Hoof problems, seedy toe??? (pics)

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Miramis

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My daughters pony came to us a year ago. he had quite long toes and his shoes were off for the winter, apart from the shape they were in good condition.

He was shod soon after we got him and all was fine until late summer when the outer wall started to seem to wear away at the toes. Over the winter ,presumably with all the wet and mud (he lives out 24/7) they are slowly getting worse. Ive asked my farrier and he thinks hes had a bout of laminitis before we got him and this has caused the walls to become weak and seperate. Pony's last owners said he has never suffered from laminitis and they were so honest about him when we bought him id like to believe that :-S

Anyway this is were we are at today. Any advice as to the cause? (im thinking seedy toe??) He isnt lame but im really worried if i dont sort this soon he will be!!


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side view

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My minis get seedy toe, and yours doesnt look like seedy toe to me, as there is no hole/space in between the hoof wall and white line, the hoof wall looks smooth, no ridges, but i dont like the look of the corornet band, that doesnt look healthy.
One of my horses that had laminitis bad, developed toes simular to yours.
sorry i havent been much help.
 
I'd agree with your farrier, looks like seperation of laminae, doesn't look like wear as the toes of the shoes would be squared off.
 
YasandCrystal said:
OH who is a farrier said this looks like wear - ie. toe dragging. Seedy toe would look like a crumbling hole.
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Sorry should have said the pic is of his front hooves, he has double clips since he was shod on farriers advice. He definitely doesn't drag his feet.
 
amandaco2 said:
They look as if they are growing forward too much.
How often are they done?
I'd want his hoof set more under his leg.....the aph looks broken forward....
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He is done every 6 weeks. He is actually due to be done in a weeks time so the pics are 5 weeks since last shoeing.
 
ameeyal said:
My minis get seedy toe, and yours doesnt look like seedy toe to me, as there is no hole/space in between the hoof wall and white line, the hoof wall looks smooth, no ridges, but i dont like the look of the corornet band, that doesnt look healthy.
One of my horses that had laminitis bad, developed toes simular to yours.
sorry i havent been much help.
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Hi, his coronary band looks like that due to being stood in wet conditions, not ideal I know but even on a hill field the ground is just so wet there is no escape :-(
 
Lots of things going on here. The coronary band is not only soft, but its inflammed as well, it should lie flat not bulge like that. The first thing to investigate here is the diet the pony is on, including forage/grazing and eliminate sugars as far as possible. Seedy toe (which is what this looks like) doesn't happen without the foot being weak internally to allow the infection to take hold.

Then there's the foot balance..........yuk. If you need two clips on front shoes, you have problems that need addressing to get the foot back under the limb where it should be. Get a second opinion from someone highly recommended.
 
Thanks for your input Andalusian.

He's fed Dengie healthy hooves and a small amount of speedibeet at the moment ,along with his joint supplement. Lives out 24/7 and has 24 hr access to good quality hay. I've just bought him formula 4 feet and im trying to figure what would be best to give him to try to improve things.

Healthy hooves is fine as he is a good doer but I can't feed the vast quantitys recommended to get the full benefit to his hooves so having a re-think.

Just not sure what to do, continue with farrier, get vet involved, shoes off?
 
That's a very odd wear pattern, I don't think it is a wear pattern tbh. Has the farrier backed up the toe? The hoof toe wall must have been rasped thinner as you can see the black of the outer wall disappearing and showing the light inner wall through. The chunks missing are odd... they look like they've been nibbled off. :confused: I wouldn't worry too much just follow the diet advice above, add in a good balancer and hopefully it will all grow out in time. :)

ps. The above and crumbling wall below and around the nail holes suggest white line disease and or infection getting in via nail holes.
 
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Andalucian said:
Lots of things going on here. The coronary band is not only soft, but its inflammed as well, it should lie flat not bulge like that. The first thing to investigate here is the diet the pony is on, including forage/grazing and eliminate sugars as far as possible. Seedy toe (which is what this looks like) doesn't happen without the foot being weak internally to allow the infection to take hold.

Then there's the foot balance..........yuk. If you need two clips on front shoes, you have problems that need addressing to get the foot back under the limb where it should be. Get a second opinion from someone highly recommended.
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Hi

Is there something coming out of the coronary band? From the pictures it looks like they are weeping something, apologies if not as I know pictures don't always make great viewing.
 
I think the coronary band is squashed/nipped and then bulging rather than something coming out of it. I think a period out of shoes would be beneficial but that's only my thought.
 
I'd be asking the farrier what is going on. Some farriers are a bit reluctant to offer advice as to what people should do, but most have a better perspective than your average vet, at least imho, and can often give useful advice.

And I agree with the others, that doesn't look like seedy toe to me.
 
Does this pony have any connie blood?

If I were you I would read posts on here about the 'barefoot diet' and implement it for your shod pony. It might be worth soaking your hay if it is good quality, feeding something like fast fibre and adding some 'barefoot' minerals(forage plus or progressive earth)linseed and yeast.
All the above will give you a healthier foot from the top.
If you have the chance to leave shoes off for a month or 2 this will stimulate quicker growth and start to strengthen the hoof.
 
OP - I'd agree with your farrier - the hooves in the photos do resemble those belonging to a horse/pony that has suffered laminitis in the past few months.

The hoof wall has been excessively thinned which has not helped.

Personally not found the laminitic branded chaffs to be of much use in fixing/helping root cause of laminitis.

