Sore feet

[icestationzebra]

I guess this should be in Vets but I was hoping that you lot would see it and have some ideas!

My horse has had her back shoes off since the end of August and been absolutely fine. She hacks for up to 1.5hrs on quite stony tracks at times and has never shown any sign of soreness. We hunted on Boxing Day and was out quite a long time - she is fit enough and the ground was good. However she was very footsore behind the day after and I think it was due to a fair bit of roadwork. Because she runs on adrenaline she never took so much as a short step whilst out but clearly felt it the day after. She had some bute that morning and again that evening and since then she has been having Arnica twice daily and is being hot tubbed in salt water twice daily too. There is no heat in the feet, no filling in the legs at all and she is sound in the field - however very tentative when crossing the yard. Is there anything else I can do to help bring the bruising out and make her more comfortable? She is out all day and in at night on a thick straw bed on top of rubber matting. I don't want to dose her up on bute as I don't want to mask what is happening - but I would if I thought she was in any pain - she is eating fine and very perky in herself. She is not lying down anymore than usual either and is standing on both hinds without trying to prop one.

Any other tips or things I could do that I haven't thought of? I thought about poulticing but she'd probably lose them in the field and I think getting air to the feet is probably better????

Any ideas welcome!
Thank you

 

[Ferdinase514]

Sounds as though she is just sore - bute and a few easy days will prob sort her out

 

[smac]

Iodine. after hot tubbing, let the feet dry and then paint on. It will help to harden the feet. keeping doing it even after finishing hot tubbing. its about £4/£5 for a 500ml bottle that should last a good month

And above

 

[icestationzebra]

Thanks Finn / SMAC
Much appreciated

 

[cptrayes]

In a few days, she should be fine, especially if you haven't got big pulses or hot feet. I wouldn't do anything to them myself, time will sort it if all she's got is a bit of footiness on the yard.

I'd be a little concerned why it happened though. 1 1/2 hour hacks on stony tracks should have conditioned her feet fine, and tarmac, no matter how much of it you did, should not have made her footsore unless her feet wore right down.

I am wondering if her connection between her white line and her horn is strong enough, and this is not a case of concussion laminitis??? (The shoes could have stopped white line leverage which has affected the hinds). Do you have her on a very low sugar/carbohydrate and high fibre diet?

 

[icestationzebra]

In a few days, she should be fine, especially if you haven't got big pulses or hot feet. I wouldn't do anything to them myself, time will sort it if all she's got is a bit of footiness on the yard.

I'd be a little concerned why it happened though. 1 1/2 hour hacks on stony tracks should have conditioned her feet fine, and tarmac, no matter how much of it you did, should not have made her footsore unless her feet wore right down.

I am wondering if her connection between her white line and her horn is strong enough, and this is not a case of concussion laminitis??? (The shoes could have stopped white line leverage which has affected the hinds). Do you have her on a very low sugar/carbohydrate and high fibre diet?

Thanks for your thoughtful reply SP. I had my farrier out this morning and he was surprised by how much foot she had worn behind and said that she would be uncomfortable. We made the decision to put back shoes back on and she looked happier immediately. He is confident that she will absolutely fine in a couple of days and suggests we keep back shoes on until Easter and then revisit - there is some bruising and he would prefer to give the feet some growth time. She is a big horse and that probably attributed to the amount of wear and I wonder if standing in a wet field every day has kept the foot soft? Interesting what you say about diet - yes she is on a high fibre/low starch diet a) because she gets fat and b) too much starch makes her v. spooky Do you think this is a factor?

 

[cptrayes]

If she is a good doer who gets spooky on carbs then that would point also to a horse with the kind of hind gut that we might expect not to grow the strongest feet. Some of the more difficult ones need a perfectly mineral balanced diet and some owners are having to get analyses done of their hay/lage and grass.

On the other hand, she managed fine until now, including on stones, which is not what we might expect if she has any dietary issues. Is she out 24/7? I wouldn't expect wetness to have caused weakness unless her feet are in the wet all day and all night.

It does sound as though it may simply have been an overload of roadwork that she hadn't built up enough condition for. It happens, unfortunately, it's one of the drawbacks of barefoot that some (not all) horses don't manage a heavy workload unless they are doing that level of work several days a week.

I know that sounds a bit daft to some people - if your horse can't cope with a lot of roadwork do more of it - but it's how the foot works. It grows faster and harder in response to wear, so for some horses if you want to do ten miles on the road on Saturday then you have to do it on Monday and Wednesday as well. (not all at once, of course, smaller distances first and build up )

 

[icestationzebra]

If she is a good doer who gets spooky on carbs then that would point also to a horse with the kind of hind gut that we might expect not to grow the strongest feet. Some of the more difficult ones need a perfectly mineral balanced diet and some owners are having to get analyses done of their hay/lage and grass.

On the other hand, she managed fine until now, including on stones, which is not what we might expect if she has any dietary issues. Is she out 24/7? I wouldn't expect wetness to have caused weakness unless her feet are in the wet all day and all night.

It does sound as though it may simply have been an overload of roadwork that she hadn't built up enough condition for. It happens, unfortunately, it's one of the drawbacks of barefoot that some (not all) horses don't manage a heavy workload unless they are doing that level of work several days a week.

I know that sounds a bit daft to some people - if your horse can't cope with a lot of roadwork do more of it - but it's how the foot works. It grows faster and harder in response to wear, so for some horses if you want to do ten miles on the road on Saturday then you have to do it on Monday and Wednesday as well. (not all at once, of course, smaller distances first and build up )

Thanks SP - that's interesting. I completely understand what you mean about building up - If I were planning to run a race barefoot on the road then I understand that I would have to do some conditioning for that otherwise I'd have very sore feet after 50 metres! Although we hack on stony tracks our roadwork is quite limited (which is lucky in most respects) so perhaps we never got that conditioning hence the excessive wear. She is out all day and in and night so not standing in wet 24/7 and she definitely doesn't have wet or thrushy feet. She walked across the yard this evening 100% better than she did this morning - so a couple more days off and she can start some gentle school work again.
Thanks for your thoughts - really interesting