heel injury - anyone else seen anything like this? help!

digitalangel

digitalangel

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This is my boys heel injury 3 weeks in - suspected flint or tin can.

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Ive bandaged it like a poultice with vetwrap and animalintex over the heel area plus gaffa tape and kept him in for 2 weeks - hes in in a small all-weather turnout for 1 week.

As you can see the bit above the heel has healed nicely enough - but im a bit worried about the bit below the corinium (sp) will this grow down and out? Is it liable to infection? Will it destablilise the hoof? I am not sure wether or not to go ahead and turn him out in a field now, or keep in in the all weather. Hes had enough to be fair, and i dont want to keep him in and away from the others for longer than i have to. On the other hand, i dont want to risk destabilising the hoof.

its his right hind.

Has anyone else had similar injury and how long did it take to fully heal? What steps/management did you use for an injury like this?
 
I would stuff if full of soducreme every day (on cotton wool if it will hold it) and turn him out if he was mine. The horn is complete and the injury isn't, thankfully, where it will affect the horn growth much if at all. I would hope that it will grow down again from the top and that will happen quicker if he works. I would ride on hard flat surfaces if he is sound.

I notice he is shoeless behind (unless you just took it off to treat this?) and it is normal for a shoeless horse to have frogs in contact with the floor. The foot works better that way. I would be asking your farrier if there is any way to reduce the height of his heels, once this injury is resolved. At the moment, the lack of frog pressure might be helping so I would leave it if he is sound.
 
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Here is another pic... you can see the split is like a V shape but im not sure if the more horizontal crack was there before or not... really worried about that quarter... if he will lose it or not?

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cptrayes said:
I would stuff if full of soducreme every day (on cotton wool if it will hold it) and turn him out if he was mine. The horn is complete and the injury isn't, thankfully, where it will affect the horn growth. I would hope that it will grow down again from the top.

I notice he is shoeless behind and it is normal for a shoeless horse to have frogs in contact with the floor. The foot works better that way. I would be asking your farrier if there is any way to reduce the height of his heels, once this injury is resolved. At the moment, the lack of frog pressure might be helping so I would leave it if he is sound.
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Thank you CpTrayes!

In terms of the frog, when i got this horse he had the most godawful case of thrush i have seen - i spent 2 months battling with it, his frog was very small and very high up and the hoof very concave and he had a very deep sulcus. I was just getting on top of it when this injury happened - so believe it or not it has improved! Unfortunately having had to wrap his foot for 3 weeks means that the thrush problem has come back a touch and ive hes had no exercise either so no chance of exercising his frogs.

Farrier is due in 2 weeks - last time we didnt touch his hinds because he had just done the injury the day before and it was still painful for him so we had a hell of a time getting the fronts done as he wasnt happy about having them picked up. So he is due a trim on the hinds. His other foot has contact with the ground though.
 
Brilliant. That looks like it was an extremely unlucky accident, but I've seen sound horses with the whole back quarter hanging loose after verticle quarter cracks and horizontal abscesses (not both in the same horse). Even if it stays with a split there I reckon he'll be fine, especially if you can get his frog back on the floor again.

I'm a great believer in mental happiness helping horses cure themselves. If he was mine he'd be out tomorrow and ridden if he was sound, even if only in walk.
 
Thats the one problem, no idea if hes sound! Hes been a 'handful' over the past 3 weeks and having just moved to my new place and then the snow hit ive had nowhere to trot him up. Unfortunately the snow has now been replaced by floods so still nowhere to trot him up! He *looks* sound to me in the 10 foot walk from stable to turnout but im rubbish at spotting lamenes. Im going to see if i can use the last of my sedalin to get him into next doors school for a lunge. I dont have anyone to hack with either so not sure i can ride on a hard flat surface.. but ill see what hes like on a lunge in the school.

Fingers crossed hes sound, the longer he has off the less confident i feel about getting back on!
 
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