collapsed heels update

[Jericho]

Some of you may remember my horse who was diagnosed with Navicular brought on by collapsed heels and everyone was so helpful with advice and support on here that I thought I would give an update with some piccies (apologies for the size but not sure how to resize them at the mo). There have also been some recent posts from people whose horses have had the same problem so I thought this may help them too.

The current prognosis is very good - it looks like we have caught the Navicular very early and minimised damage - can start hacking lightly now in walk as he is sound on straight, very slightly short on circle but vet / farrier see no reason that he will come back to be a happy hacker / low level rc horse again.

In April before any remedial farriery right fore

Right fore now (with natural balance shoes and Equilox to support heels)

Left fore before

Left fore now (in natural balance shoes with Equilox to support heels)

Angles dont really show how much the Hoof pastern axis has changed but you get the idea - more importantly the heels are now not collapsing in but are growing quickly and in the right direction!

Just goes to show the importance of a good farrier and how much they can influence confirmation.

Thanks for looking

 

[peanut]

Thanks for posting. I'm interested to see the difference as my horse has mildly collapsed heels and has started wearing NB shoes. My farrier however seems to have shorted the toes with these shoes much more than yours has.

 

[Flame_]

That looks and sounds good to me. Thanks for the update. I hope he keeps improving for you. Are you feeding something like farriers formula as well?

 

[Jericho]

Flame - He is on Top Spec Comp balancer and farrier said to give him more biotin and oil to supplement this - so far so good as his feet are growing at a good rate to get his heels up

Roops - they are cut back a good deal more than they were with previous farrier. new farrier had a good look at xrays and judged how much should come off. The photos dont really show it that well but his hoofs looked like pony ones compared to the big plate like things he used to have.

 

[peanut]

Mine's on Top Spec as well (Comprehensive in winter, Anti-Lam in spring/summer) which I thought already contained the RDA for biotin. Which oil are you feeding and why?

 

[Bosworth]

They look 100% better - the first farrier should be shot!! But I still think they need to come back further - you have little heel support. The shoe should be level with the bulbs and the toes should be cut back especially bearing in mind they are natural balance shoes.

 

[Jericho]

Top Spec contains the recommended amount of biotin for general good health condition so the extra biotin is to just help out a little extra. he also gets MSM, HCA in joint supplement. Farrier said any oil is good, corn oil, sunflower or cod liver. I have to say his feet are in excellent condition - no cracks or anything despite rock hard ground at the moment and little rain for ages here and his back feet are bare so the Top Spec must be doing them good - just shame that they have such terrible conformation! I rang Top Spec for advice and they said adding just extra biotin will support our programme and didnt think that adding their Hoof supplement would be necessary as the Comp Balancer had most of that anyway. They were very helpful!

Bosworth - interesting you should say that about the heel support. For the first remedial farriery he had the heels way back with pads underneath the shoe but this made him worse. For the 2nd shoeing he had the heart bars but this really made the heels roll over and collapse underneath. The equilox is raising the heels and tipping the hoof forward so that the pedal bone is at a more correct angle (it was horizontal). The farrier is trying to realign the angle and stop pressure on the heels which are trying to grow down. The previous shoes were inhibiting the growth. As the heel part of the hoof grows the shoe will come more and more back

 

[ester]

much much better, they were really bad.

As the intial pics were in April the new farrier is only at the start of the road really. I think they are looking much better and should continue to improve.

How long had they been like the first pics, just out of interest before onset of navi

 

[Jericho]

Well I got him at the end of September last year. I knew he was flat footed but he passed a 2 stage vetting. I had discussed with my farrier about what we could do to improve his heels and it wasnt until I looked really closely at his feet in February after he pulled a shoe that I realised how bad it was. Unfortunately I should have really changed farrier then because then then farrier didnt really discuss the issues with me and try to rectify. He started going noticeably short end of March but was probably uncomfortable for a while prior.

I realise now that he has been in natural balance shoes when I bought him but my farrier just put him back in normal ones. I suspect the problem had be held at bay in his previous home but I unfortunately in my ignorance didnt help the situation over the following months. I have to say I have learnt an awful lot about foot conformation now and would be looking very very closely at any future purchase!