MissSBird
Well-Known Member
My lovely mare has just been diagnosed with acute pedal osteopertitus. In otherwords her pedal bone is disintigrating.
A simple explanation:
because she has bad feet, there has always been more concussion on the laminae than normal. This makes them swell, rupture and damages the blood supply which in turn damages the pedal bone. Vet says she has most likely suffered from this all her life because she wasn't cared for properly when younger - neglect case.
Now this may have never come to the front if we hadn't had such a dry summer. because we have she's ended up with chronic concussive laminitus, which then damaged the pedal bone. You should see the x-rays - theres an entire chunk missing!!
Thankfully, bone does re-grow, so in time she will be healed somewhat. This problem however will always exist, so it's a case of managing it and trying to keep her feet as cushioned as possible.
Going to be discussing solutions with the farrier as follows:
No shoes at all, but boots 24/7 so that her feet arn't getting concussed by the hammering of nails.
Plastic shoes which are glued on.
Gel-pad inserts under shoes to cushion.
bar shoes to support if she must have metal shoes. Her frog is good so no need for full heart-bars.
Turnout wise:
Going to keep the out during the day and in at night. If the ground gets particularly soft possibly back to out 24/7, and if it gets very hard again will change to in all the time and beg yard-owner to let me turn her out in the soft arena for an hour every day.
Stable wise:
A thick bed is an essential now, and we're also looking into getting rubber matting so even if she scuffs the bedding aside she still won't be standing on concrete.
That's all we can think of. Any ideas much appreciated. I'll pretty much do anything to try and keep her as comfortable as possibly now we finally know what's wrong.
Thankyou!
A simple explanation:
because she has bad feet, there has always been more concussion on the laminae than normal. This makes them swell, rupture and damages the blood supply which in turn damages the pedal bone. Vet says she has most likely suffered from this all her life because she wasn't cared for properly when younger - neglect case.
Now this may have never come to the front if we hadn't had such a dry summer. because we have she's ended up with chronic concussive laminitus, which then damaged the pedal bone. You should see the x-rays - theres an entire chunk missing!!
Thankfully, bone does re-grow, so in time she will be healed somewhat. This problem however will always exist, so it's a case of managing it and trying to keep her feet as cushioned as possible.
Going to be discussing solutions with the farrier as follows:
No shoes at all, but boots 24/7 so that her feet arn't getting concussed by the hammering of nails.
Plastic shoes which are glued on.
Gel-pad inserts under shoes to cushion.
bar shoes to support if she must have metal shoes. Her frog is good so no need for full heart-bars.
Turnout wise:
Going to keep the out during the day and in at night. If the ground gets particularly soft possibly back to out 24/7, and if it gets very hard again will change to in all the time and beg yard-owner to let me turn her out in the soft arena for an hour every day.
Stable wise:
A thick bed is an essential now, and we're also looking into getting rubber matting so even if she scuffs the bedding aside she still won't be standing on concrete.
That's all we can think of. Any ideas much appreciated. I'll pretty much do anything to try and keep her as comfortable as possibly now we finally know what's wrong.
Thankyou!
