Could poor farrier practice cause problems with annular ligament.

[jgmbng]

As in the title really.

My pony has been diagnosed with annular ligament desmitis, and is at the moment in wedge shoes as he has very little heel. If we do not have any improvement he is to be referred for full scans (my vet only has the small portable scanner) on both hinds.

Another horse on the yard ( using the same farrier ) has also been diagnosed with the same problem.

There are only 8 of us on the yard (only one other using same farrier) and to me this seems rather a high percentage of ponies to suffer the same problem when it appears not to be too common of a problem.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AmyMay]

Has he been chronically lame?

 

[jgmbng]

It started around 18 months ago and he was treated for a year for arthritis in his hock. £4000 of treatment later no improvement ( This is another story !). A different vet from same practice then diagnosed the annular ligament desmitis.

I am convinced this has been the problem all along although x rays did show minor changes in his hocks, hence the diagnosis.

The question comes from the fact it started around 8 months after I changed my farrier.

I now have a remedial farrier working along side of the vet.

 

[AmyMay]

Annular ligamemt probss can be secondary to rock problems, so would be hard to point the finger of blame at farrier i would have thought.