DB&B
Member
Hi, I am after some advice - sorry for a long post!
I have a lovely 5 year old warmblood, he has a slightly upright/clubby LF foot that was not picked up on in his PPE. When I bought him, he was unshod with very large flared feet. We addressed the issues with my farrier and shod the horse after a couple of cycles. He is a large heavy horse, around 16.2 when I purchased him and now about 17hh 10 months later.
My farrier was concerned about his upright foot and wanted to place a wedge shoe on it, which from my understanding is a common thing to do with upright feet. I conferred with my vet, as both the farrier and vet were concerned it had become more upright in the time I had him. The hoof was x-rayed and a graduated bar shoe was put on - I think it had a 3 degree wedge. The horse became very unsound a few days after the shoe was placed on, he was previously sound but did very occasionally have a slight 'hop', the vet and I had decided that we wanted to address the foot now to ensure it didn't become an issue in the future. However upon becoming unsound, horse was re-xrayed and no problems were found. He was put into a wedge pad instead and administered previcox. He was turned out for a while (I can't exactly remember) with light hacking - at a walk, straight lines etc. However, he is a horse who does not cope particularly well with limited stimulation, soundness was improving so I increased the work to include some trot. He continued to improve with increased work.
However fast forward a few months, he was taken off previcox, the hop had become very minimal and he seemed to warm out of it to some extent. However I had a niggling feeling that something still wasnt right. So I organised for the vet to return, she was concerned about soft tissue or DDFT damage. The hoof had some swelling at the coronet band, and the shape had become a little distorted (the toe appeared to dish). We x-rayed his foot, fetlock, knee and shoulder to rule out any other causes of lameness and to check that there was no problems that had been causing him to favour this foot and put accentuate the club. X-rays all clear, there was some 'fuzz' on the tip of the coffin joint. We did nerve blocks which were somewhat ambiguous and soundness was only gained once the entire foot was blocked. Vet does not think it is a collateral ligament issue as he is equally unsound on both reins. Rads showed some balance issues wiht the hoof, lots of extra toe, heel and sole that could be removed. I got a new farrier (very well respected and one of the best available) to reshoe the horse. He addressed the issues and basically said the foot had got away on the farrier and he had forgotten basics by trying to be clever. He shod him in plain shoes with a slight rocker in the toe. Anywho, horse has been turned out for about 9 weeks now, the swelling around the coronet band has decreased however he is still not sound - he is probably worse. We have injected the coffin bone and he is in a confined space with bute for the next week...
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I am at wits end. He is my dream horse and I am absolutely gutted and so frustrated. We also lack an MRI in the country to do any affirmative diagnostics
Thanks for sticking this out, hopefully it makes sense!!
I have a lovely 5 year old warmblood, he has a slightly upright/clubby LF foot that was not picked up on in his PPE. When I bought him, he was unshod with very large flared feet. We addressed the issues with my farrier and shod the horse after a couple of cycles. He is a large heavy horse, around 16.2 when I purchased him and now about 17hh 10 months later.
My farrier was concerned about his upright foot and wanted to place a wedge shoe on it, which from my understanding is a common thing to do with upright feet. I conferred with my vet, as both the farrier and vet were concerned it had become more upright in the time I had him. The hoof was x-rayed and a graduated bar shoe was put on - I think it had a 3 degree wedge. The horse became very unsound a few days after the shoe was placed on, he was previously sound but did very occasionally have a slight 'hop', the vet and I had decided that we wanted to address the foot now to ensure it didn't become an issue in the future. However upon becoming unsound, horse was re-xrayed and no problems were found. He was put into a wedge pad instead and administered previcox. He was turned out for a while (I can't exactly remember) with light hacking - at a walk, straight lines etc. However, he is a horse who does not cope particularly well with limited stimulation, soundness was improving so I increased the work to include some trot. He continued to improve with increased work.
However fast forward a few months, he was taken off previcox, the hop had become very minimal and he seemed to warm out of it to some extent. However I had a niggling feeling that something still wasnt right. So I organised for the vet to return, she was concerned about soft tissue or DDFT damage. The hoof had some swelling at the coronet band, and the shape had become a little distorted (the toe appeared to dish). We x-rayed his foot, fetlock, knee and shoulder to rule out any other causes of lameness and to check that there was no problems that had been causing him to favour this foot and put accentuate the club. X-rays all clear, there was some 'fuzz' on the tip of the coffin joint. We did nerve blocks which were somewhat ambiguous and soundness was only gained once the entire foot was blocked. Vet does not think it is a collateral ligament issue as he is equally unsound on both reins. Rads showed some balance issues wiht the hoof, lots of extra toe, heel and sole that could be removed. I got a new farrier (very well respected and one of the best available) to reshoe the horse. He addressed the issues and basically said the foot had got away on the farrier and he had forgotten basics by trying to be clever. He shod him in plain shoes with a slight rocker in the toe. Anywho, horse has been turned out for about 9 weeks now, the swelling around the coronet band has decreased however he is still not sound - he is probably worse. We have injected the coffin bone and he is in a confined space with bute for the next week...
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I am at wits end. He is my dream horse and I am absolutely gutted and so frustrated. We also lack an MRI in the country to do any affirmative diagnostics
Thanks for sticking this out, hopefully it makes sense!!