Pedal Bone Rotation & White Line hoof disease!

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Chicolatino

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As you can see we have it all!!! My 21 tested positive for ems 6 month ago and has been on metformin and diet plan since then. Had a couple of bouts of soreness since then but generally been ok. Until few weeks ago when he started coming in sore and had cosy foot just on one side which made me suspicious. After xrays and nerve blocks on friday turns out the pedal bone has rotated and the hoof is separting from the wall.( hope that makes sense). He'd had xrays in Jan this year and everything looked fine so this was a total shock to me. He has navicular also so has had raised heel shoes on for years now. Farrier coming to take them off today and we looking into getting the hoof cut right back later this week. Now thats what worries me. Help anybody had any experience.??
 
So he has chronic laminitis.

Horses can struggle along with this without anyone noticing until they have cause to have an x-ray and then everyone panics :o

The metabolic issues mean the laminae (connection between the bone and hoof) is weak.

The wall itself wasn't designed to take all the responsibility for carrying the horse. It's supposed to be a co-operative effort between the wall, sole, bars, heels and frog.

The shoes and the wedges mean you are removing that co-operative effort and making the wall do all the work. This is putting extra pressure on an already weak laminae connection.

I'm sure you can appreciate how this would break down eventually :(.

Do your horse a favour. Take the shoes off. Invest in some boots and pads and keep him in a non grass, soft area with low sugar hay/haylage.

He will fix all of this if you let him.

Cutting the toes right back is an idea.
But is the back of the hoof well developed and robust? My money would be that the back of the hoof is contracted, weak and possibly thrushy.
So by cutting the toes right back, you risk dumping the horse onto the back of the hoof and it cannot possibly carry him yet. The horse will therefore walk on his toes to avoid discomfort - putting more pressure onto that laminae.....and you will round in a circle and never get anywhere.

My take home point is to avoid using a jack hammer to crack a walnut. Shoes are likely to have caused the original navicular and then all the interventions to try and fix that, with more shoes and then wedges haven't helped have they? We've failed.

So let the horse have a crack at it.

Take it gently. Give the horse time to fix the hoof and support him with comfortable surfaces and boots with pads.
Adopt sympathetic trimming rather than aggressive trimming. Ease the break over to the wall but leave everything else alone for now.

Review diet too - this is essential to moving forwards.
 
Oberon said:
So he has chronic laminitis.

Horses can struggle along with this without anyone noticing until they have cause to have an x-ray and then everyone panics :o

The metabolic issues mean the laminae (connection between the bone and hoof) is weak.

The wall itself wasn't designed to take all the responsibility for carrying the horse. It's supposed to be a co-operative effort between the wall, sole, bars, heels and frog.

The shoes and the wedges mean you are removing that co-operative effort and making the wall do all the work. This is putting extra pressure on an already weak laminae connection.

I'm sure you can appreciate how this would break down eventually :(.

Do your horse a favour. Take the shoes off. Invest in some boots and pads and keep him in a non grass, soft area with low sugar hay/haylage.

He will fix all of this if you let him.

Cutting the toes right back is an idea.
But is the back of the hoof well developed and robust? My money would be that the back of the hoof is contracted, weak and possibly thrushy.
So by cutting the toes right back, you risk dumping the horse onto the back of the hoof and it cannot possibly carry him yet. The horse will therefore walk on his toes to avoid discomfort - putting more pressure onto that laminae.....and you will round in a circle and never get anywhere.

My take home point is to avoid using a jack hammer to crack a walnut. Shoes are likely to have caused the original navicular and then all the interventions to try and fix that, with more shoes and then wedges haven't helped have they? We've failed.

So let the horse have a crack at it.

Take it gently. Give the horse time to fix the hoof and support him with comfortable surfaces and boots with pads.
Adopt sympathetic trimming rather than aggressive trimming. Ease the break over to the wall but leave everything else alone for now.

Review diet too - this is essential to moving forwards.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great advice. Have spent months looking into his diet and hopefully on something very low in sugar and also that he'll eat at the mo. Allen & Page Fast Fibre, unmolassed hi-fi and lite balancer. Also micronised linseed and magnesium. Hay soaked 12 hours and only turned out into sand school.

