Help! Please Cracked Hoof - pics!

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fleabag

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Hello, just looking for advice/help as to what I should be doing with my 3 year olds foot which has a large crack in it! I bought him last summer and all his feet were in poor condition as he was relatively unhandled. His near fore does however did have a substantial crack running from the coronet to the floor where the crack opened up. Over time my farrier has been able to trim this away as it grows out and he is very careful to trim the foot back at the point of the crack to take some of the pressure off. There has been some damage to the coronet and this looks to be the cause of the crack, but untill recently it has improved so that it was just a hairline crack (and not so open at the toe)! No I'm thinking that the weather could be the cause of the deterioration?? Nothing in his diet has changed and all his other feet look to be ok! He's turned out 24/7 on decent but not lush grazing and feed suregrow and pink powder once a day. Normally I'm against the use of hoof applications but has anybody used anything that may help... Here are the pics! Sorry for the essay! :)
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Oh dear!- i would see what your Farrier suggests, may need clips to stabilise it?, foot supplements would take at least 6-9 months to start to work anyway!, not sure re dressings, there are also fillers that can be used, but again see what your Farrier thinks maybe. Alfalfa is also very good for foot growth.

Good luck :)
 
We looked at buying a horse with a crack bigger than this once (didn't know until we got there, grr) and the lady selling it said her vet had told her it would be fine as long as she applied cornucresine to it everyday- maybe give this a try? She could have been lying to us though!
 
My 30 year old started with bad cracks up the front of both front feet earlier this year. My farrier said it was down to the wet weather which softened the feet up. We have stones in all the gateways on our yard and he said once the crack started everytime she walks on the stones it keeps splitting the crack so we are going round in circles. I didnt want to put shoes on her as she is a bit stiff to stand while having them on. My farrier told me to use something called Keratex Hoof Putty to plug the crack and a month in....fingers crossed ;) the cracks are looking better already!!
 
Sorry farrier if I was worried. Mine gets cracks in very dry sustained weather and I usually get farrier out and I am always worried and he isnt! But that looks a tad wide at the bottom etc. You can always get a second opinion if you are not happy but if you trust your farrier and he isnt concerned then so be it.

I like cornucrescine to put on coronet band but I am sure someone on here will be able to advise about diet etc.

Good luck and will be interested to read what advice you will be given etc to help improve your ponies feet
 
My sisters 3yo has the very same thing, farrier came out the next day and hammered a clip across it. This will hold the hoof together as it grows out, will take about a year I think. When its a crack that big a clip is needed imho. :)

Ours didn't mind it, although the farrier had to have two goes as the pony's hard feet bent the first clip he tried :)
 
Thanks for the comments!
Funny you should mention that about cornucresine as I have been recommended that by someone else. Might be worth a try. I'm looking at putting him on micronised linseed but I am wary of it adding condition? As he is a little 'un and probably carrying a little to much weight at the mo. It's annoying as I seemed to be on top of the situation and it was improving! Grrrr! Blooming weather, hot then wet then cold! My farriers of the option that he will always have a crack there due to his coronet band but that it will never really affect him! He's seen a improvement in his hoof quality since his been fed suregrow! But i think that in the long term a more specific hoof supplement may be needed!? He's not due for a trim until the end of the month, but I'm going to get him out this week to have a nosy at it! :)
 
It's very likely weather related but not in the way you think ;). When the grass starts growing (often as a result of a lot of rain followed by a dry spell, which is why farriers often say "it's the wet" or "it's the dry") hooves tend to flare a bit in their growth. If there are any weak spots, or if the horse is not perfectly straight in their action, a wee stress point can start to split.

IME, do nothing... but make sure your horse is not getting too much lush grass and their condition score stays 3 or ideally a little under. As the summer goes on, and the grass is less "sugary", you will find the crack starts to grow down. Your farrier is doing the right thing, making sure that any stress points are relieved from extra pressure. There is no need for clips or staples... the cracks grow out if you put these on. But they also grow out if you don't ;)
 
^^^ This because actually something in his diet has changed dramatically - the grass, it spikes massively at various points during the day depending on the weather conditions and we've had so much rain and its warm so the grass is growing like hell.
Can you restrict grazing at all? maybe muzzle during the day? And I'd add mag ox to the diet too. I'm not a lover of cornucrescine, its an irritant so will encourage growth but won't have any effect on the quality of the growth.
 
I have found cracks to be due firstly to diet and especially sugars and secondly hoof balance. Grass and sugars in grass seem to be the worst source of sugars for forming cracks in my somewhat limited experience.
 
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i'd be giving it a good clean out as there's likely to be bacteria getting in and making the hoof weaker and making the crack spread.
I usually clean using water and milton steriliser - farrier's advice and really seemed to help a crack that i was dealing with (though not as bad as the on you've got).
I also would spray once or twice a week - teramycine or purple spray right into the crack. Its now growing out very well.
I've used keratex hoof putty for abscesses (ones that were drained but left a hole in the hoof) with success
 
I have treated severe cracks with a milton solution in the past and they did grow out but took a couple of years nearly. More recently, when cracks returned after a period of 24/7 turnout I seriously addressed diet ie.off grass, soaked hay and the cracks grew out in six months with only one initial spray.

