Foot Balance - Prolonged Lameness

L

lozza_cook

Active Member
Joined
5 March 2007
Messages
48
Visit site
Hi,

My horse is lame on a circle and vet has diagnosed it being due to the dodgy confirmation on that foot and we need to help him by altering the foot balance. He's always been shod well so it is not a case of bad farriery. X-rays are clean other than a bit of sidebone.

He has had egg bars to try allieviate the problem for 3 weeks and has 8 weeks off work in total but still isn't 100% sound. Has anyone else had anything similar and how quickly have they come sound again and have they stayed sound?

If he doesn't come sound after another shoeing i'll take him for a MRI to see if it is anything more sinister going on.

Thanks
Laura
 
having the same problem with mine - on 2 months box rest and heart bar shoes. I dont think he is lame to ride! how many horses are sound on a circle when lunged on the hard?? I will follow vets advice but if no different i will cont as before and make sure farrier is keeping a close eye on him. he could live in bar shoes - if it helps I am willing to give it a go!!
 
I've currently got a similar problem and also went through all this with my last horse. Lame, usually only on a circle on hard ground, occasionally on the soft on a circle and sharp turns in one direction. Both my horses went from regular shoes to heart bars, then with sole guard, then with wedges. Last horse finally went for MRI after x-rays kept showing nothing. MRI showed he was knackered. Current horse goes for second x-rays on Monday - which I doubt will show anything, the first ones didn't. After that I'll be after MRI. I just hope with this horse they might find something they can fix. Good luck with yours.
frown.gif
 
Yep ligament damage. Extensive damage from the foot going up into the leg. I didn't really understand the technical report and I certainly can't remember it in detail, but the best possible prognosis was "he might eventually be field sound and able to plod round the roads after shock wave therapy and prolonged box rest" but expert was "not optimistic". I had him PTS.
 
well, this could be long.

I had an absolute nightmare with one of my horses, with lameness caused by hoof imbalance. Your statement that its not your farrier because he is good is so wide from the mark unfortunately. I was using an AWCF farrier who did all the remedial referrals in the area.

We had a fall on the road where he went right down onto his shoulders - hyper-extending every joint below - the tripping cased byt the hoof imbalance (despite the fact he was shod 2 days before!)

Anyway, he wasn't righht, and called the vet who over a period did nerve blocks etc and decided he had navicular (nothing on x-rays but they said there doesn't have to be) This dragged on for about 4 months and I decided I wanted a second opinion go that - only thing they said was that the feet were imbalanced and so then got a referral to the vet school. (after a HUGE battle with the vets as they said he was sound) The original vet had put him in heart bar shoes to support the back of the foot, but the senior parner had taken over and put him in aluminium eggbars. I was not happy with this. They came off so easily and it meant that the horse was completley unbalanced with only one on. Secondly, over an extended period of time the pressure on the heels crushes the horn tubules and wrecks the foot anyway.

So referral to vet school where he was 2/5 lame, 24 x-ray plates later and still nothing. When the vet schools farrier came to look at his feet he saw the eggbars that had come off - there were indentaions around the heel area - the shoes had only been on for a week. Turns out the eggbars had been rubbing his heels - the foot expands and contracts naturally - effectively my horse had been lame from blisters from the sodding shoes!!

Sooo (sorry warned you it would be long!!) eventually my original belief that it was soft tissue damage was backed up by the vet school - so much so my insurance compnay did not put an exclusion on his policy despite a large pay out.

I wish i had taken his shoes off and given him a few months off to let his feet heal themselves - then look again to see what we were dealing with or whether it had resolved. The same horse was poisoned last year and came doen with toxic laminitis and this time we have left the shoes off. It hasn't been easy, it is a lot of hard work, but I fingers and toes crossed have a horse that is well on the way to recovery - shoes would have damaged internal structures that were already highly stressed - I have another farrier now (again AWCF) who is fully supportive of this.

I would always take the horses shoes off for a couple of months every year now - it makes a huge difference to the quality of the hoof growth and allows the feet to heal.

sorry its not a magic wand stiry, but if the feet are imbalanced that is your farriers responsibilty. It is often not truly possible to balance a foot correctly without xrays so not alltogether uncommon!! Professionals are not infallible no matter what their reputation.

if your insurance is willing to pay for an MRI have it done as it may be able to pinpoint a soft tissue injury in the ddt etc which would need longer than 8 weeks off!

Good luck!
 
I agree with you Avenger: removing the shoes is often the way to go. I put my horse in the hands of an Equine Podiatrist (DAEP) trained in the KC LaPierre method. It quite literally saved her life as it was her last chance. The improvement was amazing and she is a happy, sound, barefoot horse now, having had 2 years and counting that she wouldn't have seen.
 
I had massive problems with my horse & foot balance. He was off for about 8 months with it. For him the greatest problem was diagnostic; it took a long time to resolve his foot imbalance was causing bilateral lameness in coffin, fetlock & knee joint & one shoulder....

Once we figured out that, a lot of very careful shoeing & box rest got him sound everywhere bar his off coffin joint; which was resolved by having his joint medicated.

NB: His diagnostic problems were due to a novice vet & my horses resistance to nerve blocks....
 
My boy went lame 8 months ago. he had a microscopic tear in one of the tendons that attaches onto the pedal bone. This was caused by poor foot balance which had probably been building up for several years. My horse has always been shod well and on time. however this does ot mean that it was good shoeing and like anything what is good for one horse isn't for another. We stuck with our farrier as he has shod our horse for 10 years. However after 6 months he was stil lame and I wasn't convinced there was nothing else we could do. So I took the plunge and got a fresh set of eyes to lok at my horses feet and had a new farrier shoe him. the results were immediate. he swung throgh properly in both front legs and you couldn't even tell he was lame. he is now only slightly lame on a circle but to the eye you can barely tell.
What I am trying to say is although you may think your farrier is good, we didn't have a problem with ours and stil dont, but sometimes a fresh set of eyes and new way of shoeing will make the world of difference.
Good luck
smile.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top