Luckily enough seem to have a fantastic farrier as thats what he's said aswell.!! have taken shoes off and trimmed a wee bit but not too much off his heels yet. He has suggested little and often rather than all at once. My wee 15hh has shrunk to a 14.2.!!lol Thats sooo true what you said about the panic. Even though been treating this for 6 months still had a meltdown.!!
 
Chicolatino said:
Thanks for the great advice. Have spent months looking into his diet and hopefully on something very low in sugar and also that he'll eat at the mo. Allen & Page Fast Fibre, unmolassed hi-fi and lite balancer. Also micronised linseed and magnesium. Hay soaked 12 hours and only turned out into sand school.

Luckily enough seem to have a fantastic farrier as thats what he's said aswell.!! have taken shoes off and trimmed a wee bit but not too much off his heels yet. He has suggested little and often rather than all at once. My wee 15hh has shrunk to a 14.2.!!lol Thats sooo true what you said about the panic. Even though been treating this for 6 months still had a meltdown.!!
Click to expand...

Your farrier sounds like a smart guy. Phew!

What is the Lite Balancer?
 
Oberon said:
So he has chronic laminitis.

Horses can struggle along with this without anyone noticing until they have cause to have an x-ray and then everyone panics :o

The metabolic issues mean the laminae (connection between the bone and hoof) is weak.

The wall itself wasn't designed to take all the responsibility for carrying the horse. It's supposed to be a co-operative effort between the wall, sole, bars, heels and frog.

The shoes and the wedges mean you are removing that co-operative effort and making the wall do all the work. This is putting extra pressure on an already weak laminae connection.

I'm sure you can appreciate how this would break down eventually :(.

Do your horse a favour. Take the shoes off. Invest in some boots and pads and keep him in a non grass, soft area with low sugar hay/haylage.

He will fix all of this if you let him.

Cutting the toes right back is an idea.
But is the back of the hoof well developed and robust? My money would be that the back of the hoof is contracted, weak and possibly thrushy.
So by cutting the toes right back, you risk dumping the horse onto the back of the hoof and it cannot possibly carry him yet. The horse will therefore walk on his toes to avoid discomfort - putting more pressure onto that laminae.....and you will round in a circle and never get anywhere.

My take home point is to avoid using a jack hammer to crack a walnut. Shoes are likely to have caused the original navicular and then all the interventions to try and fix that, with more shoes and then wedges haven't helped have they? We've failed.

So let the horse have a crack at it.

Take it gently. Give the horse time to fix the hoof and support him with comfortable surfaces and boots with pads.
Adopt sympathetic trimming rather than aggressive trimming. Ease the break over to the wall but leave everything else alone for now.

Review diet too - this is essential to moving forwards.
Click to expand...



:D :D
 
Oberon said:
Your farrier sounds like a smart guy. Phew!

What is the Lite Balancer?
Click to expand...

Its spillers lite balancer . Only gets minimal amounts of hard feed. on something like 0.5kg a day split into 2 feeds. vet had diet made up after consulting " dick vet".

He's on box rest for 2 weeks before farrier, vet , me and the xray machine are having a date to see how the hoof is and maybe trim a wee bit more.
Thanks so much for your advice .
 
Hi guys, I read this with interest having a pony mare with EMS and had rotated pedal bones 21/2 years ago. We successfully managed her condition with careful diet and work. She has had to be retired this summer, aged 14, due to major breathing/allergy issues which meant she couldn't get enough breath in when exerted (she was a driving pony). This has made it hard to manage her conditions and give her quality of life. We had her shoes taken off 2 trims ago as she isn't working but she now moves very badly - turning her toes out and putting more weight onto the inside of her front feet to the point that they are wearing unevenly. I have the farrier coming this week and intend to discuss with him best plan (he is excellent) and I will talk to our vet on tuesday. She is on a bare paddock 24/7 with company, soaked hay and suitable diet. She finds walking on hard/uneven surfaces painful. My brain is starting to question her quality of life. Any advice please? :(
 
I will take some tomorrow and see if I can post them on here. I have her origional x rays showing the degree of rotation then. I'm not sure whether rotation can improve or if its permanent (a question for my vet I know). Its obviously not doing her any good moving the way she is now.
 
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