Horse is slightly footy ? Sorry, v long

[Hokuspokus]

I'll just give a bit of history into my gelding. He is shod in front only. He copes fantastically without hind shoes, but if you take the front shoes off he is incredibly sensitive. He has had the onset of laminitis in the past, and thankfully caught very early. This was May 2013 and June 2015. He has EMS. His diet it controlled very strictly through the year. Unfortunately I was too lax last spring with when I put his grazing muzzle on, really annoyed with myself for that :'( . He is very rarely sick or sorry , I've had him 11years , he's never had abscesses or anything like that, and he's lost a shoe about 4 times in that time period.

Two weeks ago, he managed to pull his shoe clean off as he swivelled and stood on it coming out the field gate. Unfortunately I didn't notice at the time and rode for 20minutes in the arena. He didn't seem lame, just not particularly forward. It wasn't until i left the arena I noticed he was slightly sore in front walking on gravel and then I seen that he was minus a shoe. My farrier couldn't make it out until 5 days later -he travels across the country with work, and it was a weekend, I did say I wasn't in too much of a hurry! Due to the weather , the horses were to stay in anyway for 2 days so it didn't make that much difference. He seemed to be slightly sensitive on the walk to his field, however this is slightly stoney. Farrier came to put shoe back on. My gelding is well behaved getting shod, however this time he pulled back and broke the tie when the nails were getting put in. I put it down to him just being impatient. I didn't get to ride much as we had more bad weather. I managed a hack the other day but turned back after 10minutes as he seemed sore walking downhill. He was reluctant to go forward again. I rode in the school today and again he seemed reluctant more than ever. I got good trot work out of him but as soon as I asked for canter he wasn't happy. I called it a day as I just feel he's not happy with something and I'm being drawn to this hoof. I'm highly doubtful it's laminitis. Is it possible he's bruised it when he didn't have a shoe? Would he not be better with the shoe now on? His laminitis from last year is nearing the end of the hoof so the toes don't look particularly great. Could he have nail bind ? The nails don't look much higher than normal. I just don't know what to do. I think having written all this down instead of it going round in circles in my head, I should get the farrier back out to look. It seems an obvious answer now! Has anyone had anything similar? There's no obvious bruising to his soles. He is white hoofed so the grooves and bruises shoe up easily on the outer wall.

Many thanks.

I should say he's not obviously physically lame. It only seems to be the odd step downhill .There is no heat either.

 

[crystalclear]

Have you asked your farrier? They will know best

 

[Nudibranch]

Always hard to say without knowing and seeing a horse. However a couple of things come to mind. Farrier has pricked an already sensitive hoof? I would get him out to have a look. A possibility is onset of arthritis in front, however given what you've said I'd be looking at the shoe issue. Personally I prefer boots. They don't work for everyone but have you considered them? Also review his diet if he is sensitive. What supplements is he on? Not a quick fix, but a good mineral base is especially important with metabolic issues.

 

[Hokuspokus]

Thank you for replies . I will trot him up today and I think I'll phone my farrier . I tried boots about 5 years ago but he didn't seem to adjust to them at all , he got to the point he wasn't for lifting his hooves up to get them on so I have in and got him shod again.

In terms of diet he has dengie healthy hooves molasses free chaff and a cup of high fibre cubes in his ball . He also gets Freestep in his dinner . He was on an all purpose vitamin supplement but I never got round to getting it again as it was out of stock the last time. Do you think maybe purely biotin would be better to get ? His chaff has the vitamin nuts in it but it might not be enough . He's also on soaked hay . Weight wise he's looking great for this time of year . Due to his lami and ems I do my best to analysis any feeds to try and keep starch and sugar levels as low as possible .

 

[Jazzy B]

Perhaps an abscess/infection in his hoof?

 

[atropa]

Something similar happened to my gelding last year, he pulled and twisted a shoe badly last year and bruised himself, farrier couldn't come out for 6 days to reshoe (looking back I now kicked myself furiously for not getting someone else up) by which point the poor boy was quite sore in front. After the farrier had been I rode again for a few days and he was slightly better, then came in hopping lame with an abscess in the other front foot, suspected from trying to take the weight off the bruised one. This took about 2 weeks to sort, he was back in work again, then off for about 6 or 7 weeks with the biggest abscess I have ever seen in the original bad foot, which caused problems from July until about November last year, eventually culminating in him having to have a bar shoe fitted.

My experience is obviously the horror story of shoe-pulling but I would definitely get farrier back out ASAP! Good luck

 

[Gift Horse]

I suspect a bruise if he has gone from fine to lame after losing a shoe. They can rumble on for a while and result in an abscess.

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Call farrier & he can check over the fitting of the shoe & see that the nails are not causing the issue. He can also check for absess etc. If things haven't been resolved then you can move on to calling the vet but at least the shoe & absess issue would have been ruled out.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

TBH I would be looking for a new farrier. You need a farrier who can come back to you the next day if necessary and I would prefer one who will investigate why a normally well-mannered horse starts playing up when being shod. If you can't get a farrier to have a look at your horse on Monday, I would ring the vet, although I do normally prefer the farrier for foot issues. Your horse probably has a bruise which may well become an abscess.

 

[Hokuspokus]

Thank you for your experiences and time to reply . He trotted up sound this afternoon after coming in from the field. However , I'm still not overly convinced so I will be discussing it with the farrier to see what he thinks and take it from there. I will also be buying him a vitamin supplement asap too , I'd like to have peace of mind he's getting everything he needs.

 

[spookypony]

If the horse is normally very sensitive when not shod in front, this would suggest to me that the metabolic issues are not completely under control. This may or may not be anything that you can actually get under control, depending on your circumstances, so using protection for the fronts sounds like a good idea to me. It's just good to be aware that the underlying cause is still grumbling away in there. Depending on what types of boots you tried last time, it might be worth looking again, because over the last few years, there have been lots of new models and styles. I also think you need to talk to your farrier again. I would be rather concerned, though, that the farrier hadn't noticed the unusual behaviour, and hadn't assessed the horse's soundness at the end. Hopefully, it's just been a bit of a bruise!