Bruised Sole - advice, help and maybe some barefoot taliban input please

Kat

Kat

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Had the vet out to my mare today who has diagnosed bruised soles and has pulled her shoes (she's only shod in front normally). She's to have two weeks box rest and review then. The vet said she had fairly thin soles and was quick to say that our farrier was not at fault.

So any advice for what I can do to help keep her comfortable and aid her recovery?

What can I do to help her grow healthy feet? I would consider leaving her shoes off and I am also happy to try her in boots. Or she can have the shoes back on when she is 100% healed if that is the best thing for her.

Also any advice for helping a horse who is stressy in the stable cope with box rest? She's been living out since April and I'd hoped she would stay out until the end of the month. My heart is sinking thinking about the amount of shavings we will go through as she is very messy and the vet says she needs a full deep bed - she normally just has a little corner of shavings on full rubber matting as she just treads everything into a big pooey mess.

The vet has suggested magnesium as a calmer, which she's had before and I will buy today. I know it is good for her feet too so it makes sense.

I'm swinging between feeling relieved that it isn't something awful and feeling guilty that she's in pain :(
 
The thin soles may be due to metabolism, diet or possibly due to being trimmed when your farrier shoes her.
Usually best thing to start with would be changing diet to low sugar/starch and high fibre. Minerals are also important - you can buy magox from pro earth on ebay, althoguh it'd probably be worth buying pro hoof / pro balance + from them.

I would think booting (possibly with pads) would be best for her aswell.
 
The farrier doesn't trim her soles.

She is already on relatively low starch and sugar as she gets stressy in the stable, but she is also a poor doer so does need hard feed and doesn't have her grass intake limited. She has Pure Condition and Speedibeet as her hard feed and then adlib haylage. Her grass intake isn't limited but it isn't very lush or plentiful, we have mainly good doers at our place so this suits most of them.
 
Thin soles are usually dietary and/or shoeing and are sometimes related to (maybe undiagnosed) metabolic issues - which can sometimes be hard to bottom out.

Magnesium as a 'calmer' is a bit under egging the pudding. Magnesium is needed for more than 250 processes in the body and a shortage can cause a horse significant distress.
One of which is low grade or worse all over muscle pain (hence some horses get a rep for being grumpy or stressy when really they are not).

A horse short of magnesium will be more likely be prone to thin soles. But it could be another dietary shortage or inbalance. Some decent close up hoof photos would help a bit.

I'd be inclined to get a really well fitting pair of boots, some chunky pads (you may need on the spot help with this) and turn out in them. If rubbing is an issue (and until the boots break in it might be) then a pair of fluffy bed socks put over the whole hoof and up the fetlock works wonders. Or if you can be bothered you could vet wrap the pastern.

Nothing like chunky pads (4lb white ones from equinepodiatrysupplies.co.uk) to provide great comfort and relief to the thin soled horse. But you will need the right boot in type and size to accomodate them. Bear in mind they crush under the weight of the horse so the bit under the wall for example will end up just a few mm thick. Do not use cheap substitutes they just don't work as well and the few quid you save is just not worth it.

As the soles thicken and toughen you can move to the heavier pads - but for the first few weeks I prefer the 4lb.

For very short term fix - apply two maybe three nappies to each front foot and duck tape on very thoroughly. Use lots of the quality stuff and this will enable your horse to turn out for a bit while you sort your boots etc out. Obv will require some supervision because nappies and duck tape are not up to flints and racing around.
 
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Thanks Lucy, I understand the importance of magnesium and had supplimented it previously, and only dropped it off because it her feed had a decent quantity in it already. I believe the vet suggested it as a calmer but I wasn't there so it is a bit secondhand.

The vet has said total box rest for now, but I will also about the prospect of some limited turnout on a soft surface with boots/nappy when I speak with her on the phone. Even just an hour a day in the school will help my girl stay sane!

Thanks for the tips about boots, I've looked at them before, first when I had trouble getting her shod and then when I was worried her hinds weren't going to be up to the level of work she was doing without being shod. What is odd is that this has happened now when she is probably doing less roadwork and more work on a surface than she has done in the last year and a half.
 
Kat said:
The vet has said total box rest for now, but I will also about the prospect of some limited turnout on a soft surface with boots/nappy when I speak with her on the phone. Even just an hour a day in the school will help my girl stay sane!
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Not just sane. I'd worry about ulcers starting if she gets so stressed on box rest.

Kat said:
Thanks for the tips about boots, I've looked at them before, first when I had trouble getting her shod and then when I was worried her hinds weren't going to be up to the level of work she was doing without being shod. What is odd is that this has happened now when she is probably doing less roadwork and more work on a surface than she has done in the last year and a half.
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Isn't it funny how the widely accepted, traditional, beliefs about hooves don't stand up to scrutiny when faced with a sore horse ;)

Can you post some pics of her hooves?
 
