Help - part of my horse's hoof wall has fallen off!

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Marigold4

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IMG_5171.jpgMy horse is barefoot. A couple of monts ago I noticed a horizontal crack. Mentioned it to trimmer. He thought it was a bang from coronary band growing down. Then today, brought horse in and part of his hoof wall has broken off - yikes! Recognising how hard the ground was, I had been turning him out with hoof boots on. Today, I thought I woukd give him a day off as one heel was rubbing. He likes to dig a "wallow" to roll in and I guess that's how he did it. It looks to me as though more will come off.

Any thoughts please on seriousness/what to do/how to stop it getting worse?
 
The horizontal crack I would suspect to be an abscess exit hole, especially on a barefoot horse, and I'm surprised your trimmer didn't mention it. What you're seeing underneath, where the wall has come off, I would think is where the abscess tracked up through the foot. Because you've essentially got a hole underneath the hoof wall (in the laminae), the wall over the top is weaker/ less well attached and has broken off as it's grown down. I imagine the dry weather and hard ground will likely have contributed to this. I wouldn't be hugely worried myself, but would be asking my farrier to come out and have a look to see if he can tidy up and rough edges to reduce the chance of much more breaking off. Other posters will be better qualified to give their opinion though!
 
I concur. Abscess track breaking off. If you can, rasp off the pointy bits, just to prevent any big bits breaking off or causing discomfort where they are still joined to sensitive tissue at the edges of the track (like a broken fingernail, you trim it back to stop yourself catching it and pulling on the quick). You could pack it with field paste or similar. I doubt it really needs it but it'll make you feel like you've done something.

It will most likely just grow out and sort itself out even if you did nothing.
 
Thanks, everyone. That makes me feel a bit better. Trimmer is coming very soon to rasp it back. He's back in his hoof boots. It makes me feel a bit queasy looking at the exposed foot. I can't understand how I can have missed an abcess though. I'm hypervigilant about him and he's a real snowflake so I would have thought it wouldn't have gone unnoticed? Can an abcess be asymptomatic?
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks, everyone. That makes me feel a bit better. Trimmer is coming very soon to rasp it back. He's back in his hoof boots. It makes me feel a bit queasy looking at the exposed foot. I can't understand how I can have missed an abcess though. I'm hypervigilant about him and he's a real snowflake so I would have thought it wouldn't have gone unnoticed? Can an abcess be asymptomatic?
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It can, but it's equally like all he did was smack the coronet band somehow.
.
 
ycbm said:
More like 5-6 in an unshod horse.
.[/QUOTE

In that case I'm a bit stumped as to how this happened, particularly as it's a front foot. Fingers crossed he's still rideable. I've finally found a saddle he likes and we were slowly making progress.
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Marigold4 said:
Thanks, everyone. That makes me feel a bit better. Trimmer is coming very soon to rasp it back. He's back in his hoof boots. It makes me feel a bit queasy looking at the exposed foot. I can't understand how I can have missed an abcess though. I'm hypervigilant about him and he's a real snowflake so I would have thought it wouldn't have gone unnoticed? Can an abcess be asymptomatic?
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In barefoot horse they can track up through the foot and burst through the coronet band, and sometimes this can happen quite quickly so you might not necessarily notice the horse looking lame.
 
HashRouge said:
In barefoot horse they can track up through the foot and burst through the coronet band, and sometimes this can happen quite quickly so you might not necessarily notice the horse looking lame.
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Definitely no bursting through coronet band though. I would have noticed.
 
ycbm said:
It can, but it's equally like all he did was smack the coronet band somehow.
.
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Exactly how my old pony got a crack like this. I forget how he caught it, but it grew down just like this and broke off. We just made sure it was rasped regularly and it grew out fine.
 
Fransurrey said:
Exactly how my old pony got a crack like this. I forget how he caught it, but it grew down just like this and broke off. We just made sure it was rasped regularly and it grew out fine.
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Thanks for replying. That's reassuring. My trimmer came today and rasped back the brittle edges. He was due a trim in a few days so there was some hoof wall to come back anyway and it looks less alarming. Keeping him booted now to stop him digging on the hard ground. He does like a good "wallow".
 
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