Ongoing Front Foot Lameness

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Lizzynelson

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Hi Guys...

Just wondered if anyone had similar experience and can share as I am at a total loss with my boy who has been suffering front foot lameness for over 14 months and nothing has worked. He is a 16'2 ISH 10y/o.

Initially noticed performance issue in November 2017- initially thought was his back however looking into this and treating he was still no better. Went in for lameness work up in Jan 2018 where he was found to be 1/10 bilaterally lame in front on a circle. X rays were taken which showed very mild navicular changes and poor foot balance. The vet felt that once we had addressed the foot balance he would be fine. We injected with steroids and worked on the foot balance and re xrayed which showed much better foot balance however he went lame again around 2 months after steroids. It seemed to be the right fore that keept being the issue. We then injected steroids again which were even more short lived and he got full blow laminitis. We then tried egg bars with pads which was most successful which kept him sound for 4 months but then we began having issues again. The lameness is very minimal, vet has said less than 1/10 lame on right fore however it is having a massive issue on his performance- has anyone had similar experiences or success stories?

on the vets guidance I have now turned away for a year...

Thanks for reading the essay :)
 
shoes off, full barefoot rehab movement is key so full turning away totally isn't always the best option though might get you to the same end point. Have a look round the rockley blog for starters and see what you think. Though you will also find plenty who have gone through it on here now.

Boney column can look perfectly balanced but it isn't showing up any soft tissue issues (as you don't mention MRI).

Fwiw mine looked fine on xray (some reverse rotation), hooves looked much better after 2 rounds of bar shoeing + steroid injections but long term wasn't any sounder. No MRI but suspicious of collateral ligaments based on xray. Came sound over the next few months of a slow barefoot rehab (I was likely too cautious but he was 19 and flat footed) carried on hunting until 23/24 retired at 25 due to totally unrelated issues.

One more thing though would be that I would be a bit concerned about the laminitis and whether only the IA steroids were to blame.
 
ester said:
shoes off, full barefoot rehab movement is key so full turning away totally isn't always the best option though might get you to the same end point. Have a look round the rockley blog for starters and see what you think. Though you will also find plenty who have gone through it on here now.

Boney column can look perfectly balanced but it isn't showing up any soft tissue issues (as you don't mention MRI).

Fwiw mine looked fine on xray (some reverse rotation), hooves looked much better after 2 rounds of bar shoeing + steroid injections but long term wasn't any sounder. No MRI but suspicious of collateral ligaments based on xray. Came sound over the next few months of a slow barefoot rehab (I was likely too cautious but he was 19 and flat footed) carried on hunting until 23/24 retired at 25 due to totally unrelated issues.

One more thing though would be that I would be a bit concerned about the laminitis and whether only the IA steroids were to blame.
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Hey thanks so much for replying. I have now taken the shoes off, however not sure to start with the barefoot rehab :s. I will definitely check out the Rockley blog!

Sorry i forgot to add- i ran out of insurance money so couldn't afford to do the MRI so dont know what is going on in regards to soft tissue and there may be some issues going on there that i don't know about.

Sounds like you had a lot of success with the barefoot rehab!
 
It doesn't really matter whether you MRI or not, the treatment options left to you are the same whatever has gone wrong.

Walk, walk, walk in hand until you have a flat or heel first foot landing. Then the same ridden until the horse is happy and sound in trot. Build everything up slowly week by week. If you have a setback, rack back the work and build up again.

Turning away works with some but not all. Some need the extra movement of controlled exercise to put them right.

I've done four definitely lame horses and one suspect myself. Two returned to affiliated eventing. One dodged a bullet by two days eight years ago and is still gong strong now. One had serious behavioral problems and was PTS, but sound. Rockley have done dozens.


Good luck!
 
Agree about barefoot rehab one of my horses was diagnosed with navicular much like yours, I took the shoes off he had a few months of field rest then I started doing short walks in hand, with a bit of varied ground with road, tracks grass and school then just started doing short hacks and a bit of schooling, and his been barefoot ever since without any issues, I don't jump and I don't trot or canter on very hard ground and am just generally careful, my regular farrier trims him feet as and when and it's just a tidy up mainly leaving the sole and frog.

I was advised by my vet to put remedial shoes on him but after research I decided to take the shoes off best thing I ever did.
 
Just worth checking you hadn't had one. I didn't because it wasn't going to change what I was likely to do treatment wise. I was happy to go along the bar shoe route but only if I gave it a timeline and I did check with vet we had no other 'medical' options.

In short barefoot rehab relies on:
diet, movement and trim - in that order.
Rockley advocates not trimming at all/self trimming. IMO not all manage that- mine would get very long medially and move his break over round to the outside if left.

Movement makes a massive difference, in full work covering probably 30ish miles hacking a week +schooling I had to trim every 3 weeks at least. Since retiring he goes 6 weeks easily. We did have about a month inbetween where he wasn't getting road wear but the message hadn't got through that we'd be ok with slower growth now.