Oberon said:
Not just sane. I'd worry about ulcers starting if she gets so stressed on box rest.

Good point, I've not had to do proper box rest with her before so I don't know how stressy she will get or whether she will settle after a few days.

Isn't it funny how the widely accepted, traditional, beliefs about hooves don't stand up to scrutiny when faced with a sore horse ;)

Sorry what do you mean?

Can you post some pics of her hooves?
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Not right now, I haven't even seen them myself! I don't have any "before" photos to show them shod, but I can try to get some tonight when I go to see her, though if she's on a deep bed it might be difficult.
 
I mean about hooves and levels of work and the view that we should 'protect' them.

But with all our efforts to protect them, we often just end up making the hooves unhealthy :(

Then we need to look outside the box.
 
Oberon said:
I mean about hooves and levels of work and the view that we should 'protect' them.

But with all our efforts to protect them, we often just end up making the hooves unhealthy :(

Then we need to look outside the box.
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Oh right, I haven't been "protecting" them, I understand that they need stimulation. All I mean is that last spring I was hacking her out on the roads most days, she coped well in just front shoes although at one point the farrier said that we might need to get hind shoes on if we were going to continue working at that level. As it was that was just a blip while I had more time than usual for long hacks. Now, she is hacking less as I have less time during daylight hours and she is a bit older so I am schooling more with a view to competing. She still works six times a week and gets plenty of turnout.
 
Kat said:
What is odd is that this has happened now when she is probably doing less roadwork and more work on a surface than she has done in the last year and a half.
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Not odd at all - roadwork is great for (bare) hooves and surfaces do nought for building good hooves
 
Just an observation because I wouldn't want to suggest that you ignore the vet. I had a pony come to me who had some big issues and horrible hooves with thin soles that were constantly bruised. The farrier pulled his shoes and we did just as Lucy suggests above, using pads and boots to protect him. Then he carried on living out (he wouldn't stable anyway). I'd have done that by choice anyway because, as long as he could be made comfortable, I'd have wanted him to be moving about to stimulate the sole.
Anyway, a word of hope for you - within maybe 6 months his soles were transformed and ever since then he's been rock crunching over pretty much all surfaces. I didn't even have him on a "barefoot diet" at first, but he still came good.
 
Tinypony said:
Just an observation because I wouldn't want to suggest that you ignore the vet. I had a pony come to me who had some big issues and horrible hooves with thin soles that were constantly bruised. The farrier pulled his shoes and we did just as Lucy suggests above, using pads and boots to protect him. Then he carried on living out (he wouldn't stable anyway). I'd have done that by choice anyway because, as long as he could be made comfortable, I'd have wanted him to be moving about to stimulate the sole.
Anyway, a word of hope for you - within maybe 6 months his soles were transformed and ever since then he's been rock crunching over pretty much all surfaces. I didn't even have him on a "barefoot diet" at first, but he still came good.
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perhaps when suggesting box rest the vet was unaware that the horse could be booted and padded for turnout which would totally protect his feet. Some vets don't seem to know much about boots and pads. Other than wrapping him up in cotton wool by stabling to protect his feet I don't understand the vet's thinking.
 
Sorry not sure what you mean caddy? My vet has recommended box rest while the bruising resolves. I don't have any boots or pads so that isn't an immediate option but one I'm looking into to try and reduce the time she needs box rest for.
 
Right so I'm trying to digest all of this and work out a plan of action. Oberon gave me a list of supplements to consider, any input on which are "best" bearing in mind that this isn't a horse who needs to lose weight and can be prone to stressing in the box.

Pro Hoof http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-1...ht_1748wt_1048

ForagePlus Balancer http://shop.forageplus.com/epages/es...8/Products/FPW

Or – if you want no frills economy – then there is now Pro Balance + http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-BALANC...ht_1072wt_1037

I'm not going to try the meta balance, I don't like the idea of getting something that requires me to fib to get it.....

Second feeding question is: Although you say that she should only "need" the suppliment, salt, linseed, and a "safe base" such as unmolassed beet or fast fibre, I have a few weeks worth of pure condition left. Given that she isn't overweight and that this is a low sugar/starch feed is there any reason I can't use this as my base until I have run out and then just use beet?
 
Another question:

When I spoke to the vet I asked whether I should be doing anything to help her feet and she suggested getting some NAF Rock Hard. I've not used this before, is it worth a go? I currently have Kevin Bacon Dressing which I use in dry weather, the vet didn't know enough about what was in it to say whether to use it or not. Would you use the Kevin Bacon, buy some Rock Hard or use nothing?
 
