complicated barefoot history

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helencharlie

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Charlie went to the vets for a lameness work up for his hindlegs, as he was unlevel whilst being ridden. However, the night before he went lame on his front right leg. When he was at the vets, they said that they could not deal with his hindleg lameness until they had sorted out his front leg lameness.

A brief history, Charlie is a 16.2hh tb. He is 14 years old and is currently barefoot with a previous history of collapsed heels and potential for navicular to occur. (This was 5 years ago.) During the past 5 years he has been managed barefoot, until 2 years ago when he soles and heels were becoming worn down. So over the past 2 summers he has been shod (normal shoes) and coped well. At the beginning of the october his shoes were removed. He is also a poor doer who is fed on adlib hayalge, 1 stubbs scoop of alpha beet, 1 stubbs scoop of conditioning mix and 1 stubbs scoop of chaff.

At my practice there are 4 different vets. The vet who dealt with Charlie explained that his heels were collapsed again, but appeared to think that the navicular was ok. However, I then met with the 2 vets who know Charlie very well (we've seen quite a lot of the vets over the years) and they both said that there are bony changes to the navicular and he may not become sound enough to work hard again and probably be retired.

In regard to the hindlimb lameness, this could be a different matter, or it could be related as he could be compensating with his back legs.

So I am now quite confused. I have asked my farrier to contact the vets to discuss his shoeing and I have asked to meet with the vets again for further clarification of what is meant.

What would all do in situation. I've had opinions of what do the vets know?,just carry on when his shoes are to he can still do light work
 
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What bony changes? I get absolutely mad about the number of people STILL having their horses written off by vets on the basis of xrays showing navicular bone damage when there is now a complete mountain of evidence that changes to the navicular bone are only rarely anything to do with why a horse is lame. Spurs seem to make more difference than general degradation, so it would depend on what your vets have seen whether you can trust that advice without an MRI scan.

Does your horse land toe-first? you may need to take a video and watch it slomo to be sure. A toe first landing has been shown to cause ddft damage inside the feet. That and collateral ligament strain are the usual cause of lameness described as "navicular".

Was he sore when his feet wore or was he shod because it was thought they looked too short? It sounds like he does not cope with shoes at all. Boots may be a better option for him if he got sore, but barefoot feet do look very short and if he was not sore nothing needed changing.

It is also possible that if he was only footie in summer that he is one of the very many horses who do not cope barefoot on too much grass. My own come off the grass during the day when the sugars are highest (or they will as soon as I have enough of it to make them footie :) )
 
Thank you for your answer. The xrays were a bilateral radiographic navicular series front feet: mild radiographic changes. The vet also says that the navicular bone RF enthesiophytes and decrease conticomedulla definition. Also both front feet bach buoher hoof partem axis.

He was shod for the past 2 years as he was getting sore. I have old mac g1 hoof boots for him, however, as his feet grow they splay outwards and he pushes the sides of the boots outwards. He is trimmed by my farrier every 6 weeks. When he is shod he usually goes 4-6 weeks.

I havent noticed him becoming footy due to the summer grass. We dont really have a lot of good grass

I dont want to give up on him, but I really dont know where to go next with him
 
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I think I am correct in saying that with the kind of changes you are describing, it is actually unlikely that your horse is lame due to what is showing on the xrays. If you were to be able to afford to MRI him, it's extremely likely that you'd find soft tissue damage due to the poor hoof balance.

The surest, in fact the only, way I know to correct a broken back hoof/pastern axis is to build up the height of the heels with a beefy frog and a great digital cushion by working the horse appropriately barefoot.

It would seem as if shoeing has caused your horse's heels to collapse again, which has caused soft tissue damage again, and that's why he's going lame again. At least, that would be my own interpretation of what you are describing.

If he was mine, I'd get him onto Pro Hoof balancer, keep the shoes off and get him walking out, in hand if necessary. I'd restrict his intake of grass, because the most likely cause of him getting sore last time is (if his work was not increased too fast) a dietary issue. If you want more diet advice PM Oberon, she's our guru and has a crib sheet ready :)
 
Different things get picked up by different people. First thing I noted was 'soles and heels were becoming worn down'

As CPTrayes said barefoot hooves are naturally short and it is fairly common for a naturally short hoof to appear 'too short' when compared to a shod hoof. Barefooters tend to see it the other way (me included) many shod hooves are too long.

Heels are not meant to be proud of the hard sole plane, although again this is something where there can be a divergence of views between those used to barefoot wear and those more used to shod.

What I was more interested in was the element of sole wear. Soles can get worn, usually when work is increased too quickly, or when metabolic disease is present and the sole is not generating good quality horn.

The conditioning mix alone can cause footiness in some horses, especially now the grass is coming through. Chaffs vary, but many are coated with molasses or mo glo.

As the fronts have become underrun again I wonder if the toes are also too long?

I've dealt with a fair few where long front toes with or without collapsed/underrun heels have contributed to hind limb issues/lameness. When the fronts have been sorted, and with a suitable length of time to recover the hinds have come right.

I agree with CPTrayes regarding navicular bone changes. This blog post is just one example.

http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/bit-of-bind.html
 
At the moment he is barefoot and has been since last october when his shoes were removed. His heels have collapsed and the vets are recommending the shoes. However, to add further complication is that he appears to be sound at the moment, but when he went to the vets on Tuesday he was very lame in his front right. He was lame on the front right for a couple of days in both march and january this year. Both resolved themselves within a matter of days and he became sound again.

He does have short hooves and after looking at the blog photos they look about the right length. I had discussed shoes with my farrier about 10 days ago, but we felt that he needed to grow more hoof before putting any shoes on. This would be in about 3 weeks time.

I am looking at adjusting his diet again, as he really needs to gain more weight, hence the conditioning mix. I have phoned the feed company to find out what the sugar content is and I am waiting for them to phone back.

They are still on their winter turnout fields at the moment waiting for the spring grass to come through.
 
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