He was booted for the first 6 months of road work (initially 5 mins a day in hand) due to his flat soles, and then intermittently on particularly challenging terrain. His soles were never great, I would never have called him totally rock crunching but they were adequate for the job, they improve again when he was doing more mileage/over trickier terrain when we moved to livery.

Our time line was shoes off March, thankfully had quite a soft ground summer, all work on straight lines, booted for road work and took them off for grassy bridleways. Cantered in the September out hacking, schooling started again in the November.

Trim wise a less is more approach is advocated, certainly initially as changes happen. No sole/bar/frog trimming (unless really flappy bits of the latter!) mine would immediately go sore if you touched a bar.

Treating for thrush even if they seem ok is always a good idea from a frog health point of view, I have always treated once or twice a week but did more when the shoes came off as the bar shoes had encouraged thrush under them. Red horse products are the best I have used.

It doesn't resolve everyone's issues entirely but it does seem to be the best chance for many long term.
 
Mine has medial collateral ligament damage. He was barefoot before, and very fit. Just a bad luck injury. It happened last summer, and the injury was serious, so we are taking it very slow. We built a track around his resting paddock, and made it longer and windier, until he had quite a lot of ground to cover, but no way of picking up speed. He can injure himself on box rest and rear/buck where he stands so total restriction would never have worked any way. Am now hacking in walk several times a week over different terrains, up to 30-40 minutes, and planning a whole year of hacking ... We could go more quickly, but he's not an old horse so we are very invested in long-term soundness! In the end, many of the rehab plans for soft tissue are the same ...
 
We have a round track, the only day F spent stood on the pea gravel patch for an extended period was the day after the night my sister said she had heard them going round and round it at speed :rolleyes:.
 
ycbm said:
It doesn't really matter whether you MRI or not, the treatment options left to you are the same whatever has gone wrong.

Walk, walk, walk in hand until you have a flat or heel first foot landing. Then the same ridden until the horse is happy and sound in trot. Build everything up slowly week by week. If you have a setback, rack back the work and build up again.

Turning away works with some but not all. Some need the extra movement of controlled exercise to put them right.

I've done four definitely lame horses and one suspect myself. Two returned to affiliated eventing. One dodged a bullet by two days eight years ago and is still gong strong now. One had serious behavioral problems and was PTS, but sound. Rockley have done dozens.


Good luck!
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Thank you that's really helpful. I will give that a go. Hopefully rehabbing barefoot will help with the controlled exercise 🤞🤞
 
Can only echo what everyone else has already said about going barefoot. Get the diet right (low sugar, no alfalfa, minimal grass), get him moving (with boots on at first if necessary) and definitely less is more with trimming. Treat for thrush regardless of whether you think he has it or not using red horse products.
 
PoppyAnderson said:
Can only echo what everyone else has already said about going barefoot. Get the diet right (low sugar, no alfalfa, minimal grass), get him moving (with boots on at first if necessary) and definitely less is more with trimming. Treat for thrush regardless of whether you think he has it or not using red horse products.
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Thank you 😁. He has thrush in central sulcus on his right fore so I've been trying that religiously
 
If it's really stubborn a cleantrax soak can be a good idea too.

I generally combine sole cleanse then pack with hoof stuff if I have enough of a crevice - usually in front not possible behind.
 
ester said:
If it's really stubborn a cleantrax soak can be a good idea too.

I generally combine sole cleanse then pack with hoof stuff if I have enough of a crevice - usually in front not possible behind.
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Thats great thanks, i will give cleantrax a try as it is very stubborn! With consistent treatment is it possible for the area to close back up again?
 
It is. Mines just been treated. Hers cleared after being cleaned out with sole cleanse and then packed with hoof stuff. If that doesnt work for yours then cleantrax should shift it.
 
Leo Walker said:
It is. Mines just been treated. Hers cleared after being cleaned out with sole cleanse and then packed with hoof stuff. If that doesnt work for yours then cleantrax should shift it.
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Thank you thats really helpful :) I have just bought a hoof boot to do soaks in so hopefully that will do the trick!
 
irishdraft said:
OP are you sure it is not the thrush in his central sulcus that is causing the slight lameness ? Thush can eat away at the soft tissue and sometimes cause lameness if it is very deep . Seems coincidence it is the same foot.
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hey thank you for responding. It did occur to me but I didn't know if thrush could cause lameness, it does seem to be deep though. And the lameness was always worse on a soft sand school maybe cause it aggravated it? I am treating as per above recommendations. Even if it's deep it should clear with continuous treatment? X
 
Well I have a horse I bought with the same problem in one front & one back . So I have done quite a bit of reading on the subject although mine is not lame I feel he favours the forelimb without the thrush . My farrier said I would never get the central sulcus splits up the heel to heal and so far I haven't but maybe the cleantrax treatment will sort it but I haven't tried yet I think it is a difficult one to clear up especially if it's longstanding as it is in my horses case. So good luck with it .
 
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