Typical TB feet- help!! :(

floradora09

floradora09

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 April 2009
Messages
1,327
Location
Oxfordshire
Visit site
I've had my TB for three months now, and am having a lot of difficulty with his feet! His backs are fine, it's just his fronts that are giving me a headache! When he came he had side toe clips in front, but my farrier (who is very good) decided to take them off (didn't ask him why, just trusted his judgement). He was being fed biotin, and that set scraped to the 5 week mark, where then he was shod again. I think it was around this time that I for some stupid reason decided to stop feeding him biotin, and his next set only just managed 3 weeks! They've done 3 weeks again, although farrier really wanted to aim for 5 weeks. When his feet grow they splay out, the clenches come up, shoe moves, feet crack etc. Got to three weeks and clenched him up as clenches coming a up a bit, but then somehow when i was taking him down to the field he nearly slipped over and in the process pulled a clench clean out, and made the rest awfully loose! Got down today and a large section of foot had come off, so got another livery to remove shoe for me as it was doing too much damage to be left on.

Farrier coming out tomorrow but is concerned that the hoof hasn't grown enough for there to be anything to nail shoe onto, so I think he may be thinking of using glue-ons.

He's going back on the biotin tomorrow, but is there anything else I can try that might help? I'm using kevin bacon hoof oil, which is fab, but not helping with the splaying, cracking and breaking off issue!

Cheers to anyone who can help me! xxx xxx xxx
 
Put him back on the biotin, but short term it won't make any difference. Biotin only effects the NEW foot growing, so will take months to grow down for the shoe to be nailed to.

Has he put front shoes on with quarter clips? That would help stabilise the shoe. I imagine he's trying to bring the toe back. Do you put over reach boots on him? That may help her not stand on herself and pull the shoes off.

I've been there! Keep persevering! It will pay off!
 
im in the same boat as you, word for word thats the same as my tb feet. the best supplement is naf profeet, i use the liquid, the trouble with biotin is it encorouges growth and thats your problem is the feed grow and splay. but profeet encorouges quality growth and makes the feet stronger. keep using kevin bacons! get your farrier to look at how he walks. because of the shape of my tb's feet, he walks with all the weight down the inside which made him lame on both fronts. he now has bar shoes on and his feet look amazing! best £95 iv been spending! it takes time but they will come right, iv had prince 4 years and they are only just coming right, iv had my new remedial farrier nearly 2 years and hes made a huge difference to them, they go 7 weeks in the winter, hes going 6 now with the bar shoes, il take a pic of his feet now and compare them to previous photos and post them for you to see. will do it 2moro. i was singing from the same hymn sheet!
 
My Tbs feet left a lot to be desired when I bought him - I had a 5 stage vetting and the only concern the vet had was his feet! That was 18 months ago, and they are now a respectable shape and hardly any cracks. He's keeping shoes on, and staying sound, so careful management can work wonders.

My farrier makes my boys shoes specially for him, the idea is that by supporting the heels, backing up breakover and addressing optimal heel placement, the foot will open up and become more round and heels will decontract. This is now happening, but was a long time before we started really seeing improvements.

I feed farriers formula. It's expensive, but it promotes quality growth. You wont see results overnight. You'll see the results next year, but it's worth it. I don't think Biotin is rated that well any more. My farrier told me that by the time the body has absorbed the biotin, the horse will have a lovely glossy coat, but it wont make any difference to hoof growth or quality.

the other thing I do in very dry weather, like we are having now, is hose his feet down every day, and put a coating of 'cornucrescine intensive hoof moist' on (it's a water based, white cream)
 
It might be time to try the NAF profeet- I'll do a bit of research today. That's the reason I stopped feeding him Biotin, as his feet were growing and splaying, so I thought that it might help to take him off it.

galaxy23- got the over reach boots! he's out 24/7, so wears them all the time. I don't know a lot about remedial shoeing and my old farrier (not used on the TB i hasten to add!!)was ****! maybe quarter clips will help, but i think i'll ask today just to know why they've decided not to put them on.

Thanks so much everyone, it's a bit of an ongoing worry! :(
 
Hi, welcome to the world of TB feet!
My boy has terrible feet but i have a fab farrier who, when things got really bad, used a bandage thing (imagine vet wrap with plaster of paris in) and then attached aliminium (sp!) shoes on top.
The bandage gives the shoe something to nail too and has been brilliant.
As for supplements i fed Top Spec which included Biotin and def mad a difference but they do take time.
 
The tbs iv got all came to me with **** feet and are now all great. I feed topspec balancer which has hoof supp in it and all the goodness they need on a daily basis. As it's a complete feed it works out cheaper than buying supplements to add into feed. A lot off people don't feed their horses in the summer which doesn't help feet at all as they need to get the goodness from somewhere. But do keep in mind feet will grow more in the summer. Iv just cut my tbs feet from being done every 8 weeks down to 6 weeks. In the winter they will cope with 8 weeks again.
Pro feet as got a very good right up but please remember as others has said you improve what's growing that should be your aim which can take 9 months
 
Can't really add anything to the great advice already given except to reassure you that there are lots of us out here with the same problem! My farrier recommended Kevin Bacon hoof dressing and Farrier's Formula supplement and we are slowly seeing an improvement over the last year. Best of luck and just keep reminding yourself why you chose a tb - cos they are sooo special!!
 
The gelding I used to share came to us with really bad feet, he was an ID x TB. He came with heartbars with side supports on one of his front hooves (left I think). The outside of his hoof grew alot slower then the rest of the hoof, also alot weaker and due to the fact he was pidgeoned toed the side of the hoof would start collapsing and breaking.
The first week he was with us we put him on biotin and profeet (liquid) and within 2 farrier visits his feet looked 100times better then they did when we first got him. He has been on profeet for nearly 18 months and we have had no problems since! I am a total profeet fan :)
 
Thanks so much everyone, just going to the feed store now, and will pop him on profeet or farriers formula- will read the labels! Any preference over profeet, farriers formula and formula 4 feet? xxx
 
My tb has the usual typical tb feet. I tried biotin, farriers formula, etc, all to no avail. Found that he could not keep any shoes on, his feet were apalling and cracked and bits missing off them. I know being a tb that within 24 hrs of loosing a shoe, he would be footsore and very lame. He was diagnosed with collapsed heels and low grade navicular changes a year ago. We think that these were caused by bad shoedng, even though he was done by a master farrier. I then made the hard choice of removing all of his shoes. Since then he has gone from strentgh to strenght his feet now look better than they ever had before. He now competes barefoot in showjumping, dressage and shoeing. For hacking he wears hoof boots all around. If you give tbs a chance they can go barefoot. Never, ever thought that my boy would be able to cope!
 
I have had my elderly TB for 7 years and he had bad feet until a couple of years ago. I had tried every feed supplement which has already been mentioned, and then someone recommended seaweed. I give him NAF seaweed - cheap and he has hardly lost any shoes since. It seems to start work in only a few weeks. I can honestly say, after spending hundreds of pounds on the expensive stuff that it is the only thing that has worked for me. Another tip is to turn your horse out with over reach boots on as it might just stop him stepping on the shoe with his other foot and pulling it off!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top