Mediolateral hoof imbalance and lameness

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HelenBack

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I'm looking for experiences from anybody whose horse has gone lame due to a mediolateral imbalance. How did you treat it and what were the outcomes in what sort of timeframe?

I'm not asking for advice on what I should do as I'm very aware of the options and am challenging my vet and farrier on a pretty much ongoing basis. I won't shy away from getting a second opinion if I need to. But real life experiences from others would be helpful for me to hear about.
 
Who told you this was a problem? Are there any more details? What is the horse currently doing? What has been done so far? How? Is the horse shod? Which foot? To which side is the imbalance? What other problems are you having? Pictures?
 
Lateral imbalances causing lameness is not rare .
You clearly need xrays of feet and perhaps fetlocks and knees ( in front ) to to understand why the horse is unbalanced .
This is a complicated subject as for instance a horse who has a weak core and uses his body poorly often wears the outside of its feet more no amount of balancing the feet will help if the issue comes from somewhere else .
Sometimes it’s a farrier issue sometimes it’s not it way more complicated basically a minefield .
 
I agree with GS that the causes are myriad and a minefield.

The easiest solution, though, is usually to ask the horse to show you what balance it needs by taking off the shoes for six months. Ideally, you would match growth to wear (not always easy, depends on the horse) and not trim at all during that time. At the end of that process, the horse will usually have grown a hoof capsule to match whatever lack of straightness it has higher up in the legs or body.
 
ycbm said:
I agree with GS that the causes are myriad and a minefield.

The easiest solution, though, is usually to ask the horse to show you what balance it needs by taking off the shoes for six months. Ideally, you would match growth to wear (not always easy, depends on the horse) and not trim at all during that time. At the end of that process, the horse will usually have grown a hoof capsule to match whatever lack of straightness it has higher up in the legs or body.
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Thanks for your replies. I know I asked for experiences and not advice but you're all saying the same sorts of things as I'm thinking.

I don't want to say too much as I've a feeling my vet comes on here and clearly I'm questioning the approach we're taking otherwise I wouldn't be asking here! Suffice to say it is a problem in as much as I can now see that the hoof has changed in appearance and the inside is now almost growing under with the coronet band not level. We've had x-rays.

With the above advice (which is what I want to do), I can pretty confidently say that I don't think our set up would make it likely that the wear would match the growth. Would it be possible to manage this with appropriate trimming? I'm worried in case the growth got worse somehow.
 
So my experience is that my horse was fine with her slightly wonky legs until she had an unrelated field injury which lead to wedges being put on and changed her hoof balance. This led to a 6 month cycle of lameness until she bust an abscess out from under one of the wedges and I said enough is enough and did a barefoot rehab.

Sensitive shoeing over the years did her fine, trying to change her hoof balance as a 20+ year old was disastrous! Now she gets trimmed by a farrier (initially we used a barefoot trimmer just to have someone supportive on board as I had to sack the vet and the farrier at the time), who is careful with her not to take too much off or try and change too much. She is sound and getting more rock crunching with every year the shoes have stayed off, (she also has cushings so lots of issues to contend with!).

Her imbalance didn't make her lame, but trying to correct/ change it did...
 
Is it the inside or outside of the foot that’s gone very upright ?

Are the horses heels level and the same size ?

Are any event lines on the horses foot wearing down evenly ?
 
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Her imbalance didn't make her lame, but trying to correct/ change it did...[/QUOTE]

Goldenstar said:
I had several experiences of lateral imbalance the only ones that ended well where dealt with by removing shoes .
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You might as well both be reading my mind! Looks like I'm going to have to get brave and stand up to the vet...
 
HelenBack said:
With the above advice (which is what I want to do), I can pretty confidently say that I don't think our set up would make it likely that the wear would match the growth. Would it be possible to manage this with appropriate trimming? I'm worried in case the growth got worse somehow.
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Re. this bit, it's not something that has to stay fixed, you can see what the hoof does and make a decision and change that decision if you don't think that is working.

What is the actual diagnosis (understand that you are trying not to say too much).

