Supplement for Feet?

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travelmad

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Having feet trouble at the mo...

Mare has been bare foot a few months (not on barefoot diet or anything just happened to have her shoes off for winter months) but has been doing fine. Last 2 weeks she started to get footy on gravel or hard surface though complete sound on grass and in both sand and rubber arenas. Decided she prob needs her front back on as she is in harder work now and maybe that's what's making her footy. Farrier came to put fronts on today and found some bruising that didn't look great. All treated now and cleaned up, with fronts on. YM suggested she needs a supplement... White hooves so I guess they are poor...

What would you supplement with? Pure biotin? But will that take a year or so to actually make a difference, what else could I use? Thanks
 
If she wasn't on a barefoot diet (as far as im aware thats just another name for a diet suitable for a horse), that's probably why she was footy.

Try pro balance.
 
I used a supplement I found through the laminitis trust website I think - I trawled loads of sites reading about hoof quality and barefoot info etc. and after a lot of reading i went for what i thought was the best at the time - it is called 'Formula 4 feet'

I used it on a horse with very poor feet who was not managing barefoot but was better without shoes due to navicular - it seemed expensive but one 20kg sack (about £90) lasted 4 or 5 months and he never needed anther one and his hooves were strong and normal after that.

I thought it was fantastic stuff.
 
I use formula 4 feet with one and Pro Hoof with the other - both are very good but for some reason the mare doesn't get on with Pro Hoof and seems much happier on formula 4 feet.
 
It sounds like low grade laminitis TBH. That bruising is caused by the inflamed laminae. Personally, I would have her off the grass and on soaked hay or hi fibre low sugar haylage. What is her condition like? Is she overweight? How old is she? I wouldn't actually shoe as you may cover up the symptoms.

Regarding the balancer, I use Pro hoof. It seemed to contain everything you could possibly need for good hoof health.
 
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