How much effect do sore feet have on muscles?

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charliejet

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My horse has had intermittent lameness for over a year now, she also has low grade lami.
This winter I took the shoes off and had a trimmer instead of the farrier and she had 5 months barefoot. She did have some good times when the ground conditions werent too bad but we have struggled this year with alternate water logged to frozen rutted ground and she has been quite often short strided.

She has always had a really good strong back, no atrophy. Recently she has had some sore areas in her back and shoulders (seen by physio) which we have put down to her not moving so well with her feet issues. She has also not done much work but I have noticed last night that she has lost a lot of top line, something that she hasnt in the past even when being out of work and is getting tight through her back again.
She has been too uncomfortable these past weeks so I made the decision to put front shoes back on her this week. I have found a new farrier and she is already more comfortable. I have not given up on barefoot but the ground conditions just keep getting worse and there is a limit to how long I feel is fair to keep going even though I know it is better long term.

So, can the feet really affect the back so much or should I be looking elsewhere for the soreness? And is there anything I can feed to help rebuild muscle that is lami safe and wont put weight on?

Tried to take pics of her moving yesterday but it is really hard, lol.
But managed this shot of her walking and she is moving better, will get physio back out and see how she goes.

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Thanks
 
IME a hell of a lot of muscle problems are caused higher up from sore feet, my mare in particular barefoot pretty much all her life struggles horrendously with rutted hard ground despite having pretty much spot on good feet.

I always liken it to us trying to walk over rutted frozen ground, my back hurts like hell if I've spent any amount of time trying to traverse the field searching for poo icicles so I can only imagine how bad it can be for 4 legs.

My answer is to boot during the bad times and stable during the day simply to give her a rest from stumbling across the ruts, this regime suits her plus she gets to stuff her face all day rather than scratching around for frozen scraps. Once it defrosts she is back out 24/7 and not a problem to be seen.

Building muscle IMO only comes from work and not feed although some feeds state they promote muscle like build up cubes etc, personally I never touch any of it preferring a total forage based diet for all of mine, come working time they all build great muscle and being out 24/7 tend to hang on to it a little better than stabled horses as they are wandering around all the time.
 
Thanks for your reply, I will get the physio out and hopefully if the weather ever improves!!
I can get her back into work. She only gets Fast Fibre to get supps. in and Hay (half of which is soaked) cant use any conditioning feeds with her anyway but was wondering about some sort of protein to add into her diet???
I think you are right it only comes with work though. Hopefully now she is moving more comfortably she will settle again.

The weather this year has made it really hard going :(
 
charliejet said:
So, can the feet really affect the back so much or should I be looking elsewhere for the soreness? And is there anything I can feed to help rebuild muscle that is lami safe and wont put weight on?

Thanks
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yes without out doubt they can affect the back. Just think if you walked badly due to pain, some muscles somewhere else would have to compensate for your poor movement.
However there is one other thing that I have found affects the muscles even more than sore feet and that is cushings. That can affect them big time.
It can also affect how the feet land. With mine it prevented a heel landing in front. Once I got the cushings and muscles sorted back came the heel landing.
I used D & H extracted soya bean meal to successfully rebuild the muscles but you have to remove the cause first with cushings.
 
I used to know that my lami-prone horse had sore feet by the shape of his back long before it was obvious in his feet.
 
Thank you, hopefully I will see an improvement in the short term then now she is more comfortable. I did ask my Vet about Cushings but he said she was too young? (7)
 
Sore feet certainly have an effect on muscles, and vice versa. This year the weather conditions have been particularly bad, slipping and sliding about in the wet, then deep frozen, - and then just to add to the 'perfect storm' - first seasons for mares which can be painful and even the usually smooth surfaces like tarmac that we ride on are broken up and full of stones.

You are wise to get her comfortable OP.

Food-wise, investigate getting a forage-balancer designed for good hooves, which will also help the rest of the body (something like ProHoof or Forage Plus) and look at adding linseed to her grub.

They all seem to be needing very good nutritional support now.
 
charliejet said:
Thank you, hopefully I will see an improvement in the short term then now she is more comfortable. I did ask my Vet about Cushings but he said she was too young? (7)
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sorry but it doesn't seem to be the case. I can trace all my horse's problems back to when he went down with laminitis aged 6. Looking back this was the start of cushings.

I think Liphook are still doing free tests at the moment so it might be worth trying.
 
cptrayes said:
I used to know that my lami-prone horse had sore feet by the shape of his back long before it was obvious in his feet.
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This sounds very familiar - when my mare had a low grade lami episode her back shape would change, losing its natural curve and becoming slightly flatter and more 'blocky', she'd also get a little tight behind the saddle and through her hamstrings in particular.
 
Think I will gets bloods done when I take her to vets for her booster then, thanks.

Yes that sounds a bit familiar, she gets sore in her glutes and shoulders from that lgl stance.
 
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