Laminitis (postoperative), shoes, barefoot and stuff

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soloequestrian

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My mare had an operation for septic pedal osteitis in Feb (see post below). The operation meant that she had a cone-shaped hole right through her hoof, from a penny-sized hole in the hoof wall down to a hole in her sole of about 7cm diameter. She was shod after the op with a heart bar on the bad foot and an eggbar on the good. About four days after the op, she got laminitis. Thankfully she was still in the hospital and they treated her very quickly so the symptoms disappeared pretty much the same day. She is now coming up to six weeks post-op and I'm musing on how to best rehab her feet.
She has been barefoot for the past 8 years, not for any problem, just because I don't like shoes, and this is the first issue we've had - she has been sound and working for all those years. My specialist vet said that he would prefer that the shoes were refitted at six weeks, but wasn't very clear on the reasons for this. Unfortunately he is also always in a bit of a hurry so it's difficult to get into any depth on the topic. I will discuss it with him again this week before the farrier comes, but I'm interested in opinions/ advice from people on here as I know there are lot of you experienced with barefoot rehab, although I also know this isn't really a typical case. I would much prefer not to have the shoes put back on - I think the foot will heal more strongly and have better blood flow without them. I think the support that she gets from the heart bar will easily be replaced by the deep soft bedding that she is on, and not having shoes would mean that I could put her Old Macs on over the bandage/ gaffa tape combo she has to wear, which would mean walking out for grass wouldn't damage the bandage as it does at the moment. She will gradually be having more time out over the next few weeks so this is becoming more important. I don't think the hole in her sole is serious enough to destabilise the foot when the wall is virtually intact.
So, any thoughts? Please don't shoot me down in flames for questioning what the vet has recommended!
 
I agree with your instincts not to shoe - let nature do it's thing. The hoof is an incredibly strong and perfectly designed structure - it'll heal faster with optimum circulation, which is only possible if you don't encase it with a shoe. Using your Old Macs with support pads if necessary will give her ample protection.

As for vets I don't know yours obviously, but there is a very well known equine vet where i live who spouts so many inaccuracies about barefoot that it boggles the mind. I used to be on a livery yard where one of the other liveries had him out to her horse. She was interested in trying barefoot and he told her it was impossible in this country as our climate is too wet. This was just as I was walking past leading my two barefoot endurance horses! Some vets won't even consider barefoot as an option, others believe only certain horses can manage, or only those in light work (!!!), thankfully more and more are doing their research and getting better educated. But if my vet told me to shoe any of my horses I'd be changing my vet very quickly! You really need to collar this vet and insist he explain his reasoning - if he won't take the time to do this then frankly he's not doing his job.

I wish your mare a speedy recovery - sounds like she's very lucky to have you looking out for her.
 
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Me too. The hole you are describing isn't big enough to destablise her foot and the blood supply will be better without shoes. If her frog needs support, why not support it on the floor??
 
We don't really know, inasmuch as you often don't really know the cause of an abscess. It was basically an abscess that was so close to the pedal bone that as the pus built up it ate through the bone membrane and caused an infection. One of the weird things about it was that she was totally sound in the afternoon (trotting around the field) and then absolutely hopping lame in the evening of the same day. The surgeon said that the bone infection itself can be virtually pain free, it's pressure from a build-up of pus that causes the lameness, so my theory is that the pus had been being produced for a couple of weeks but had kept finding routes away from whatever foreign body caused the abscess - when we first dug into her foot to drain the abscess, there were tracks following the white line right round the sole (or as far as we could see), but obviously eventually it started to build up and cause the lameness. All quite scary - if any of them get an abscess in the future they'll be in for x-rays as fast as they can blink.....
 
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