It really takes some getting your head around how crucial diet can be to hoof health when it involves grass and sugars as a main cause of problems. I am finally convinced. Cracks cannot heal/mend fully, they have to be grown out.
 
Thanks guys! Some things to be thinking about there! Definately going to be keeping it clean and sterilised! Thanks for the milton tip! And I will watch his grass intake they are currently still on winter pasture as we haven't dared put them on the summer grazing yet!! Eeeek! Fortunately we have recently had some additions to our yard so they can assist with eating some grass down prior to my boy moving onto it, and I can stable him during the day. I am/was very pleased with the progress my farrier made prior to it all re-occurring so it's nice to hear that his course of action seems to be alright. If anyone else has any ideas as to what else I could be feeding to help his hoof quality? That would be brill! :) Ive been recommended linseed but iv never really fed it before! I always thought it was pretty old school! :)
 
Thanks Amandap! Unfortuanatly I don't think I will ever fully grow this crack out, as his coronet is damaged at the point of the crack! But untill recently it was a hairline crack all the way down to the toe. As others have mentioned the weather and therefore the grass must be the cause of the crack re-opening!
I will as you say address diet so soaking hay, restricting grazing anything else I could be looking at? To in the long term improve hoof quality as I will always have this crack to contend with :( fortunately all his other feet seem pretty good!
 
Other things to address are his mineral status ie.is he getting enough of all minerals he needs from the grass. If you search the barefoot threads loads of diet stuff will come up. Popular mineral mixes are pro hoof (ebay seller) and Equinins metabalance (phone to order as it's not in their online shop). Mixes are fed in a low sugar carrier such as fast fibre or speedibeet. Extra salt needs to be fed (not licks just table salt) and often extra magnesiun (cal mag or magnesium oxide) too.
Micronized linseed is also fed and is fed in increased amounts for horses off grass to replace missing omegas etc. It's great for skin, horn and coats.
If he would tolerate it a soak of cleantrax will help disinfect but it's a one off long soak 40 mins lol. I have used soaks of milton solution 1/10 dilution is recommended I believe. I do it less strong and put one tablet in a gallon but some feel tablets are less effective. A soak will deal with any seedy toe/white line disease that may be lurking behind the crack. 5-10nmins is enough ime for milton.

I have found that relieving the crack edges at the base of the wall (as opposed to face) helps reduce prizing. Ask you farrier to put a bevel on the base of the wall underneath from the edge of the water line outwards. Then run the rasp lightly round the edge. This is known as a mustang roll and will help counteract the wall spreading when the hoof is loaded. Have a look at the roll on these pics. http://www.progressivehorse.co.uk/html/pin-ups.html
 
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Oh, I also meant to say that the crack should grow out but if there is permanent damage to the coronary band a line may be evident but it wont be a crack. My mare has one on a hind hoof but the crack has gone.
 
fleabag said:
Thanks Amandap! Unfortuanatly I don't think I will ever fully grow this crack out, as his coronet is damaged at the point of the crack! But untill recently it was a hairline crack all the way down to the toe. As others have mentioned the weather and therefore the grass must be the cause of the crack re-opening!
I will as you say address diet so soaking hay, restricting grazing anything else I could be looking at? To in the long term improve hoof quality as I will always have this crack to contend with :( fortunately all his other feet seem pretty good!
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The other reason that this will have happened at three years old is that his metabolic rate will have dropped significantly as his growth has slowed right up. I think you are well advised to limit his access to fresh green stuff, and also to disinfect that crack regularly because it looks infected to me. I would not plug it with anything - the kind of bugs that cause that black rot are usually anaerobic. They do not like to breed when there is oxygen present. If you block out the oxygen they have a wild orgy and breed like mad :p So my advice would be to keep it open and flush it with something that delivers oxygen every day, and alter the diet. I would use hydrogen peroxide at 3%. I know others don't like HP but I have never had any problems using it on hooves or on wounds. It's very cheap and effective.
 
Haha wild orgy! Yeah I've been pulling all sorts of mud, grass ect out and then rinsing with water so in future ill be adding some type of disinfectant/sterilisation to this process. Thanks for all the advice/tips! Hopefully if I get all this sorted this shouldn't be re-occurring again! Grrrr! It was looking sooo much better! Back to square one I go! Lol! :)
 
Lots of good diet advice there :D I've definitely found an improvement in how my horse deals with grass flushes since feeding extra salt, so that's one worth trying.

The only other suggestion I can think of is to look higher up. My horse has either a line on his hoof, a hair line crack, or something very similar to your picture, depending on how much grass he's getting. Sometimes, it's pretty much invisible (usually in winter) - at the moment it's a bit like your pic but clearly growing down. What I eventually discovered is that he has one shoulder very much more developed than the other... and the overdeveloped shoulder is the leg opposite the hoof crack. He loads this foot unevenly, so until I manage to address this, he'll always have a tendency to develop the cracks.

Getting a bodyworker of some kind (physio, even shiatsu person) in to look for anything like that, and working on straightness, definitely helps.
 
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