Advice still needed from foot experts please :(

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Rocky715

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For those of you who didn't see my original post, last time Rocky had a full set of shoes on he went lame after and farrier had to come back out and nail shoes on looser and I had to feed bute.

Rocky lost a shoe early last week, had it put back on late next day and was very foot sore after so I gave him bute - no response.

Farrier came back out yesterday and has switched him in front into EggBar shoes..... and Rocky is still lame? (he has quite flat front feet) He is sound on grass and in school, and lame on concrete.

I really don't know what to do. I have to text my farrier on Monday to update him... do you think I should just call vet first thing Mon? I don't understand what has gone so wrong - Rockys feet were much flatter last summer so surely I should have had more problems then? We have done it so slowly that I can't see that its due to farrier trimming feet too short??

Thanks for any help in advance
 
I've dealt with this with three different horses, one of which went on for years. TBH, the best thing to do if you are insured is throw everything at it. Go to the vets for a full work up and take it from there.
 
There are products you can use to protect the sole (as you say he is sound on soft and lame on hard) its called equipak.

Im not sure why he is going lame after shoeing, you need to chat to your farrier about this.

Otherwise you are looking at a lameness work up if its more than sensitive soles.
 
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TBH, the best thing to do if you are insured is throw everything at it. Go to the vets for a full work up and take it from there.

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my insurance wouldn't cover it
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. There is an exclusion on "any matter relating to the feet". They put this on as when he was vetted when I bought him there was a comment on the vetting of "slightly flat front feet" . So the insurance excluded all 4 feet!

I guess I will see how he is monday then call the vet
frown.gif


Thanks for all your replies
 
hi rocky 715.
real sorry for you and you,r horse, how ever you are in the same boat as thousands of others. there is not enough real help out there, so you must learn about the horses foot yourself. if he is flat footed, it should never get worse, it should only get better.
it means that the pedal pone is situated fairly low in the hoof, and is protected by a thin,sh sole, you will find that the frog trenches are not very deep and that the sole,frog and bars[hard lumps each side of frog]are all level with no concave shape. none of this surface must ever be rasped , the bars bust be trimmed to sole level[no bumps].
in you,r horse, his sole must never be rasped.

when he is on sand etc, he leaves a hoofprint, if you look you will see the imprint of the shoe, frog, sole,bulbs, in fact he carries his weight on the entire solar foot.destributing his weight.
on concrete, he walks on the shoe, and perhaps some frog, but mostly the shoe. he will then deflect down untill something else makes contact, if that happens to be a bump on the sole [bars] it will really hurt him. before deflection happens he will take a shock from the steel shoe into a very tender hoof capsule..
there is no such thing as looser shoes, they are all nailed on tight, it,s just a way of keeping you happy. egg bars ,heart bars, natural balanced shoes are all adding insult to injury
NONE of this is any help to you, so i see you,r options as
1, leave him as he is for a couple of weeks making sure not to hurt him. 2 would be to remove the shoes and turn out, but as he has been flat trimmed for shoes, he would be very tender 3 and by far the best, if you farrier can do it, would be to remove the shoes, build his hoof wall with urithane, protect his sole with sole guard or equipak and mesh. . if you dont get sorted you could p m me
 
[ QUOTE ]
hi rocky 715.
i see you,r options as
1, leave him as he is for a couple of weeks making sure not to hurt him. 2 would be to remove the shoes and turn out, but as he has been flat trimmed for shoes, he would be very tender 3 and by far the best, if you farrier can do it, would be to remove the shoes, build his hoof wall with urithane, protect his sole with sole guard or equipak and mesh. . if you dont get sorted you could p m me

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Thank you for such a detailed response - it made a lot of sense what you wrote! I think I will ring the vet Monday still to keep her up to date and see what she says about leaving him for a week or so and see if he improves, she may well want to see him. Then ask my farrier about option 3. How long would we be looking to build the hoof wall with urithane for? can most farriers do it?
 
hi there if you,r farrier does not use the urithane products, then there is another option open to you, i expect you,r farrier will know this product, it is equicast or similar, you or you,r farrier could send for it on line. you could remove the shoes and use it, or use it on top of the shoes,...
this product is a tape, that you zi zag wrap the entire hoof.
then you soak the lot with water. the whole thing will go rock hard in about one minute. there is another similar product, which is used the same way,but needs no water, it sets when exposed to the air. if you are working him on sand and the bandage cast starts to fray, you can purchace a spare roll of the water cure type, you can put a a bit of extra tape if it needs it.
 
about the urithane, if your farrier has not used it before, it might be difficult, you need to know exactly what you need at hand, when i first used it, i wasted a couple of tubes . now i dont waste any. practice is the answer, and it costs too much to waste any. if you do use it, you should get 3 or 4weeks out of it, long enough for some hoofwall to grow out
 
Is this equicast similar to the Perfect Hoofwear stuff that's out there? It basically goes on similar to vetwrap and then when you've wet it, it sets into a solid covering? Idea is to give the hoof support whilst going through the transition between shod and barefoot when struggling?

If it is then i don't know any farriers who use this if i'm honest. Plenty of KC La Pierre trained trimmers but no traditional farrier.

Can i ask HS are you barefoot orientated? I'm not going to have a go by the way, just curious from reading some of your posts.
 
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