Hels_Bells
Well-Known Member
I posted last week about hoof absesses only to find out on the visit from my farrier the day before yesterday that the "hole" in question is seedy toe.
I asked what I needed to do/where I could have been going wrong for this to have occurred and he suggested that I just need to get air to the area so to give it a good clean out with a toothbrush when I can. He said that Remy's hooves are pretty A.O.K. in general (I think they look pretty good imho) so not to change anything and put it down to one of those things.
I've had a look through HHO previous posts and there's a lot of debate around this area, some of which ties in with what my farrier says I should do, other parts not so much.
I was going to put a bit of an overview of my general horses life/management to see if folks think there is anywhere blindingly obvious I am going wrong. This could be long!!
Remy is a 16.1hh, 13yo WB who came to me about 3 years ago as a very poor doer with pretty poor feet (and a terrible bad back which I think has some part to play in the poor doer issue). On the advice of the feed company nutritionists and HHOers I changed his diet from 2 feeds of
Alfa A, Calm and Condition and Sugarbeet
To 2 feeds of
Alfa A oil, balieys #4, Sugarbeet, Topspec Healthy hooves and pink powder.
We also addressed his saddle issues. So he began to gain weight and has basically been on this diet for 3 years (with the exception of this summer when he was eventing a lot and needed to be put on racehorse mix and balancer to give him enough energy to sustain his workload) and is looking great on it, amazing coat and hooves and generally very well and happy. The 2nd winter he dropped a bit of weight but was much better than before and this winter I kept in the balancer and also added a mug of oil per day and he has done exceptionally well and barely dropped any weight (I am very proud of him and will try to get some pics). He is out 24/7 in summer with another horse and they share about 2.5 acres of paddock. In winter (when it's not covered in snow) they are turned out in a sheep/cow pasture of about 50-60 acres which most of the time they share with 100 or so sheep. At present everywhere is pretty soggy and muddy. In winter he is stabled overnight with adlib haylage.
Coming out of winter about this time last year he had a hoof absess and then the other day he knocked a fence out hunting and when I returned to the trailer there was a large-ish crack in his hoof. Will also try to include picture. I assumed the remnants of another absess but farrier diagnosed seedy toe as above.
So, in my absess post some had mentioned that molasses could be to blame. Could this still be the case for seedy toe? Is there anything else that could be to blame/where could I be going wrong and is the way I'm about to treat the seedy toe (or not!) the best way to go??
Pic of the crack/hooves taken after a hose down before I realised it was seedy toe...:-
I asked what I needed to do/where I could have been going wrong for this to have occurred and he suggested that I just need to get air to the area so to give it a good clean out with a toothbrush when I can. He said that Remy's hooves are pretty A.O.K. in general (I think they look pretty good imho) so not to change anything and put it down to one of those things.
I've had a look through HHO previous posts and there's a lot of debate around this area, some of which ties in with what my farrier says I should do, other parts not so much.
I was going to put a bit of an overview of my general horses life/management to see if folks think there is anywhere blindingly obvious I am going wrong. This could be long!!
Remy is a 16.1hh, 13yo WB who came to me about 3 years ago as a very poor doer with pretty poor feet (and a terrible bad back which I think has some part to play in the poor doer issue). On the advice of the feed company nutritionists and HHOers I changed his diet from 2 feeds of
Alfa A, Calm and Condition and Sugarbeet
To 2 feeds of
Alfa A oil, balieys #4, Sugarbeet, Topspec Healthy hooves and pink powder.
We also addressed his saddle issues. So he began to gain weight and has basically been on this diet for 3 years (with the exception of this summer when he was eventing a lot and needed to be put on racehorse mix and balancer to give him enough energy to sustain his workload) and is looking great on it, amazing coat and hooves and generally very well and happy. The 2nd winter he dropped a bit of weight but was much better than before and this winter I kept in the balancer and also added a mug of oil per day and he has done exceptionally well and barely dropped any weight (I am very proud of him and will try to get some pics). He is out 24/7 in summer with another horse and they share about 2.5 acres of paddock. In winter (when it's not covered in snow) they are turned out in a sheep/cow pasture of about 50-60 acres which most of the time they share with 100 or so sheep. At present everywhere is pretty soggy and muddy. In winter he is stabled overnight with adlib haylage.
Coming out of winter about this time last year he had a hoof absess and then the other day he knocked a fence out hunting and when I returned to the trailer there was a large-ish crack in his hoof. Will also try to include picture. I assumed the remnants of another absess but farrier diagnosed seedy toe as above.
So, in my absess post some had mentioned that molasses could be to blame. Could this still be the case for seedy toe? Is there anything else that could be to blame/where could I be going wrong and is the way I'm about to treat the seedy toe (or not!) the best way to go??
Pic of the crack/hooves taken after a hose down before I realised it was seedy toe...:-
