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stace1

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need some advice Re: My mares poor feet. she was fine through the winter months but that last 3 month her feet have gone down hill, i think its mainly due to the dry weather, but she was going 6-8 week inbetween shoeing, shes now losing them after 2 week!!! her feet are cracking with very little growth. she only has front but advised to keep them on or shell be footy, my only concern is shell have no hoof left, where the nails keep getting ripped out!!!

so any supplements? special things put on her feet, ive heared things about glue on shoes, or things you can put under the shoe to aid growth?? any particular type of feed ??


she currently has her hooves hosed daily with effol applied at least once a day. and is on pasture mix and chop!! shes a 4yr old
 
It may be related to her diet. It sounds to me liike possibly low grade laminitis. Basically, her diet is affecting her feet, causing weak walls, cracks etc.
The best thing is to really analyse her diet. Is she on rich grazing? Cereals?
Sometimes if the feet cant hold a shoe its best to get the shoes off. Nature is just telling you that the feet are not strong enough. What might even happen is she could rip a large part off her foot which could really hurt her.
I think the best thing for her may be to get the shoes off her, and put on hoof boots and pads. These will support her feet but allow them to function more naturally.

The shoe actually prevents the foot from contracting and expanding optimally, which effects blood flow. This in turn actually prevents maximum blood flow, and nutrients from getting to the feet.

I think that something may have happened in the past few months that has really effected circulation and nutrition to her feet, which has resulted in weak hooves.

Im sure someone more experienced than me will post shortly, so hopefully they will be able to give more advise.

Ps, just notice that you are applying effol to her hooves. I dont think this will help. In this country we tend to have more of a problem with damp feet as apposed to dry feet. Drier the feet, the better. I think that if you can implove circulation to her feet this will help way more than hoof oil, as these can actually inhibit the hoofs natural ability to regulate moisture.
 
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sorry you are having problems with your horses feet. my mare went through a similar problem a couple of yearsago in the summer when it was very dry. i started feeding formula4feet and this has made a big difference, so i have kept her on it all of the time and her feet are fine. i only put effol on once or twice a month. why do you hose her feet each day? im no expert but feel that changing from dry to wet and then oiling will not be good for the feet. i may be completely wrong but sure ive reqad it somewhere.... anyway i think good feet come from diet mainly....good luck:D:D
 
I think op means she's using the effol (sp) mosturiser not the oil. There are quite a few good supplements, farriers formula, pro feet and formula 4 feet etc. Cornucrecine (sp) is a good one to apply directly to the foot.
 
Jennyharvey said:
It may be related to her diet. It sounds to me liike possibly low grade laminitis. Basically, her diet is affecting her feet, causing weak walls, cracks etc.
The best thing is to really analyse her diet. Is she on rich grazing? Cereals?
Sometimes if the feet cant hold a shoe its best to get the shoes off. Nature is just telling you that the feet are not strong enough. What might even happen is she could rip a large part off her foot which could really hurt her.
I think the best thing for her may be to get the shoes off her, and put on hoof boots and pads. These will support her feet but allow them to function more naturally.

The shoe actually prevents the foot from contracting and expanding optimally, which effects blood flow. This in turn actually prevents maximum blood flow, and nutrients from getting to the feet.

I think that something may have happened in the past few months that has really effected circulation and nutrition to her feet, which has resulted in weak hooves.

Im sure someone more experienced than me will post shortly, so hopefully they will be able to give more advise.

Ps, just notice that you are applying effol to her hooves. I dont think this will help. In this country we tend to have more of a problem with damp feet as apposed to dry feet. Drier the feet, the better. I think that if you can implove circulation to her feet this will help way more than hoof oil, as these can actually inhibit the hoofs natural ability to regulate moisture.
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Exactly that!!! :)
 
Mine are all barefoot and last year I found out about the 'barefoot mix' of magnesium oxide, linseed, brewers yeast and seaweed. They've all been on that (or at least on the mag ox, my mare refuses to eat seaweed!) and the one who had rubbish feet is much improved - he has grown a much tighter hoof that will eventually give him a good hoof pastern axis when it grows in completely. He has had a broken back h/p axis for years despite my best efforts! I suspect even for shod horses this mix would be of benefit - have a look at Feet First, and the UKNHCP forum for a bit more info.
 
maggiesmum said:
Cornucrescine stimulates growth but that doesn't necessarily mean good quality growth.
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That's as maybe but if the feet aren't growing much as op said then any cracks etc will take longer to grow out. There are a few different cornucresine products now, not just the original one. Correct me if i'm wrong but is one of them not called daily hoof moisturiser?
 
i put a mixture of hoof oil & stokholme tar (Mixed together in a little tub) onto the whole of Tims feet, frogs, sole, back & hoof. He has fantastic feet as the tar does help to moisturise them, even my farrier has said what a good set of feet he has.
 
my TB had really bad feet always cracking and very little growth i had him on farriers formula for a couple of years but it made no differnce he had biotin in his feed and i used kevin bacons hoof moisturiser ( recommonded by my farrier) on his feet its more expensive than effol but i noticed a difference when i used it. also another horse on my yard has kevin bacons and he's feet have improved with it.

also someone else on my yard uses a supplement from hilton herbs called hoof and health i have never used it but she swears by it so might be worth a look.
 
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