Coronitis

[gaelforce]

My mare has been lame for a few weeks and has recently been diagnosed with coronitis. She already has navicular syndrome in three feet (two front, one hind) but with a fantastic remedial farrier she has not been lame for over two years and is on no medication other than supplements and good feeding.

For no apparent reason she is now really sore and our farrier thinks something catastrophic has happened similar to her being galloped hard over a rough surface for a long period to cause the damage - he can also pinpoint it to between 6 and 8 weeks due to growth rings. This hasn't happened that we know of although she does mess around a lot with our gelding but other than that I am at a loss to know what has happened as when she is out she is only lightly hacking over good ground. Has anyone had anything similar and if so what was the prognosis. She is due for x rays next week and at the moment we have just been advised to keep her hooves moist with appropriate products which we are doing. She has also developed a few sandcracks and has been free of them for over 2 years now too. Our farrier has said that basically, in his words, she will lose her feet but there is new hoof growing inside but it will be a long road to sort this out. Her front hooves are hollow when tapped on one side.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[intouch]

What you are describing sounds more like this -

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=17676&src=topic

and my instinct is that it may be diet related - what are you feeding? Has there been any obvious change in feeding 6/8 weeks ago?

TBH, I would be wary of a farrier that has allowed your horse's feet to get into this state. It is not something that happens overnight. Some farriers don't even recognize white line disease, and often don't relate it to diet.

 

[cptrayes]

"itis" is inflammation. Coronitis is therefore inflammation of the coronary band. Has your mare got scabs or oozing around the coronets???

Are you absolutely sure she doesn't just have spring grass laminitis? Common things are common and coronitis is rare, whereas the timing of her lameness is bang on for dietary laminitis.

 

[gaelforce]

Hi Intouch and cptrayes-thanks for your posts.
Yes, we did change feed on advice from feed company. My mare was on veteran vitality all winter with as much hay as she wanted plus supplements which she has always had in the six years we have had her. Prior to this all other winters she has been feed D&H build up with sixteen plus mixed in. However she has always had a bit of a weight problem by end of winter coming into spring so this time we changed to veteran vitality for most of this winter and recently changed her over to slim and healthy as she was getting a bit fatter than she should be with her orthopaedic problems.

To be fair we have probably the best farriers in the UK and they have worked wonders with my mare but the last two shoeings we had another farrier (with same remedial farriery qualifications but probs not as much experience) shoe her simply due to the fact that we have to book transport to get her to the farrier as we don't have a box or lorry and for those two occasions our local transporter couldn't accomodate us and that is the only reason we had to make the change for those two occasions.

Its definitely NOT laminitis as that has been checked out by both our vet and farrier and that is one thing we can rule out at this stage. There are no scabs or oozing around around the coronet. Her hair does spike out over this area though and she did have mud fever but nothing that was not easily sorted out and which didn't appear to bother her at all.

 

[Tnavas]

The lameness may be related to the recent mudfever around her coronary band.

I have recently found that white line disease can start from a fungal infection in the coronary band where new hoof grows from.

Rub in neat Nizerol or MicremeH. Both human treatments for fungal infections. Wash the Mudfever with the Nizerol - should go very rapidly.

I have a big toe nail which has all the signs and symptoms of White line disease, thickened nail, seperation from the toe and the nail is all crumbly, scrape out the crumbly mass and it hurts like hell as you are pressing against the soft nail. Being treated with Mi Creme and is now growing through healthy. Nail was white over seperated area now growing back pink and normal.

 

[intouch]

By any chance does the coronary band look a bit like a tooth brush? I had a pony with this, and it turned out to be a copper deficiency. Not trying to diagnose here, but my vet said it was 20 years since he had seen it so it must be a pretty rare symptom, maybe suggest it to your vet? Or feed a supplement with a balanced amount of copper for a couple of months to see if it helps?

Evelyn - I always thought WLD worked it's way up from the bottom - have you any more info on that, just for interest?

 

[Tnavas]

By any chance does the coronary band look a bit like a tooth brush? I had a pony with this, and it turned out to be a copper deficiency. Not trying to diagnose here, but my vet said it was 20 years since he had seen it so it must be a pretty rare symptom, maybe suggest it to your vet? Or feed a supplement with a balanced amount of copper for a couple of months to see if it helps?

Evelyn - I always thought WLD worked it's way up from the bottom - have you any more info on that, just for interest?

I have been wondering if it does start at the top in the growth bed (coronet) and works its way down but is only visible as white line disease because the pressure from the weight of the horse and the breakdown of the horn structure allows the foot to spread and reveal the white crumbly horn.

My nail started to grow white from the nail bed so it was easy to see that it had started to grow from the nail bed, and only when it got to the end did I find that under the nail was all crumbly.

Copper and zinc are both important for the growth of all skin and hair structure. Fed copper especially my horses that used to get rain scald now don't.