I have to say that if I felt I had to stand up to my vet I'd think about finding a different one. I've always been able to have a rational pros/cons conversation with all of mine. With regards to alt. hoof methods I always stressed that I was quite happy to be patient.
 
Well there’s always the I can’t cope way forward .
Just say I can’t cope or afford this and take the shoes and put the horse in a bare field give it a decent supplement and watch .
I have never done that with out knowing what the diagnosis was.
 
ester said:
Re. this bit, it's not something that has to stay fixed, you can see what the hoof does and make a decision and change that decision if you don't think that is working.

What is the actual diagnosis (understand that you are trying not to say too much).

I have to say that if I felt I had to stand up to my vet I'd think about finding a different one. I've always been able to have a rational pros/cons conversation with all of mine. With regards to alt. hoof methods I always stressed that I was quite happy to be patient.
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Goldenstar said:
Well there’s always the I can’t cope way forward .
Just say I can’t cope or afford this and take the shoes and put the horse in a bare field give it a decent supplement and watch .
I have never done that with out knowing what the diagnosis was.
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I don't think there is an actual diagnosis, hence my frustration! The vet is nice enough actually but dismissive of barefoot. I'm going to be having some straight conversations this week about getting a proper diagnosis and plan and if I don't get satisfactory answers I'll be going elsewhere.

I'm just worried about choosing the right vet that would be open to even considering the shoes off option. They seem to be quite difficult to come across.
 
Oh and also the bare field is not an option at my yard and I can't think of anywhere else near by where it would be. This is part of my worry.
 
Then you will need to turn out at night and stable during the day but you are coming round to a good time of year to try this .
 
I presume that would just be during the summer months as we have to stable by night during the winter.

Can I ask where you're based? I've a feeling you might be in an area where I could get a vet recommendation from you if I need a second opinion.
 
Yes first questions first ;)
mine was too, but it was at the time when MRIs were generally only abiout 50% covered and I decided (after 3 months of bar shoes and injections) that it wasn't going to change what I was going to do anyway ie shoe removal.
It does often mean that vets can be keener to get cracking as they know they have a 12 month time limit to resolve the issue (hence the reluctance to barefoot some times, or that they aren't used to suggesting it, it takes owner input and patience and they are used to owners wanting horses fixed asap).

As a side note we didn't have an ML problem, but suspected collateral ligament based on observable landing and plenty of palmar hoof atrophy.
He is a good example of having everything great and looking balanced on the outside not resolving the problems though as the farrier got them looking much better in shoes, just not any sounder.

I can recommend a hampshire vet, tentatively a somerset one :p
 
9yo mare never been shod but has a lot of underlying issues.

Started to turn in on left fore. Just been trimmed actually or I'd take a photo for you. Two vets have mentioned not quite right on left fore over past couple of years but not to the extent where any intervention was proposed (too much else going on....).

Just had some quite serious muscular intervention with a machine that makes them pulse. Her left pectoral muscle was stuck solid (amongst others - her left hand side was solid). Right pec vibrated nicely with the machine but the left required quite a bit of pulsing before it remembered its job. It could be that the tight muscle is causing problems all down the leg.

Only time (the next 6 weeks hopefully) will tell if helping that muscle will sort out the foot imbalance or if there is something else.
 
Ester do you mind if I message you later on when I get back from the yard? It would be good to share the full story with somebody not involved and I think some of what you're saying resonates with me.

Was that a theraplate machine SEL or something else? I'm always interested in trying different things like that.
 
Goldenstar said:
I would cautious about theraplates you need to talk this with a good physio .
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I am interested in this, I have not used one but locally one is marketed as good for everything from warm up before a lesson, to cool down after a lesson, to tendon injuries, splints, muscle issues...

I have no experience with them, and am keen to learn.
 
Red-1 said:
I am interested in this, I have not used one but locally one is marketed as good for everything from warm up before a lesson, to cool down after a lesson, to tendon injuries, splints, muscle issues...

I have no experience with them, and am keen to learn.
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Well their website is pretty short on claims you can tie down .
 
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