Sheared heels and bar shoes?

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ali87uk

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Hi
My mare has recently been diagnosed with sheared heels in both fronts. I have treated this extensively with hydrogen peroxide, teramycin, foot trim every 4 weeks, she is in at night... I think it's from thrush...although I have also read thrush comes after the sheared heels?
Her backs are now looking suspicious so am treating those too.
Vet and farrier recommend bar shoes which am having done next week so I have one more week to treat the thrush, it is looking better.
I just wondered if anyone has experience with this and any tips appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
 
Is she shod in normal shoes atm? I will never put bar shoes on a horse again - they ruined my mares feet - it has taken 14 months (so far) to get them semi-decent again (barefoot). I can't see how bar shoes would fix sheared heels?
What diet is your mare on?
 
She is barefoot at the moment... she is on an at grass mix with balancer and small about of chaff - she is prone to weight gain! And hay at night.
 
I have read that one, thank you though! It doesn't really discuss thrush...I have feet trimmed every 4 weeks and she was fine in the summer. I think it's due to the wet weather we have been having.
 
What are you doing to treat the thrush? What works for some doesn't work for others & you have to try another approach. Do you do much woodwork? The more u do, the better.
I'd guess there are some mineral deficiencies in the diet that your horse cant cope with (eg. copper, zinc & magnesium).
 
Ha! I don't do any roadwork! Surely the balancer should provide the minerals she needs as her feed was recommended by a nutritionist?!
 
my tb wears aluminium (cos hes a freak and doesnt like heavy shoes) heart bars. we only do dressage and hack ocassionaly. hes been in these for about 15 months now. we use them to widen the area of pressure of the hoof as the shoe sits on the frog due to his collapsed heels. they seem to be ok and although his hooves havnt grown any more heel, it hasnt reduced like it has previously. the only problem is the shoes are fantastic at being sucked off in the mud!!!....spent a few nights search for that £50 shoe!!!!!!!
 
My WB gelding had sheared heels in both fronts about 7 years ago. I'd only had him a few months and he came from a dealer with 4 odd shoes on and then was shod with ordinary shoes when I bought him.

He had straight bar shoes put on and I had to disinfect his feet every night by standing in a bucket of warm Virkon S that my farrier recommended for about 5 -10 minutes per foot. I also used a large syringe to syringe into the cleft of the frog. I think I had to do this for several months but can't remember exactly how long (seemed like forever!). Afterwards he was shod in natural balance shoes and I haven't had the problem since.
 
A lot of balancers just have the bare minimum of everything in. You need to compare it to something like Pro Balance + or Pro Hoof (from Pro Earth on ebay) or one of the Forage Plus balancers (go to the Forage Plus site if u Google it). They've been designed to suit the average deficiencies in UK forage & contain more realistic amounts of the minerals horses need for healthy feet.
The roadwork provides the stimulation required to de-contract the heels & promote dense(r) frog & sole tissue, thus making it more difficult for thrush to thrive.
Heartbars are expensive & unlikely to help in the long term. They pretty much rotted the frogs on my mare cos it's so hard to get at them to keep them clean & aerated.
Will find a pic...
 
Sept 2011

DSC04431.jpg


2011-09-16171638.jpg


2011-09-27171230.jpg


Sept 2012 (still work in progress, but she's MUCH sounder now)

2012-09-16165401.jpg
 
They look much better now!
Right I shall look into different balancers as sounds like this is something that needs attention.
Shall attempt to take pictures, usually am at the yard when it's dark! The only difference to 'normal' feet is that the cleft in the middle of the frog is a lot deeper than it should be.
Thank you for all your suggestions.
 
Yes definitely! With my horse it's just the central sulcus. This spring she split the frog from the central sulcus outwards. Does this predispose the frog to it happening again?
Will attempt to get pics tomorrow!
 
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If the deep central sulcusses were caused by thrush then I can't think of a better way to make them worse than to bar shoe to close all the dirt into them and stop the oxygen that stops the bugs breeding from getting in there. Just like hereIam's pictures show.

They don't actually look "sheared" to me from your photos, (though photos can be very deceptive) they just look like deep sulcusses. All the sheers I have seen are tight enough to hold a credit card, go way up the back of the heel, and make the horse wince when you dig a hoofpick into the bottom (and the whole hoofpick head disappears) . I've cured several by stuffing with cotton wool soaked in sudocrem, and then sudocrem alone once the sulcus is as open as the ones in your photos and won't hold cotton wool any more.


Both feet look underrun for a barefoot foot. It suggests that the foot is not getting the correct stimulation to the back half, which could also cause the contraction and sulcus problems. Does your horse land heel first?

Is the horse sound?
 
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Now I'm really confused!!
Farrier says they're sheared, and vet agreed...they both recommended bar shoes although farrier said similar to you in that hard to treat when frog covered by a bar shoe which is why vet said to treat it full on for 2 weeks then have her shod sat?
 
ali87uk said:
Now I'm really confused!!
Farrier says they're sheared, and vet agreed...they both recommended bar shoes although farrier said similar to you in that hard to treat when frog covered by a bar shoe which is why vet said to treat it full on for 2 weeks then have her shod sat?
Click to expand...

Why? Is she unsound?
 
I wouldn't say she was lame, but she isn't sound! Footy shall we say?

She is super grumpy in the lunge pen (so I'm not lunging at mo) and won't work nicely in the school because apparently the sand irritates it, vet said to keep weight off her back until shod...so have been long lining.

They're not that bad!
 
These links might help for thrush ideas. Some of the stuff you can't get over here so ignore. Pete's goo is one to try for central sulcus infection though. Also note the probable link to mineral deficiency especially copper.

http://www.barefoothorse.com/barefoot_MoreTopics.html
http://www.healthyhoof.com/ Click on the articles on hoof health links on this one. They should work, the web site is being rebuilt. If not google Linda Cowles hoof trimmer.

Here's another link and I suggest you search this blog too. Loads of great info. Sorry to butt in btw. lol
http://www.barefoothorseblog.blogspot.ie/#uds-search-results
 
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She sounds like my friend's horse. She has tried bar shoes and fillers to cure hers and they didn't work. In my experience, the way to cure them is twice daily disinfection and getting the heel to widen so that the central sulcus widens out and the bottom comes up to where it should be. But that's a long process and will take the kind of work you might not be able to do over the winter, so I can see why you would try shoes.
 
I do think it's related to the wet weather as she split one frog last spring in all that rain then over the summer was fine with lovely feet and then as soon as this wet weather comes back it returns!
 
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