Not A Barefoot Problem, But BF May Solve The Mystery?

Equilibrium Ireland

Equilibrium Ireland

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Hi all. Let me start by saying I have spent thousands getting my mare "diagnosed" over the years. My belief from the very beginning was weak stifles with the right being worse. Ok so all joints are clear and good. The trot up, ridden, and circles and the blocking was stopped at feet. On xrays the angle (I forget the technical at this stage) was slightly off so back then I did the pour in pads and aluminium shoes. From the vet there was not thing to be concerned about with her feet but that the pads would allow her comfort and get the angles closer to normal. Ok for a bit they seemed great. But towards the end of her jumping she was misreable and clearly something amiss. Again another full work up. Nothing shows up. I'm at this stage riding her myself and I'm still convinced it's a stifle issue. That is my gut but I'm told it's not. So give off. Well wait even though feet looked good on xrays vet says maybe to start tidren. I decide rest. Bring back last year and all the same things reappear. Grumpiness, head in your face at the beginnng of work. Slap on equipment to make her use her hind end and it all just makes her nuts. The odd slip behind too.

Flash forward to this year when I finally get to grips with all the things needed to make bare work. 3 out of 4 feet are great. She is even happily dealing with stones. I would not say rock crunching yet but from where we started, wow she's doing well. Except the right front. Her worst side. That one is staying flatish and frog is more smashed looking. The others are beefy and the hind have gone a nice concave and the left front one is starting. She has been bare since beginning of May. The right hind has slight drag wear. I don't know enough to put it all together but it is leading me to believe it is a stifle issue. This year starting back she was better than ever. And I decided to not use any gadgets. Been building her up slowly. I have no aim other than to get her strong and happy.She needs work no doubt but the feet are trying to tell me something. Anyone wwnt to chime in with their experiences. Sorry so long.
 
Can't help with the feet question, though I would agree that the feet do always reflect what's going on above but just a thought - would a thermal body scan help find the issue? Or at least possibly point you in the correct direction? It's reasonably cheap and you can have someone come to you to do it? That's assuming there is someone in Ireland that does it obviously.
 
I'm not going with diet because I don't think that would affect one foot only. Nor would she be happy to walk down the worst rock and pothole driveway know to man. I rent, I'm not redoing the driveway sorry. Her diet anyway is handful of speedie, flax, hoof supp with everthing for feet bar copper which I add, mag ox, salt, msm. The hoof supp has BY. Only night grazing too and pulses have all been good this year. I really think the bare has helped but the shape and wear must be telling me something.

Terri
 
Thanks Scarlett. I can ask my vet as he is due here this month for vacs. This is a new vet. Only new as my last one know works for a private enterprise now. I have mulled over her history with him. I get lots of well it could just be behavoir. There is a lot more history here. Like a head injury, yup done the neuro stuff. That was as a foal. She was an original bubble wrap foal until we started her and she had some focus. Too many things to list really. I'm sure at some point she could have done something that tweaked something. No OCD or anything like that in the xrays. Not even something you could make a case for. So it's got to be soft tissue. Pelvis and back as well as saccro also definitely ruled out.
So will try and find a thermo thing and go from there.

Terri
 
Well, it sounds as though your diet will be deficient in selenium for starters (unless you've already analysed your forage and know that it is high, and you are trying to deliberately keep Se low in the rest of her diet).

I presume you have had a comprehensive blood test done (including muscle and liver enzymes) - what were the results of that? If you don't have a copy of the results, do ask for a copy of the full report so you can see for yourself if anything is even marginally high or low, and assess the significance of that.

Some vets, for example, do not comment on muscle enzymes which are raised but not dramatically raised. Such a result can be indicative of an underlying muscle disease, which can show up as a reluctance to work and may firstly show up in the higher gaits (one of my mares could not sustain canter but appeared fine at walk and trot), before becoming apparent throughout their work as the condition worsens.

Selenium is needed as an antioxidant to stop muscle damage happening.

Unless your horse is receiving around 1mg a day of selenium (and I would suggest it should be as organic selenium - aka selenium yeast), then she may well be deficient, and that might account for a lot.

No idea with the feet, but if you post photos of them you may well get some helpful comments on those.

Sarah
 
My mare has one flat/underrun front foot - her LF. She has had a lot of problems with the RF fetlock & suspensory so I assume its something to do with that & the LF is compensating for the RF.

I would assume diet is fine is the other 3 feet are good. Have you done a bute trial?
 
Not adding selenium as land anaylisis has said there is adequate amounts. Also getting selenium through hay. All I've been told is that if you have enough in these things that adding selenium can be too much of a good thing. Yes bloods were done too. Nothing. She is well in herself and I would expect if deficient in selenium I would see some signs. Oh and some land near us is actually unsuitable for grazing and horses were "poisoned" with selenium overload. So I'm not going to add extra when land anaylisis says it's good and blood tests did not reveal a deficiency.

But when vet is here will run bloods again just to make sure. I will inquire about the thermography as well.

Terri
 
Who's trimming and how Terri?

My experience of front feet which differ has been a problem somewhere other than the foot. One had a bad scar right round the back of the pastern. Another has uneven shoulders. If someone took height off the one she wants taller, then the other would probably go splat to try and reestablish the height difference to balance the shoulders.

Photos would really help.
 
Any of this high heel - low heel syndrome stuff useful?

http://www.drkerryridgway.com/articles/article-hl-heel.php

I went to a lecture by Kerry Ridgeway and the diagrams explaining the impact differing heel heights can have on the rest of the biomechanics of the leg, shoulder, back etc were pretty startling. And vice versa, the impacts that issues higher in the body can have on loading and foot growth equally...
 
I have two horses with stifle issues, courtesy of their mutual sire. They both drag the affected toe when sore - very easy to see in a BF horse as they square it off beautifully.

My gelding is the older of the two and he used to have bouts of chronic lameness for a few days and then would be fine as if nothing had been wrong. I was initially told it was a SI issue, but in the end a simple flexion test narrowed it down to stifle. Diagnosing my mare was a lot easier because I knew what to look for.

I'm not great with the technical stuff, but basically (as I understand it) the ligament catches on the joint producing a low grade lameness, more of an unevenness really or in severe cases it really sticks. Both horses have had time out from work to rest the injury and are on six monthly Pentosan injections. I have also had a lot of success with Bowen treatments too.

My gelding was my endurance horse, now well retired but still doing dressage and we have just started jumping - he is 15 this year and since we started on this treatment regime has been totally sound - apart from still slightly scuffing the toe. My mare has also enduranced and I am just legging her up again after a six month break to get her right. She has been back in work a couple of months now and shows no sign of the niggling unevenness that she had at the beginning of the year. Hope that helps.
 
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When did you last have any diagnostic work done on that one foot / leg? My last horse has one foot that was always "crap". I used a remedial farrier who described it as almost a club foot, and although he could improve it, it never improved as much as the other three. In his case, he had ringbone (articular and non-articular, high and low!!) in that leg, combined with sidebones and a touch of sesamoiditis (sp?). Farrier's opinion was that the problems further up the foot and leg were creating the visible foot problems because of how he compensated for soreness. The horse was sore in his lower leg/ top of the foot which created foot problems, and also shoulder problems.

So if it's been a while since you had any diagnostic work done on that leg, it might be worth another set of x-rays and/ or scans if the budget will stretch.
 
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