I've asked the vet about boots and pads and she has said for now she'd like to continue with box rest but we have a review appointment booked for 2 weeks and she has suggested that if I am interested in trying boots and pads I get them for then and she can see how comfortable she is in them. She did think it was a good idea for getting her out and about sooner though. So I'm going to measure her feet tonight and order some I think, they will soon pay for themselves if I can avoid putting the shoes back on.

Her concern about turnout in the school is getting her over the rough concrete yard to the school and thinks that she will be best in her box for the first two weeks, with a mild sedative if necessary.
 
Kat said:
I've asked the vet about boots and pads and she has said for now she'd like to continue with box rest but we have a review appointment booked for 2 weeks and she has suggested that if I am interested in trying boots and pads I get them for then and she can see how comfortable she is in them. She did think it was a good idea for getting her out and about sooner though. So I'm going to measure her feet tonight and order some I think, they will soon pay for themselves if I can avoid putting the shoes back on.

Her concern about turnout in the school is getting her over the rough concrete yard to the school and thinks that she will be best in her box for the first two weeks, with a mild sedative if necessary.
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I had a mare with hideously thin soles, they were so soft when her shoes came off you could 'squish' them with your fingers! I had to find the happy medium initially between box rest and turning out/exercising. When shoes come off it take a while for the circulation to return to the feet, movement helps this and my vet explained that when stood in the box my mare would effectively get 'pins and needles' in her feet, this would make her look hideously lame when she came out the box initially. I got told to walk her as much as we could on concrete. Initially she hobbled out the box, but the more we did the better she got, even 5 minutes walking on the rough concrete in our car park would see an improvement. I let her go slowly and pick her own way, and we gradually built it up and up, after a few days she was walking out of her box better and doing 15 min walking. She was uncomfortable at first but we persevered slowly and 2 weeks saw a big improvement and she was being turned out again with the others. Her soles now are like rocks.

I've seen this now in 2 that had shoes pulled, standing still did them no favours - although it was fascinating to see the changes in their feet as the feet started to come alive again! It's really made me think about what shoes actually do to feet and how the affect the horses circulation etc.

FWIW too, I hack out, work on an abrasive school surface and put my horses in a walker with a concrete floor and I have never, ever found that their feet wear down, if anything they now grow quicker than they ever have.

My point is that there is a hell of a lot going on in your girls feet right now that you can't see and some of that will be making her look even worse than she is. If you can move her a little do it, it really really does help whether it's 10 min turned out in a school or a wander round a concrete car park. The best thing to toughen soles is to remove shoes, feed correctly and walk, walk, walk....

Good luck!
 
She's currently doing laps of her stable to express her displeasure at being kept in so she is moving around! ;)

I'm reluctant to ignore what the vet has told me at this stage as the vet has seen her and seen what she has to cross to get to the school. It is concrete but there is one section that is stony and rough concrete, it is also a steep slope. I've seen another horse with foot issues on it and that section made her look very sore. But I will certainly remember what you have said for when we can start getting her out again.

Thanks for the support.
 
Kat said:
Right so I'm trying to digest all of this and work out a plan of action. Oberon gave me a list of supplements to consider, any input on which are "best" bearing in mind that this isn't a horse who needs to lose weight and can be prone to stressing in the box.

Pro Hoof http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-1...ht_1748wt_1048

ForagePlus Balancer http://shop.forageplus.com/epages/es...8/Products/FPW

Or – if you want no frills economy – then there is now Pro Balance + http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-BALANC...ht_1072wt_1037

I'm not going to try the meta balance, I don't like the idea of getting something that requires me to fib to get it.....

Second feeding question is: Although you say that she should only "need" the suppliment, salt, linseed, and a "safe base" such as unmolassed beet or fast fibre, I have a few weeks worth of pure condition left. Given that she isn't overweight and that this is a low sugar/starch feed is there any reason I can't use this as my base until I have run out and then just use beet?
Click to expand...

Anyone?
 
the reason for the pads and boots is so that she can go over stoney sections safely and can therefore go out somewhere to avoid the stress of constant stabling.

I've never found putting hardener on to be beneficial. I prefer to get the feet to grow and soles to thicken and toughen up by work. In this sort of instance the work would only be turn out or in the school etc but with the insurance of thick pads in the boots. That way the feet are fully protected but the horse moves, which appart from it's mental well being, stimulates the feet to grow.


As for supplements then I use meta balance formula 1 and have found it to be good. I cannot see any reason why you shouldn't use up the pure feed until it runs out.
 
Thanks :) the vet suggested seeing how she was in boots when they come to review her so I will get some, and if they arrive in time or if she's doing her nut in the stable I'll try popping her in the school in them.

Anyway she was much calmer tonight, in fact like a different horse! Phew!

Have ordered some pro hoof and linseed and will start introducing them when they arrive. I've started giving her salt already as I had some already.
 
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