Farrier may have damaged my horse

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Charlie007

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I had a new farrier out this evening to look at my horses feet. I have had my previous farrier for over ten years. I am changing for a few reasons but nothing to do with his workmanship. New farrier has said that my horse may have a huge cavity in his front foot and it's obviously been there for ages. We won't know the extent of damage until new farrier comes out next week.
Have I got any come back on my old farrier if the foot is a mess and horse has to have time off etc?
 
1) A farrier may not form a diagnosis, give a prognosis, or treat unless referred by a member of the Royal collage of veterinary surgeons or similar recognised body
2) If the horse has not been under the vet for treatment or soundness assessment due to any ongoing problem I don’t see how your new farrier can do anything other than request that the vet be present when any examination is made.
3) As you don’t seem to have had a problem with your previous farriers workmanship ( and I assume the horse to be sound) then I feel due to the above it is going to be hard to prove any retrospective misconduct , thus make any claim.
 
Ester, the suspected cavity is on the inside of his near fore. It's only guess work until shoe removed but if cavity is as big as suspected half of the foot will be affected.

Heelfirst, should the farrier have mentioned to me that there could be a problem? I thought the job I paid him well to do was to look after my horses feet?
 
I'm really struggling to picture that sorry, is he talking under the sole? or just round the white line sort of thing. Half a foot seems a massive amount of cavity to have without lameness and what would have caused it?
 
Ester, it's basically where the nails are on the inside. So its the hoof wall, from the bottom in large arch meaning that a sizable amount of foot will have to be cut away. Of course I'm hoping that once new farrier has shoe off its not as bad as first thought but if it is bad I will be extremely angry.
 
Faracat, unfortunately can't post pictures off PlayBook but after talking to new farrier I think his foot will probably end up looking like that. He is sound at the minute so I don't think it's an abcess. He is unable to go barefoot due to weak feet so I have no idea what farrier will do if he has to cut it out?
 
If the horse is not unsound then there is no good reason that I can think of to hack off half the hoof wall :(

Lots of horses have hollow sounding feet, and that's about all your new farrier can be judging from - the sound when he taps the hoof wall.

If he does have poor connection causing a hollow sound then the reason will probably be dietary, which will also be the cause of the weak feet. The problem is unlikely to be due to your previous farrier, especially as the horse has not been unsound.

If you want to know how to change the diet to grow stronger feet, check out some of the barefoot threads. The diet information applies equally to shod feet.
 
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Well if he does end up cutting away the hoof wall over the cavity like the photo above, I hope it helps you to know that she (the mare) was sound in that photo. She had a second abscess the other side too.



ETA. My mare was not sound before the hoof wall was cut away, but sound after. So it is a different situation to yours.
 
Crikey that foot really is a mess, glad she is sound. New farrier saw rasp marks right up near the coronet and said old farrier has been rasping goo much off the hoof wall making hoof weak. I will just have wait till next week and hope for the best. I have been through so much with this horse I have become obsessive with keeping him sound and I'm just a bit gutted that if there has been a problem brewing, why didn't the old farrier mention it?
 
I think this is all a bit premature.

Cavities between wall and bone (aka white line and lamina) are generally down to 'white line disease' and that is often down to guess what... diet. :D Healthy white line doesn't seem to get infected. WLD can track right up the hoof wall.
 
Quote :
Heelfirst, should the farrier have mentioned to me that there could be a problem? I thought the job I paid him well to do was to look after my horses feet?

Precisely, as a farrier I am constantly referred horses that have a problem, my first job must be to involve the clients vet for all the reasons I gave previously.
To voice my unsubstantiated opinions without professional back-up is in my view of no help to you what so ever.
There is a fine line between what a farrier is paid to do and what they sometimes believe they can do, they all know the line is there and as I tell all vet and farrier students if we overstep it then be prepared to face the consequences.
A case like yours is the perfect time to get farrier and vet working together as a team and to show you the benefits of them doing so.
As for the problem, supposing the under-run and shedding sole due to an old puncture wound, or a bruise growing out, there are many other reasons why the sole will separate, all of which could happen without the farrier being aware until the sole comes off.
Be careful that you have not got a farrier who is more intent on showing up your old farrier as that would not help the situation one bit.
 
My horse used to be riddled with white line disease and had massive cavities in his walls. It never made him lame, fortunately. The infection seemed to start in nail holes in the feet and gradually grew out after he had his shoes off.
 
Thank you all for your experiences and advice. I will keep my fingers crossed its nothing too sister. I will update next week when I know more for those interested, thanks again x
 
I would 100% insist that my vet was present before letting the farrier do anything to my horse especially as he is not your usual farrier.
 
That is quite an accusation to make and personally I'd be speaking to a vet before he starts chopping away at your horses hoof farrier or not. I had a farrier cripple my lad after a year of showing him long, I was ignorant to this until he went lame.

So now I'm very wary of drastic changes any farrier suggests and collect a second opinion from my vet.
 
Heelfirst said:
Be careful that you have not got a farrier who is more intent on showing up your old farrier as that would not help the situation one bit.
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Ditto this! I really don't see how he can diagnose a cavity in your horses hoof when he hasn't yet removed the shoe and the horse is sound. It sounds as though you've had the (new) farrier out but he didn't re-shoe your horse at the time? What did he do and why have him out not to do any work? Just seems a bit odd to me...
 
Megabeast, I wanted to speak to new farrier before he shod the horse. Horse needs alot of attention on his feet and shoes and I wanted farrier to know exactly what he was taking on. Farrier is from next village so I thought it sensible to have a word with him first and explain horses needs.
 
I second the above, I'd want to understand exactly what he was going to cut out and why before he did so, especially if your horse is sound.
Was the new farrier recommended to you?
Have you taken up references for the new farrier?

What did your old farrier say about the holes when you told him? He may have known they were there for years and just shod accordingly.
My farrier isn't great at chatting but if I ask him why he's done something he'll explain - if I didn't ask he'd just crack on.
 
Charlie007 said:
Megabeast, I wanted to speak to new farrier before he shod the horse. Horse needs alot of attention on his feet and shoes and I wanted farrier to know exactly what he was taking on. Farrier is from next village so I thought it sensible to have a word with him first and explain horses needs.
Click to expand...

If the horse needs a lot of attention in general... I'd definitely be looking at diet.
 
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