HELP - His feet are falling off......

grandmaweloveyou

grandmaweloveyou

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Ok slight exaggeration although tbh I dont think it is. I checked his feet last night and one side had crumbled off leaving a gap big enough to put two fingers in. This morning I pulled him out of a massive bog in the field (suspect he has tried swimming in it!) and another side of his hoof has come off. We have checked his shoes which would now to a layman "look too big for him" and tried to get hold of the farrier but bank hol weekend? He is only 7 so how can he be defficient in something - could it be the farrier / shoes we are using (new farrier). He seems happy and he has been bathed and fussed and now put in a small dry paddock, any tips? Feel like crying - also selfishly upset that it is bank hol weekend and I suspect I cant ride him. Thanks.
 
With the constant wet and dry it is causing problems with feet. How good a reputation does your farrier have locally? It is probably not his fault at all but you do need good advise from a farrier on how to proceed from here. My horse by this time of year often needs quite a bit of filler used where her feet start to crumble although this has been helped by good shoing and I feed formula4feet which I'm sure helps as well.
 
Chunks coming off is not unusual - one of mine has got this at the moment. The hoof is about 6 months old, so reflective of the quality of the horn from the winter.

Anything you do now - supplements, plastering with 'lotions and potions', isn't going to help until 6 months time. So relax - perhaps think of feeding some biotin over winter.
 
One of my horses feet have really deteriorated over the summer and both my vet and farrier have said that it is probably due to the unusual weather we have had this summer. I'm feeding Farriers Formula and using a hoof dressing, but I know it will take about 6 months for them to come right. Don't blame yourself- there are a lot of others in the same boat!
 
my horses feet also deteriorate and start crumbling in summer but my farrier has said lots of horses feet are worse than usual this year. im afraid you can always guarantee things like this, last summer my mare pulled her shoe off trod on it and was unsound all of my 2 weeks longed for summer hols. horses who'd have them?
 
poppys feet did exactly the same last year. she is just coming back into work now as they were ruined, having constant dry then wet weather destroyed them, i remember on of her shoes cam of out riding on soft ground and the shoe litrally ripped off the sides of her hoof!!! try naf hoof and hide really helps the regrowth of the hoof
 
forgot to mention, obviously we got the vet up to her cause it was so bad she could figure out what was causing such huge problems, but turned out her crumbling feet had caused a huge absese deep in her hoof wall right on the line between wall and sole, so she also had to be on antibiotics and bute for weeks, so take action now ( it sounds like i had neglected her but this happened over like 2 weeks) if you wanna ask anything about it pm me!! hope your boy is better soon
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guys i cant thank you enough for reassuring me on this, ive been so worried, i see him 3 times a day, more than most on yard and he is very spoilt so i felt rotten that i missed this altho it seems to have been very sudden as i (and a friend) looked at them fri night. thank you, i thought you would all say "get a vet / get a farrier" etc and make me worry. in answer to you, he was last shod 7 weeks ago and due on friday, the farrier came out and tightened one shoe friday (hence the check then and didnt seem so bad). so, last question, for today haha, do i now a) keep shoes on til friday b) remove shoes and c) ride him out or just school him? thanks again.
 
Don't remove the shoes yourself, it's a very hard job - farriers make it look easy, and you'll probably pull even more foot off.

If your farrier saw him on Friday, which was one day before you wrote this post there is nothing wrong with your horses feet. Stop Panicing
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he only looked at the back feet and re-fit a shoe and didnt look at the front feet which are the problem unfortunately. i wish he had but that wasnt what he was there for. i meant to take photos this afternoon, will tomorrow. this afternoon i couldve lifted more of his hoof off with my finger today
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