warm hind feet & cold fore feet?

noblesteed

noblesteed

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Hi, I wondered if anyone would be able to assist me in diagnosing a problem...

My horse has been unshod on the hind feet for 3 months now. Since the weather has become wet he has warm back feet and coronets. Some days they are warm and other days they are cold. He is sound on them. They were quite irritated after we went to a dressage comp in a sand school last weekend - he was quite upset the following day! His front feet are shod and always stone cold. So far I suspect one of 3 problems:

a) Thrush due to muddy conditions, irritated by sand/mud - doesn't explain why the heat is not every day tho.

b) A touch of mud fever - again doesn't explain why feet are cold one day and warm the next. He has had mud fever a few weeks ago which I treated.

c) Warning signs of laminitis as he is a very good doer. (Usual at this time of year but still a possibility?)

d) Something to do with increased circulation due to being unshod??????

He is out on decent grazing during the day and in at night with 12 hr soaked hay and top chop lite. He is in minimum rugs to keep the weight off him. On bringing in at teatime I am currently bathing the feet in hibiscrub solution to prevent scabs and/or kill thrush and applying aloe vera gel to soothe.
 
Put the temp of the fronts to one side. They are cold because the circulation is reduced (not a good thing).

Unshod normal, healthy hooves will have markedly different temperatures depending on the ambient conditions, so take this into account. eg if one hoof has been in the shade and one in full sun, the latter will be warmer (if all else is equal).

Taking the ambient conditions into account, then if the feet are markedly warm then something maybe brewing and you need hands on (literally) advice.

I have never experienced thrush making hooves warm, unless the infection has penetrated right into the sensitive inner tissues. Again mud fever may make the leg warmer but is unlikely to affect the foot.

Abscess can make a hoof warmer as will anything else that causes inflammation or an increase in circulation.
 
hmmm in that case we may have a lami warning? I am loath to restrict grazing any more at this stage of the year but perhaps the greenguard needs to go back on.
otherwise, he may have just been running around before he came in, as he often does when its dark! And maybe the feet just seem warmer due to exercise...
I will check them in the morning and see how they are then. Tis very puzzling...
 
It can be quite frightening at first and I know it scared me at the time when my mare went barefoot, but it is how it is, the shoeless hoof is quite hot!

So don't panic just yet.;)
 
I think you will find it's because the frog is acting as nature intended, as a pump. That is why there is increased circulation in comparison to the front.
 
It does sound like you should be on lami watch. Have you just started feedin them haylage or sugarbeet perhaps that could have triggered it - we had that last year with one pony.

Mud rash can cause heat before the scabs come out. We have two with slight heat and puffiness in the fetlocks each morning, and slight swelling, which is without scabs - it generally means wathc out, they are on the way..:(
 
Unshod feet will fluctuate in temperature loads more than the shod foot, which is almost always stone cold (I guess why many people think of the hoof as an unfeeling, insensitive lump on the end of the leg instead of a complex living and breathing structure). So probably nothing to worry about but frosty grass can cause lami so monitor closely... there is frost forecast this week so just be aware.
 
Just to clarify - it is not necessarily eating something frozen that can trigger laminitis. But when there is frost grass changes how it stores sugar - keeping more in the leaves as a kind of anti freeze.

Frost over several days, particularly when there is a sunny afternoon means that a considerable amount of sugar can get locked up in the leaves. Therefore a grass guzzler can pack away a fair amount of sugar even when it is cold. This is understood to be how the lami prone can get enough sugar from grass in winter to trigger laminitis.

But of course as the research on lami triggers is still incomplete some of this is observation only and the exact mechanisms are not fully understood.
 
Both back feet were stone cold when I brought in tonight! Despite the charge of the light brigade at bringing in time...

Don't think I need to worry about sun on frozen grass - its been tanking down all day! We don;t tend to get many frosts here by the sea thankfully.

I think I will carry on with the cleaning of feet and the monitoring/restriction of foodage, but I will feel very mean putting a grazing muzzle on him in this rotten weather!
 
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