Footy Pony after farrier visit

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Fatonfreshair

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A mare I help look after who has a history of lami and is probably borderline EMS has come up pretty lame the day after the farrier trimmed and re-shod her fronts (she is unshod on the back feet). I know that both the ponies seem to have been trimmed back quite hard this time although our unshod pony is still sound. Can ponies go a bit lame/footy after a farrier visit (he has been seeing to her for a couple of years with no issues before this).

We are treating her as though it is a border-line lami attack and she has been out in the pasture this week and keeps getting her grazing muzzle off so it could be a surfeit of grass more than the farrier.

Poor pony.
 
Fatonfreshair said:
Can ponies go a bit lame/footy after a farrier visit (he has been seeing to her for a couple of years with no issues before.
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The person you should address this to is the farrier. Whether the cause is diet or his skill he needs to review the pony and advise. If it's him then he'll remember and go easier with his trim next time, if it's diet the owner needs to address this and/or involve their vet.
 
thanks for the replies. The farrier did not believe it was his trim that causes it and muttered about there being no nerve endings in the hooves - but I remain unconvinced. He will be asked to go easy next time. Pony is comfortable and took herself out to the yard for a little walk and to sniff the air but is otherwise on stable rest. Owner will get the vet out if she does not improve but she is already looking happier and not taking the weight of each foot in turn as she was doing on Friday. She is fed up being in though and there is a shouting match going on between her stable and our lonely pony in the paddock!
 
Fatonfreshair said:
thanks for the replies. The farrier did not believe it was his trim that causes it and muttered about there being no nerve endings in the hooves
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Oh boy, I've heard it all now! Farrier is an idiot if he does not know that too harsh a trim can cause soreness on a shoe change.
 
You should get the pony off all grass and give soaked hay until seen by your vet and I would suggest getting pony retested for ems and cushings as this can be sorted with a management change.
 
cptrayes said:
Oh boy, I've heard it all now! Farrier is an idiot if he does not know that too harsh a trim can cause soreness on a shoe change.
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Yes, it was a silly thing to say, too much trimming can cause soreness. However, the problem is that in self diagnosing the cause of the footiness on the farrier, precious time in changing management to treat laminitis and EMS could be lost.

Wisely, the OP is taking measures in case it is laminitis despite her doubts.
All credit to you, Fatonfreshair. Hope pony feels better very soon.
 
Unbelievable in what your farrier said! See what your pony is like in a few days. My brood mare was sore for nearly 2 weeks and gave her an alternative to bute and that certainly helped her.
 
My farrier trimmed my boy too short and he was hopping lame, so much so that I thought it was laminitis and treated it as such with box rest, soaked hay, no hard feed etc etc and got the vet out immedately. We ended up taking front xrays and there were no laminitic changes at all, the farrier had just gotten a bit over excited and took too much off. I've since changed my farrier but that's another story...
 
LouiseG said:
My farrier trimmed my boy too short and he was hopping lame, so much so that I thought it was laminitis and treated it as such with box rest, soaked hay, no hard feed etc etc and got the vet out immedately. We ended up taking front xrays and there were no laminitic changes at all, the farrier had just gotten a bit over excited and took too much off. I've since changed my farrier but that's another story...
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this sounds pretty much what has happened to the poor pony - I will talk to her owner and discuss whether to change farrier - the owner though has not had the vet out but the pony is noticeably better each day and actually took herself off this morning for a determined walk to the paddock to gaze at it longingly before I captured her and put her back in her stable. She nudges the stable door open when I am sorting her hay net but I know she will not go very far - our pony was outraged though because he was still in his stable!

thanks for all replies - very helpful as always.
 
Hi,

We have had similar issues with an elderly (23) mare with cushings. She was unshod, and after a trim she would be footsore. Just prior to a farrier visit we had both front feet xrayed. We showed the xrays to our farrier who said that she had really thin soles. After a trim that didn't include the sole he put front shoes on her and she has come sound enough to return to light work
 
My ex farrier was over trimming my mare's feet, she was barefoot. She would be barely able to walk for a week after he came. I mentioned this (obviously!) and asked him to put front shoes on to protect her soles. His reply was 'If you're not bl**dy riding it, I'm not bl**dy shoeing it!'. This from a very senior farrier who had some very high profile clients. How exactly I was supposed to ride a crippled horse escapes me.

Got the vets out, x rayed the feet, to reveal thin soles (which I knew about) and cr@p foot balance, which I'm ashamed to say I hadn't picked up on. Have a new excellent farrier now, she is shod in front and he is gradually improving the balance each visit, it can't all be done at once. So much so that when the vet who took the x rays saw the mare again recently all she could say was 'Wow!'. The mare is now sound, she had been so bad before that I was considering PTS.
 
Fatonfreshair said:
The farrier did not believe it was his trim that causes it and muttered about there being no nerve endings in the hooves
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Ask him how nerve blocks to the foot work then? Or are vets making it up?

And what about the pain caused by laminitis and thrush. Are the horses making that up?

I suspect the farrier meant there are no nerve endings in the horn which is true. But to be very simplistic a poor trim may load a weak foot in a way it can't cope with and this will cause pain via the internal structures which do have nerve endings. Likewise nail bind or prick cause pain and these tend to happen more in hooves tending towards lami.
 
Sorry people but if a horse goes lame after it has been trimmed or shod then the horse is not to blame.
The only way we are going to get the farriery profession to improve is to make sure the farriers learn from their mistakes.
Call the vet, ask him/her to have a meeting at your stable with the farrier to discuss the case, and to come up with a solution that is acceptable to all.
A farrier may not: diagnose, give a prognosis, or treat unless it is a referral.
That is why I have only taken lame horses on a referral bases for over 35 years!
 
My ex-farrier trimmed my boy too short, and he would even be sore on his shod front feet! Once I asked him to leave his sole and frog alone he was sounder, but now I use a trimmer and have a barefoot horse who is sound and walking correctly after only being unshod for 3 weeks. My farrier was not allowed to touch his soles or frogs for 9 months before taking his fronts off.

He never used to trim so much sole off, and my friend's old school farrier has never touched sole or frog because, in his words, "if the horse didn't need it he wouldn't grow it"
 
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