she will not tolerate being hot shod so I asked for her farriers details and kept her with him as he knew the horse and he covered my area. He is noticing the change but I'm not sure we are noticing the same thing. He has told me that the growth rings are from the result of an injury/trauma which is growing out but hasn't really adressed the fact that this hoof is getting more and more splayed (not sure if that's the correct term)

I am going to speak to him about double clips when he next comes. He is a man of very few words and I have tried to talk to him before but my questions always seem to get brushed away unaswered. He is an oldish chap and I'm beginning to think that he has perhaps not moved forward with new ways of shoeing, that might sound harsh but he seems very old school.

Can I ask is there a significant difference bewteen cold and hot shoeing. Just the farrier who does my other horses shoes hot and I have to say he is very good with the twitchy horses when burning on the shoe and creates as little smoke as possible. I'm assuming it's the smoke my horse doesn't like. I may think about putting her on the list with my other horses and see how it goes.
 
There is a fair amount of differennce with hot shoeing and cold shoeing as the shoe is fitted to the foot, whereas obviously with cold shoeing its less likely to be shaped to the foot. But my mare has the same problem and we have a wonderful farrier who has done a great job with her (your close so if you want the number pm me) but double toe clips are good at helping short term and heel support does nothing but change the internal workings of the foot and have been warned off by our vet + farrirer about this
 
If you are friends with local farriers is it possible to get a second opinion? I can't comment on clips, supporting shoes etc because the horse I had with this problem has improved dramatically with good trimming and being barefoot. One thing I do know is that this should be able to be improved with good trimming (and shoeing I'm sure), but it shouldn't be a drastic re-shaping.
 
Change farriers.

If your horse has been shod every six weeks for some time this problem should be getting better, not worse.

I had a similar problem with my last horse whose front feet grew very much in the way you describe- I wasn't happy with the shape of his feet after shoeing (despite raising my concerns about his toes with the farrier) and neither was my vet. I changed farriers to one that put him in quarter clips and paid close attention to his foot balance and within 2 shoeings his feet looked perfect again and stayed that way thanks to his careful regular shoeing.

Good farriers are worth their weight in gold, foot balance is so, so important.
 
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If you are friends with local farriers is it possible to get a second opinion?

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Yes I do plan to. I plan on getting the guy who shoes the others to take a look. I know I am entitled to get a second opinion but I don't want to go upsetting anyone.
 
Well, better you upset someone than your horse suffers navicular changes further down the line. That is what my farrier said could have been ahead for my boy. He said the previous farrier had been "chasing the toes" and swore a bit.
crazy.gif
 
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