Foot advice

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Topsy2014

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I would be really grateful for anyone's thoughts or advice on my situation.

My horse had a 'navicular pain' diagnosis 4 years ago and has had her shoes off ever since. Her heels had collapsed and toe was long. Over all her feet look better but we have struggled with footiness in summer over stones. I restrict grazing, had her on a track this summer and feed copra, soaked oats and forage plus balancer and hay. Both vets are happy with her weight wise and feeding regime (lameness vet and hind gut vet) and she does look the best she has ever been in terms of musculature and weight. (She was a poor doer)

She has been treated since June for a hind gut inbalance and her feet have started to become concave and she has been as I thought far more comfortable.

She recently went lame behind (LH) so I called the vet and she had a work up yesterday at the vet. I was thinking the worst (PSD or arthritis) but they rung and said when they blocked her LH she came sound. So basically she is too foot sore to do a proper work up. She has been diagnosed as having LGL (LH pedal bone has a ski tip on it which is indicative of chronic laminitis) and they did find mild spavins on her hock x-rays although the blocks to the hock made no difference to her lameness. There was no pedal bone rotation on her feet.

She strides out heel first on smooth surfaces, she is fine on grass, she looks short behind on a surface - she is probably only 1 or 2/10ths lame I would say. They only blocked one foot during the work up and did not block the foot at the same time as say the hock so I don't know at this point if there is anything else higher up going on.

So they want her shod of course! The shoe will help hold the foot together?! She has very sensitive feet (I know that!!) and when I said shoes made her lame, they said oh yes we have horses at the clinic that can be quite sore 4 days after a shoeing - you just have to keep shoeing to make the foot stronger!

Am I wrong in thinking this just does not make sense? I actually want to scream! If they had said, we want to lift the sole off the floor to make her more comfy I could understand that although I can achieve that through hoof boots.

I just want some advice on this, where to go, who to contact. She is trimmed by a farrier very irregularly but he doesn't touch soles or frogs. They are going to do a cushings test as she is a TB so not an obvious candidate for chronic laminitis.

Am I missing something in her management?
 
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The only thing might be to get grazing/hay tested if viable? My trimmer recently put hers on to forageplus or pro hoof can't remember which and said she did notice a difference from their more bespoke minerals. I used to use just out grazing analysis as we had hay off the same land, now that is not quite as true I use equimins but supplement with additional Magnesium and phosphorous to counteract are very high calcium levels. My lad does have pretty flat soles, probably restricted by where his pedal bone sits but I have seen some improvement in concavity/footiness since adding the extras.

If she is ok on grass/getting to and from the field and I don't see a problem with booting her for work, if she needed footwear all the time I would perhaps investigate some of the plastic shoes on the market, the new easyshoe etc. You may then find she needs trimming more often too though and you could maybe find someone EPAUK or UKNHCP registered just to see if your farrier is missing anything that helps.

are her soles reasonably thick, no thrush going on?

I wouldn't shoe or panic yet ;)
 
Any advice for trimmers in my area - Cambridge? She seems fine on grass - and on tarmac. I thought her feet were doing ok and her soles seem quite thick at the front of the frog, her collateral grooves are quite deep. Her bars are overlaid so that may be something to consider.

I am at a loss really. :(
 
Are you on the phoenix forum? I can't think of any barefooters who have trimmers up there off the top of my head but someone on there might do.

Re overlaid bars - I think the general thought is that if the bars are a bit funky they are making up for structural issues elsewhere. Frank's front ones (his flatter feet) get a bit odd at times, and we did wonder if they were creating 'sore spots' but trimming them definitely made him footier, just thought we would try it, didn't try it again! (CPtrayes said he would be so she got a gold star for that one!)
 
I don't think forage plus has yeast in it, where pro hoof does. I know that I have had at least one horse that went footie when not on yeast. So you could try adding 50g of brewers yeast (progressive earth, eBay) or 15g of yeasacc (live yeast, lower amount)


ps Thanks for the star Ester :)
 
My horse was always footy on stony surfaces, and despite being asked not to, my farrier always trimmed his soles (which were thin and sensitive anyway). I haven't used him since May, and after reading up on Rockley Farm I let him self trim as much as he could on my dry sandy soil. All I have done since then is tidy up with a rasp (from underneath, mimicking self trimming, and a small bevel) and had a good trimmer once in that time. I plan to have that trimmer maybe twice a year just to ensure we are doing okay.
He is developing concavity on the fronts (always did have on his hinds) and is more comfortable on the stones - not yet 100% but much better. His diet was always BF friendly for various reasons.
I don't know if this helps, but from my experience and looking at Rockley Farm blog you might decide to do the research and take on his foot care more yourself?
 
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