Help - Sidebones, sheared heel & thrush!

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Hoppa

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I took on a very sorry horse in December last year.

His two front feet were huge like walking on stilts! My farrier came and removed the shoes which had been nailed on the bottom!! and then asked for x-rays before he would carry out any kind of trim (he is a very good farrier btw)

Turns out he had sidebones still forming in both fronts, which had caused heels to contract and feet to grow upright, with about 2" of false sole. Right front sidebone is massive, left front sidebones are quite small.

The right front had the beginnings of a sheared heel, crack had gone all the way up the bulb of the heel. Initially I treated this by soaking in virkon/ dettol/ spraying iodine/ germolene etc eventually after about 2 months the infection cleared up and he went 95% sound. Probably as the sidebones had become established too.

Farrier suggested keeping him barefoot to avoid any further concussion to the sidebones and regular and gentle trimming to bring the heel down.

6 months on... I can't see much difference to foot shape. Heel is sore and looks infected again, so I will re-start the soaking. Had a second farrier opinion who agrees with gentle trimming.
Vets advice was get a good farrier, see how it goes.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I keep him turned out for 12 hours a day on well drained soil and then in on wood pellet bedding which is amazingly dry.

Feeling frustrated I can't seem to do more to help.

Thanks
 
I thought they were fitted with an eggbar shoe for sheared heels to stabilise the heel and stop movement of the two sides with the stride, thus relieving the pain and helping to prevent the sheared heel from deteriorating further?
 
It hadn't actually sheared but was going that way. Farrier balanced the foot (and trims regualrly) and said to keep on top of the infection to stop it from deepening and the crack would eventually grow down. Except its hardly grown at all in 6 months. His hooves do grow quite a lot, I think the sidebone is so big its preventing the heel expanding.
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The cartilage would have ossified by now and if you want to work the horse is should have sidebone shoes on. The feet themselves will not change shape now, once a foot has grown up right from sidebone it will stay that shape.

Horse should be in bar shoes to stablise the heels. Not egg bars as you will crush the heels.
 
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The cartilage would have ossified by now and if you want to work the horse is should have sidebone shoes on. The feet themselves will not change shape now, once a foot has grown up right from sidebone it will stay that shape.

Horse should be in bar shoes to stablise the heels. Not egg bars as you will crush the heels.

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Excuse my ignorance....I just thought I'd heard the word bar used and assumed I'd heard eggbar.

I'm not up on the different shoes as my horses are pretty straightforward. That's why you're The Farrier and I'm not.
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The cartilage would have ossified by now and if you want to work the horse is should have sidebone shoes on. The feet themselves will not change shape now, once a foot has grown up right from sidebone it will stay that shape.

Horse should be in bar shoes to stablise the heels. Not egg bars as you will crush the heels.

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Excuse my ignorance....I just thought I'd heard the word bar used and assumed I'd heard eggbar.

I'm not up on the different shoes as my horses are pretty straightforward. That's why you're The Farrier and I'm not.
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Its a common mistake i have been noticing people are always keen to bandy about the use of egg bars but they only have a few short lived uses as other shoes are much more appropriate and they come with more risks than benefits
 
Thanks the Farrier. Will they help at all to open up the heel? I've not had much experience of special shoes. Or are you saying his heels will always be contracted.

And should the gradual lowering of the heel be continued? or is this putting more strain on the hardened cartilage?

Its just that the crack is always going to get infected, even though I try so hard to clean it out.
 
My horse has side bones and an associtated mediolateral foot imbalance.

He has spiral shoes on, grooves cut into his hoof wall under the side bone and slighter bigger sized shoes on to support his heels.

He was lame all of last summer until he had his special shoes on and go faster grooves.
 
His feet will mostly likely always be upright and the heels may not change much but they can be supported and encoruaged to grow but a an eggbar shoe will not achieve this. A bar shoe will give him the support he needs.

One the cartlidge has ossified you have to mimic the wear pattern of the feet (and shoes when he is in them) as this keeps the horse sound and comfortable i dont think trying to take the heel down is going to help its best to work with what shape you have left than to try and change it.

Basically to feet have changed to support the changes in the hoof casule resulting from the side bone change.
 
