gel pads in feet

[hotpot]

hi has anyone out there had gell put into there horses feet, to help the concusion,,i was told that my horse has navicular syndrome, which covers a whole lot of things to do with the feet ie the vet does not know what it is he has hence the syndrome name. any way i was recomended to try these as it might help him by a friend. has anyone out there had them any info good or bad please,

 

[ihatework]

My horse with Navicular currently has this and they really do appear to have helped.
Basically a layer of gauze is placed between the foot and the shoe, they liquid gel is then syringed in to completely fill the foot and then left to set for 5/10 minutes.
The gel is called equithane, it costs about £35-40 a tube - how much is used depends entirely on the horse but mine needs the best part of 2 tubes for both front feet.
Hope that helps

 

[hotpot]

thank you for your reply, how often do you have your horse shod as the gel pads have to be changed every time, dont they.

 

[ihatework]

You would have your horse shod at it's normal interval ... so for mine thats every 5 weeks.
However my farrier manages to refit the gel pads every other shoeing, so you only need new ones on alternate shoeings.

 

[Happytohack]

I had gel pads for my pony who had laminitis. (He has Cushings). His pedal bones have slightly rotated and my farrier thought the gel pads would help. Unfortunatley they made him quite lame as they must have caused pressure on his feet. He is now shod with imprint shoes which are brilliant.

 

[cariadssogreat]

Ditto ben and jerrys although my farrier never managed to recycle the gel pads

 

[sunny123]

[ QUOTE ]

Basically a layer of gauze is placed between the foot and the shoe, they liquid gel is then syringed in to completely fill the foot and then left to set for 5/10 minutes.



[/ QUOTE ]

I had these for Rik who has very low heels but i just found that over the winter they dont work. They get wet and come away from the hoof, they didnt even last a week. waste of money when it is wet, but would probably be better in the summer.

 

[ihatework]

Really

I don't think things can get much wetter than they are currently and my horse hasn't lost any gel inserts yet. Although my farrier did stress that the foot needed to be clean and dry when the gel is applied to get them to bond/stick.

 

[hotpot]

just a update my horse has gone well in them, no lameness but last night i was doing his feet from coming in from his field and on pad has strarted coming away from the heel and the other has come apart at the frog, only been on 6 days rung my farrier and told his he said that he might come and cut them out, but keep a eye on them and give him a call next week dont worry. but you can not help worrying can you.

 

[dressagespain]

Never used the gel pads but my horse who has had mega front leg problems (ligament weakness around the pedal bone and navicular) has to have racing pads in between shoe and hoof and eggbar shoes. It really works to relieve the concussion on the hoof. These last really well and were an experiment before starting with the gel which have worked fantastically!