lame after shoeing - update

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Silver-Dove

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Following on from my previous thread, my horse was lame after being shod, this has never happened before and i have owned him 2 years. 6 weeks on and he is still lame........

Got vet out to do x rays, nothing hideous wrong with him, no navicular or anything like that, but bruising near to pedal bone and vet says that on both front feet the heal on the outside of the foot has collapsed, so all the foot balance is out... she says to shoe with a pad and slightly raised heals for the next couple of shoeings.... my question is, would you change farrier ?

my present farrier is really nice and he is the only person to touch my horses feet in 2 years, so would you say the foot problems are down to the way he has been shod or just one of those things ?
 
He is shod every 7-8 weeks, the vet didnt say it was the farriers fault, but he is the only person to do my horses feet, so who else could be to blame ?
 
I would be wary of shoeing with raised heels and pads.

Frank had not great foot balance when he went lame a couple of years ago and my farrier (shod for the previous 5 years with no lameness) was very amenable to shoeing him differently (it was actually really good for him as he is youngish and it encouraged him not to just assume things with feet he knew well and to take a fresh look every time). He still shoes our other horse.
 
Or ask the farrier why he hadn't brought the problems to your attention. If his answer is defensive, you will know he missed it and find another farrier.
 
ester - how did you shoe your horse then after he went lame - did you carry on shoeing in the normal way ? I have been reading about wedges and pads and it says that this can do more harm than good ?
 
He was shod with egg bars and his toe brought back and heels came up.

Superficially his feet looked much better after 2 shoeings (he also had flat pedal bones). My vet was very anti wedges apart from in the very short term even though they would have 'corrected' the pedal bone angle.

After discussion with vet and farrier - who agreed feet looked much better/as good as could likely get but no improvement in soundness we took shoes off and pretty much been sound since (I think feet looked better on outside but not internal structures in shoes- we also found out he was landing laterally so likely putting strain on the collateral ligament even though feet were balanced)
 
so foot before shoeing 'correctively'

303847_10150950572980438_1133518035_n.jpg


shod

408786_10151120752190438_533327263_n.jpg


when shoes came off

548929_10151493879400438_365331735_n.jpg


don't know if that helps at all...
 
OH is a farrier. You should discuss all your concerns with your present farrier. The farrier should always be made aware of any issues as soon as possible. Vets need to be careful when commenting on a farrier's work and the right and proper thing is for the vet to contact the farrier to discuss and not to pass detrimental comment or expect the owner to pass messages on.
 
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