You should be able to get on top and keep on top of the infection and its best to keep treating it by cleaning it out and purple spraying it when the infection seems to have cleared just to make sure it doesnt come back.

some horses with thrush always have to have this done now especially if it gets wet just to prevent it coming back
 
The only way a trim could be at fault for under run/crushed heels is if the horse is not being trimmed often enough for the farrier to be able to combat the toe growth and keep the feet balanced.

Egg bar shoes are very metal heavy and even if you have a horse with perfect heels they can compress and then crush the heels because of the way they distribute the weight through the feet. Its all about the leverage. If you have a large section of metal sticking out the back, the foot will lever off that point creating preassure and compression. As the foot lands all the weight bearing is through its heels if it has egg bar shoes on.
 
Let's dispel a few myths here.

IMO
The egg bar shoe when fitted correctly repositions the center of weight-bearing forward. This puts more of the main load towards the center of the hoof, this way the forces are more evenly distributed around the hoof capsule, holding the toe down and keeping the suspensory ligament "tight" and also supporting the fetlock in dorsiflexion.

Bar shoes do not crush properly trimmed heels. Heels crush because of improper hoof balance and trimming,either in shoes or barefoot.
If you shoe with a longer heel or put a bar shoe, whether it be straight or egg bar, on overgrown improperly trimmed heels, then the heels may crush faster.
The whole idea of avoiding crushed heels is to have a correct geometric balance ie A/P and M/L.
Obviously, some horse with poor conformation and/or foot abnormalites, will have to be trimmed dynamically.
 
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How will egg bars crush the heels? Surely it's the trim that cause crushed/under run heels and not the shoeing package.

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Why even ask this question then.

There is a big difference between an EGG bar shoe and a bar shoe. egg bars are fairly old fashioned and there are better methods of shoeing available now limiting where they are really useful. Egg bar shoes have a tendancy to crush already collapsed and under run heels.

And lets dispel another myth here then while we are at it, i would be worried if a farrier was NOT shoeing a horse with length (and width) if the horse had a tendancy to crushed/folded/under run heels
There is a big difference between shoeing with length and putting a bar or even an egg bar shoe on.

Here is a paraphrase from a wonderful book called no foot no horse all about egg bar shoes.

''The egg bar shoe is shaped like an egg and is perhpas one of the most widely know and also most widely misused shoe! It is commonly associated in the treatment of navicular and is wrongly applied to horses with this condition. There is infact no bio mechanical reason that egg bar shoes will alleviate pain caused by Navicular.
The egg bar shoe adds approximately 25% more ground bearing surface to the foot. Because of its shape the extra ground bearing surface is concentrated around the heels and while this can be used to support the heels it creates a heel toe action which can actually agrivate the problem. It is a shoe used when a horse has abnormally sloping pasterns. If using an egg bar shoe for collapsed heels the shoe needs to be correctly fitted and replaced very regularly and only used for the very short term

The book goes on to describe a straight bar shoe (commonly known as just a bar shoe) which is used for horses with sheared heels which prevents the heels rubbing against one another and holds them stable. For a horse with side bone and sheared heels you would use this shoe with a knocked down side which mimics the wear pattern.

Egg bar shoes should only be used with extreme caution and by someone very knowledgeable
 
I used Terramycin spray on my girl as a preventative (and for treatment in the past) for thrush.

To the OP. It's a sheep foot rot spray and IMO more beneficial than Purple Spray for treating these type of infections.

Worked a treat on my girl. She's never (touch wood) had thrush again since I've used this once or twice a week over winter as a preventative. Shame she's not fond of the aerosol spray.....but it's a small price to pay for her feet being better.
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this is a recipe given me by my vet for a very strong foot disinfectant.
1/3 of each.

hydrochloric acid
acetone
formadehyde

it stinks, it will turn the sole white for a few seconds and you must never get it near skin etc or it burns, i dribble it along the frog and sides, very carefull not to breath in the fumes (asthma),

just a quicky for farrier please? my old lady has been having 9 months of abcesses,(quittor), the Xrays show 1 side bone has died and broken up and is coming out as the yuk in the abcess - my question is... when it has gone will she be ok with 1 side bone or too out of wack to work at all, she was ok before all this sh*t began even though she is now 25y, i can't get a straight answer from the vet, i don't expect a cristal ball just a rough guess, thanks
 
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