Discomfort from heel wedges? Do they actually work?

[seabiscuit]

My boy had some very slight heel wedges put on his back feet last week. He was seriously uncomfortable afterwards, looked very stiff.
I thought he was better yesterday and back to normal, but trotted him up tonight and he really did look crap. Short striding and not flexing hocks properly.
So my question is, it is normal for slight heel wedges to cause that much discomfort initially?
Also do you feel that heel wedges improved your horses action in the long run or not?

 

[perenzo]

Hi my horse has wedges on his front feet, as he is rather flat footed..his feet have imrproved his feet look better...the blacksmith said i should get them so i did, they are quite expensive though... he did used to trip alot but he doesnt now so i am pleased.

 

[Gingernags]

My farrier says that pads and wedges actually compress the feet more, so the heels can't grow.

He tends to use shoes with 2 or no toe clips to shorten the toes, and support the heels to get the heels to grow.

Though its possible I could have that wrong but I'm sure thats what he said.

Maybe its just a case of your horse getting used to them. I guess your feet would be a bit sore if you suddenly started wearing higher heels all the time?

 

[seabiscuit]

Thanks guys. Just cannot see the logic in heel wedges really so wanted to see if there were any success stories in using them.
The only horse I know with heel wedges is a crippled 15 year old that has had heel wedges on it back feet all its life. How can it be so crippled when all it has done in its lifetime is dressage? I suppose other factors do come into play but it does make me wonder....

Grr not pleased that I had them put on! My vet wanted them on, farrier did not want them. Difficult to know what to do when there is a conflict of opinion.

 

[seabiscuit]

[ QUOTE ]
My farrier says that pads and wedges actually compress the feet more, so the heels can't grow.

He tends to use shoes with 2 or no toe clips to shorten the toes, and support the heels to get the heels to grow.

Though its possible I could have that wrong but I'm sure thats what he said.



[/ QUOTE ]

I am sure that is what my farrier said as well! THink that he has also been using the same technique with the toe clipss to try and get his heels up before

 

[Gingernags]

Asti's were a horrible state before I changed farriers, and Byters were worse, heels collapsed.

After 5 or 6 shoeings from new farrier, both are looking much better, angles of feet are getting better and heels are actually growing!

I tend to side with farriers over feet, as farriers study horses feet and nothing else for what - 3 or 4 years? Vets study all things for lots of animals for 5 years. Farries are way more specialised. But thats obviously my opinion!

I'd give the horse a few days and see if there is any improvement.

 

[perenzo]

What you have said i can totally understand that the heels will not grow, the wedges my horse has on its feet are quite heavy and look very complex....but its raised an intresting point as my horse has had them on for approx 4mts now and has never been lame, and now he has had x rays and his ocd condition has come back which was treated at 3 he is now 8...although this maybe just me being paranoid but a very intresting point about the other horse being lame.

 

[Maggie2]

One of the worst things I ever did as to put my flat footed mare with DJD into wedges, she was crippled and far from 'getting used to them' as was suggested she got so much worse we had to remove them.

 

[Butterbean]

Farrier recommended wedges in hind shoes for one of our horses, who's had lots of hind leg lamenesses and back problems for the last few years, most recently spavin in one hock (plus has really crap feet in general).
The wedges have helped him so much, he is like a new horse. Is full of beans and feels great when he's just been shod, so must be doing him some good, and he looks and feels much looser in his action. There wasn't an initial "uncomfortable" period when he first had them, though.

 

[sally2008]

What your farrier applied under the pads could make alot of difference. Do you know he used impression material or something like Magic Cushion and hemp? If not, it could be uneven pressure that is causing the problem.

 

[1CTrenowath]

My ID gelding had heel wedges on from around 3-4 years ago until last summer. This was as recommended by vet and farrier to alter the angle of his stifle joint due to patella problems (upward fixation AND collapsing...!!!

) I was warned by my farrier that eventually the extra pressure on the heels would make them collapse - up until summer '06 farrier was really impressed with how well his heels stood up to his 'high heels', however they finally started to crumble and collapse - so off they came. They goods news is that due to much improved muscle and tone thanks to my scary instructor, he has managed well without them since

. Oh, but has been lame since with coffin joint problems.... - Grrrr

.

 

[josephinebutter2]

My boy had them put on at the vets instruction. He couldn't walk on them and farrier took them off next time and just supported the heel with round shoes with a rubber pad which was thicker at the heel than toe and he was loads better.

Put them back on this time without asking me and he was crippled again. Had to pay to have them changed again!!!!

I think some horses just don't get on with them.

There needs to be a happy medium in my opinion, as if the horse is not comfortable, there must be pain somewhere, which means they are doing damage somewhere else.

My opinion is that it is not worth causing further injury to cure the original problem. Fair enough if the horse is on box rest, but it's not fair to expect them to hobble round the field or work when they are uncomfortable as they will just end up with a different injury to add to the first one!

 

[seabiscuit]

Thank you very much for all your replies people- that was all very interesting to read!

Just to update on the situation-

My horse was slightly better after having his heel wedges on for two weeks. But he was no longer flexing either hind leg properly at all ( it was bad before the wedges, but was then worse), his neck had become low set and was in a fairly fixed position. He was holding hisc back hollow and stiff as he moved.

Despite this vet and physio both seemed to think that he was doing very well but I strongly disagreed with them.

Had them removed with an emergency visit by the farrier at 7am this morning as could not stand having them on a second longer.After they were removed He instantly looked so much better.

He has now lost an awful amount of top line.

A bloody expensive and compeltly pointless exercise. Will probably take his body about a month to get back to normal again I guess.