Bone Spavin.....Barefoot ?

J

jgmbng

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Background....16 yo Dales with Spavin...Steroids x 2....course of Cartrophen.....Tildren. Showing slight improvement after the latter 2 but have decided on half Danilon morning and night to keep comfortable.

Vet has advised light work and will come back in early Spring for another lameness work-up, while he was with us on Tuesday I asked about taking off his back shoes and he said it was worth a try.

I would love to do this but when I bought him 2 1/2 yrs ago I took all his shoes off and his hooves were terrible, so bad I had to put them back on.

His diet at the moment is.....soaked hay (1 to 2 hours) for COPD and to get rid of a few calories. Scoop Happy Hoof, apple, Multi Vit, Biotin , Equiflex oh and 9 hours out at poor grass at the moment but out 24/7 April to November.

So.......Is it possible that this time round his hooves will not drop to bits ?

Should I be feeding something else ?

Thanks in anticipation.

N
 
His feet won't drop to bits. They may look a little split and broken for a few weeks but that's hardly surprising, the nail holes and weakened hoof wall will grow out. We have had some truly horrendous feet arrive here - remedial shoeing, gel pads, the works, but with patience and a good farrier they have all come good.
 
He was sore on the front not so much on the back, although we did have to go down a stony track to get off the farm.

The hooves chipped so badly that to quote my vet ' I would ask your farrier to put his shoes back on while he still has some hoof to nail them to '

I would willingly buy hoof boots if that is what was needed .
 
jgmbng said:
He was sore on the front not so much on the back, although we did have to go down a stony track to get off the farm.

The hooves chipped so badly that to quote my vet ' I would ask your farrier to put his shoes back on while he still has some hoof to nail them to '

I would willingly buy hoof boots if that is what was needed .
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Yes, well if he was only mildly sore in front and not much at all behind, then your vet was wrong :( His feet were chipping probably because they were too long, as many feet straight out of shoes are. It is normal for them to chip to the nail holes until the nail holes grow out. You gave up too soon, not your fault.

He will benefit from being barefoot with spavins because, as the two that I have had with them showed me, he will be able to build a foot which suits how lame he is from the spavins at the time. Mine built/build an inside heel which is higher than the outside heel, more so in cold wet weather when arthritis hurts most.
 
Mine has spavin and I recently took his shoes off. Hard to tell if there's a massive improvement but he's now coming back into light work. Give it a go and see how he copes. You can always put them back on :)
 
Chipping and breaking off is down as cptrayes says to long hooves but also poor horn. Shod horn tends to be weaker because it isn't stimulated to grow stronger ie. it is protected by the shoe. Also if the outer wall has been rasped thin in shoeing that leads to it breaking and chipping off more easily when shoes are removed.
A roll to the bottom of the hoof wall and a decent trim will help reduce chipping until new strong horn grows down.
 
My horse has spavin and had hinds removed about 8 months ago, i wouldn't say there's a massive improvement in his lameness but his hooves have adapted to compensate for the hock problems and he does seem more comfortable. I was also worried about removing shoes as i've always been a fully shod fan so went for just hinds to start as a compromise until i am brave enough to bite the bullet and remove the fronts aswell (he removed one for me himself today :rolleyes: )
 
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