There is a lot going on with these feet and you may want to have a frank and in depth discussion with your farrier about what they can do to help and at the same time have a good think about what may have caused the lami attack and what is still causing the feet to have problems.

Often diet, can also be IR/EMS/overweight/wormers/antibiotics the list goes on.
 
TheCurlyPony said:
Hi

Is there something coming out of the coronary band? From the pictures it looks like they are weeping something, apologies if not as I know pictures don't always make great viewing.
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no nothing, its just very spongy, its not sore for him either. It does improve if hes in for a while which made me think it was from standing in the wet for so long due to him being field kept and it being so wet for so long. The only time ive personally seen similar is when our welsh A was poulticed for an abscess.
 
LucyPriory said:
OP - I'd agree with your farrier - the hooves in the photos do resemble those belonging to a horse/pony that has suffered laminitis in the past few months.

The hoof wall has been excessively thinned which has not helped.

Personally not found the laminitic branded chaffs to be of much use in fixing/helping root cause of laminitis.

There is a lot going on with these feet and you may want to have a frank and in depth discussion with your farrier about what they can do to help and at the same time have a good think about what may have caused the lami attack and what is still causing the feet to have problems.

Often diet, can also be IR/EMS/overweight/wormers/antibiotics the list goes on.
Click to expand...

We have had the pony a year and he has definately not had laminitis whilst with us. Definately no signs or lameness. Weve kept his weight down and he was well exercised all last year. My farrier suggested if he had had laminitis it was 6m previous to me raising my worry about the problem with his hooves in the summer..that would have meant he had laminitis in nov/Dec 2011 before we got him home (going by his hooves/approx growth) :-S

Thanks though. Im going to get my vet out this week see what they think, then i can chat to my farrier about what we can do. atm he doesnt seem too concearned. Going to speak to a nutritionalist too. Hopefully we can get him sorted :-)
 
abitodd said:
Does this pony have any connie blood?

If I were you I would read posts on here about the 'barefoot diet' and implement it for your shod pony. It might be worth soaking your hay if it is good quality, feeding something like fast fibre and adding some 'barefoot' minerals(forage plus or progressive earth)linseed and yeast.
All the above will give you a healthier foot from the top.
If you have the chance to leave shoes off for a month or 2 this will stimulate quicker growth and start to strengthen the hoof.
Click to expand...

This is something i may have to consider (my horses all used to be barefoot pre owning this particular pony) sadly my trim lady stopped doing it and a regular farrier trim wasnt suffice to my horses needs. There is another lady now doing it nearish to us if i go that route. I certainly couldnt just whip his shoes off though. He came to us without shoes and he was horrendously crippled and footsore on our ground. We had to put hoof boots on just to get him out the field and with his hooves being in such bad condition just now id have to wait until late spring i think. He came to us in winter and the ground was horrendously hard, i just know he wouldnt cope atm...but yes in my head im thinking it as an option if need be.
 
Hi, just wanted to add to this that I got the vet out to have a look at our horse. He said he has seedy toe and I need to get my farrier to trim back the damaged horn.

The dodgy looking coronary band was in fact just waterlogging!! On vets advice I kept him in for an afternoon and night. Low and behold perfectly normal the next morning..one less thing to worry about!! :-))

Vet advised me to add a hoof supplement to his feed, I had already done this and he's on formula 4 feet. I'm hoping with correct feeding, exercise and working with my farrier we can get his hooves sorted.

If anyone has any other advise I'd much appreciate it, thanks x
 
I read if the hair around the coronary band stands up like yours does, it could be the start of laminitis, i wouldnt write that off because his feet look wet and sore everywhere. Ask the vet to be safe.
 
Hi Miramis. My yearling has seedy toe. My farrier has advised me how to treat it. I use a shoe nail to dig out the affected area, spray in the hole with purple spray and then fill the gap with either cotton wool or Keratex hoof putty. The seedy toe should grow out in time. Hope this helps?

ps - your pony's coronet looks like it it wet to me!! ;)
 
Can't add to any above about the corney band but the toe definently looks the same as my old boys when he was diagnosed with seedy toe. I used to tub his feet in a diluted Milton solution and sprayed something called Bactakill 55 (Sp) I did this for week without putting other solution on afterwards as the vetsaid the feet needed to breath after cleaning them. After a week and then put a hoof harder on after the Bactakill, never had a problem with his feet again. He used to loose is shoes all the time and he never did after that.
 
Miramis said:
This is something i may have to consider (my horses all used to be barefoot pre owning this particular pony) sadly my trim lady stopped doing it and a regular farrier trim wasnt suffice to my horses needs. There is another lady now doing it nearish to us if i go that route. I certainly couldnt just whip his shoes off though. He came to us without shoes and he was horrendously crippled and footsore on our ground. We had to put hoof boots on just to get him out the field and with his hooves being in such bad condition just now id have to wait until late spring i think. He came to us in winter and the ground was horrendously hard, i just know he wouldnt cope atm...but yes in my head im thinking it as an option if need be.
Click to expand...

Just a note of caution on the lami front, you say he has not suffered with it, but you also say that when you got him he was without shoes, crippled and footsore... I think you may well have to change your belief that he didn't have a bout of lami:o

Having said, that, it seems that you are taking very serious steps to address what is going on, good luck and keep the forum updated :D
 
I'd say the long term answer to this is find some hardstanding.I know it's difficult, but it's the only way I can be sure my cobs feet stay healthy. Luckily we've access to a concrete based shelter, but perhaps an area of hardcore would be possible for you? That way the pony could spend the night off soggy ground.
 
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