Horse walking on tip toe!

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Kija

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Hello everybody,
I am writing from Egypt and I'm sad to say we don't have any good vets here. My friends' horse has had a problem with his hind hoof for over a year. He was wounded in the hind hoof and apparently infection set in. He was a cart horse and she bought him. The hoof was huge (like a plate she said) and eventually it drained and seems to be doing better.

However...his other hind hoof has developed a problem and now he walks on his tip toe. He steps on the formerly bad hoof more than he does with this one. X rays are out of the question as I mentioned before, vets here are terrible. Any ideas on what is happening with this horse? I'm suspecting navicular syndrome but it's rare with hind legs or is it? Any help is much needed & appreciated!
 
I can't offer any advice, but am sure others will. It is sad you don't have any good vets there. I hope your friends horse is okay and his hooves get better.
 
Thanks for the quick replies.

When she was dealing with the initial problem she had several vets tell her to put the horse down, that he had degenerative bone problems, but I saw the horse a few days ago and his hoof seemed almost normal and he was stepping on it. Needless to say she's lost faith in the vets here. I'm not sure about Brooks, there was a bit of corruption going on there a few years back, not sure if they dealt with it or not. You have to know Egypt is not really known for its humane treatment of animals.

Another problem is vets here don't seem to have portable xray machines. One vet did take an xray but his diagnosis was obviously wrong and my friend said the xray picture wasn't clear at all and it was all wrinkled and dirty?!

Could the fact that he's not been able to use one of his legs properly have caused problems in the other? Could this cause navicular disease?
 
Its more than possible that he could have got laminitis in the other hind foot due to the excessive weight bearing on it. However, I'm not sure how you'd deal with that without the backup from decent vets and farriers and xrays to see how you're progressing, but maybe someone else will have some more helpful thoughts?
Has there been any change in the horn growth or has she noticed a raised digital pulse?
 
It sounds to me as if he has some kind of infection and his tendon has scar tissue which causes his heel to raise and therefore for him to point his toe. what an awful situation for your friend to be in with keeping a horse without medical attention. If the situation cannot be remedied then hopefully he will be put down, but I hope that this is done humanely, like you say these eastern country are not known for their humane treatment of animals and I fear the animal must be in considerable amount of pain at present.
 
The Brooke Animal hospital appear to have a presence in Egypt I got this from the web site, Would it be worth contacting them for advise .They seem to work out in the rural areas as well as having a vet hospital in Cairo. this is their web address
http://www.thebrooke.org/

Our field clinics in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan where the mobile teams are based, are fully equipped to treat almost any injury or disease and provide shelter and respite for recuperating animals. Their excellent facilities include operating theatres, treatment rooms, x-ray facilities, isolation boxes, dispensaries and medicine stores, farriers shops and paddock.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Its more than possible that he could have got laminitis in the other hind foot due to the excessive weight bearing on it. However, I'm not sure how you'd deal with that without the backup from decent vets and farriers and xrays to see how you're progressing, but maybe someone else will have some more helpful thoughts?
Has there been any change in the horn growth or has she noticed a raised digital pulse?

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspected laminitis at first too, but wouldn't that make the horse lean back on his frog? She has an old and experienced farrier working with her but he's clueless as to what is happening with his formerly sound hind leg.

Horn growth is a bit "boxy" as is the case with most cart horses here. I find it disgusting that there are still horse and donkey carts in the streets, some of them are in appalling condition but that's another story.
 
Thanks for all your replies, I really appreciate any ideas on the whole issue.

I saw the horse today and he was lying down eating, but when we opened the stable door he got up quite well! Much better than my arthritic older horse who is on Legend! He seemed to be putting more weight on the tip toe hoof and less on the one with the problems initially. My friend said she started to move the foot a bit, the part bellow the fetlock. She said the horse initially tightened up as if in pain then the joint seemed to have eased up.

TBH if this were my horse I think I would put him down, but it's such a hard decision always and after a year of treating him and getting great results with the original problem it's hard to give up on him now. Horrible situation. Horrible place to be if you love animals.

I will tell her about Brookes but as I said they had a few problems a while back so I don't know if she'll consider them.
 
Unfortunately it could be a number of things I'd have thought..
could it be poor farriery? If his hooves were boxy could he have contracted tendons? Is the farrier changing the angle of his hooves at all?
It could also be arthritis perhaps due to supporting the old injury? or it could be as simple as an abcess..

I hope you have some success with the Brooke..
 
Could be an abcess in the hoof - one of the key signs is a reluctance to weight bear fully on the foot and a preference to use the tip of the toe to stand on. Your friend could try "tubbing" the foot in warm strong salty water to try and draw the abcess out
 
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