X-ray results

AmiRobertson

AmiRobertson

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So after the funeral today my vet called me with the results of dizzy's x-rays.
Its an awkward one and I don't know what to do. Basically she has unusually thin soles, very weak hooves and very flat pedal bones in all four hooves.

My vet has told me if I am prepared to commit to cost of managing this for the rest of dizzy's life she could lead a normal quality of life but with very limited turn out in the winter to reduce risk of her feet crumbling. Anyone who knows our history will know I have had dizzy 8 months and in that time we have discovered she is a lot younger and we have had on off lameness totalling dizzy spending 5 months of her time with me on box rest.

She will need remedial shoeing and pads for all of her life and the vet has recommended farriers formula happy hoof and keratex (applied every day). Adding it up including her living in for most of winter its crippling costs.

I am exhausted this winter has been back breaking and I am not sure that I can do this every year for the next 20 odd years and what happens if my financial situation changes? she can never live out and it will be her that will suffer if I can not afford what she needs and I can not sell her. God knows where she will wind up and who will want a mare who needs so much work and now so much more extra cost. I feel massively over whelmed none of this was what I signed up for when I bought her. It has been nothing but heart ache. I am being made redundant at the end of may.

Basically I have decided to do what I can my insurance will cover up to 1000 in remedial shoeing so I can do my absolute best for her this summer and I am going to turn her out 24/7 for the summer so she can be the baby horse she is (the vet said this was ok as long as she came in if it got really wet again and we start the shoeing asap) and then see how she is in autumn and decide from there.
I am sorry to go on.
 
Sorry to hear it was bad news. I am not able to offer advice but put this post in the hoofcare/vet and I am sure someone like Oberon or Lucy Priory or CPTrays will come and give you some sensible help. Good luck.
 
With good management and correct diet you should be able to help her grow a good quality foot, it will take 9 months to a year for a full regrowth but it is not all doom and gloom, she can get thicker soles, these will support the pedal bone, the walls do not need to remain weak and crumbly.
Look at the barefoot diet, it is about a healthy functional hoof, not just for unshod horses but all can benefit from a low sugar and starch diet with appropriate minerals, I would not feed happy hoof it has too much sugar, something like fast fibre or speedibeet would be better as a base. The pro hoof supplement is ideal for getting a healthy regrowth, I do not like the idea of painting formaldahyde on my horses feet washing with water and keeping them able to breath feels better, although some product may be required to keep the frogs clear of thrush.
 
be positive said:
With good management and correct diet you should be able to help her grow a good quality foot, it will take 9 months to a year for a full regrowth but it is not all doom and gloom, she can get thicker soles, these will support the pedal bone, the walls do not need to remain weak and crumbly.
Look at the barefoot diet, it is about a healthy functional hoof, not just for unshod horses but all can benefit from a low sugar and starch diet with appropriate minerals, I would not feed happy hoof it has too much sugar, something like fast fibre or speedibeet would be better as a base. The pro hoof supplement is ideal for getting a healthy regrowth, I do not like the idea of painting formaldahyde on my horses feet washing with water and keeping them able to breath feels better, although some product may be required to keep the frogs clear of thrush.
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Thank you! I will get those sorted and look at the barefoot diet. I am prepared to try anything that my finances allow to get her feet as strong as possible before winter.
 
be positive said:
With good management and correct diet you should be able to help her grow a good quality foot, it will take 9 months to a year for a full regrowth but it is not all doom and gloom, she can get thicker soles, these will support the pedal bone, the walls do not need to remain weak and crumbly.
Look at the barefoot diet, it is about a healthy functional hoof, not just for unshod horses but all can benefit from a low sugar and starch diet with appropriate minerals, I would not feed happy hoof it has too much sugar, something like fast fibre or speedibeet would be better as a base. The pro hoof supplement is ideal for getting a healthy regrowth, I do not like the idea of painting formaldahyde on my horses feet washing with water and keeping them able to breath feels better, although some product may be required to keep the frogs clear of thrush.
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Agree with this, my horse was on/off lame due to flat feet, collapsed heels and an awful foot quality. Was costing £184 a set every 4 weeks at one point! I am not wealthy and although my family are they did not like my horse and wanted him PTS as he used to be unpredictable so would not help. I actually took the "kill or cure" approach in the end and went totally against vets advice but farrier promised to keep a close eye and advised it and ripped his shoes off then turned him away on a similar diet. His feet fell apart and he was crippled lame but months later he had grown a completely different shaped hoof and could walk without shoes! He now works at advanced medium, happily jumps 1.20 courses and is turned out all day (and will be overnight in summer) with, "normal" shoes on and a much improved hoof quality. Although I am sure it will not work for everyone it sure worked for me!
 
Repost this information with a new title - "advice for thin soled flat footed horse please".

That will get you the attention of all the barefooters who can give you advice how to get your mare right again. Thin soles and flat feet that are so bad that the horse cannot walk on them are not genetic faults and can be fixed.

The first rehab I did had soles 3.5mm thick. Are your horse's thinner than that? The horse has been sound as a pound for 3 years, jumps, hunts, wins elementary dressage and spent 5 hours on tarmac in the New Years Day London Parade.

Your vet has written your horse off far too early. If she is a good doer I would also have her tested for insulin resistance. And if she is not a good doer then I would have her tested for Cushings. Both conditions can cause the problems that your mare has.
 
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By the way, he probably doesn't mean that she has flat pedal bones. He probably means that they are lying too flat to the floor. That is also a diet and work issue. In shoes, her heels and frogs are not being stimulated enough to make them do their job. So they go flat, which stops them holding up the back of the pedal bone, which makes it lie too flat to the ground instead of upwards towards the back like they should be. A barefoot rehab will resolve that too.

It won't be quick to fix her feet, it will take about 6 months if you can boot her up and keep her in work. But it can be done, it's cheaper than remedial shoes and it's a cure not a sticking plaster like remedial shoes and pads.
 
CPT - sounds like the OP has had the same vet that I've had today!!

OP - what are you feeding currently? I've found that speedibeet with Pro Hoof and micronised linseed has worked wonders for my horse's feet.
 
CPT thank you! I want this to be solved not covered up.

She is a rising 4 TB I am currently feeding hay and a scoop of dengie alfa a original in the morning and evening.

She hasn't had much grass due to being on box rest but she is going back out tomorrow for a few hours. She is still lame but she is miserable.
 
AmiRobertson said:
CPT thank you! I want this to be solved not covered up.

She is a rising 4 TB I am currently feeding hay and a scoop of dengie alfa a original in the morning and evening.

She hasn't had much grass due to being on box rest but she is going back out tomorrow for a few hours. She is still lame but she is miserable.
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Change the alfalfa, a lot of barefoot and a lot of lami horses can't tolerate it. PM Oberon, she has a diet crib sheet for barefoot newbies :D
 
My boy was diagnosed with problems in his navicular area, also has thin soles and flat pedal bones which showed up on his X-rays. He didn't have a good prognosis. I changed his diet in December, his shoes came off nearly 11 weeks ago and he's now been at Rockley for nearly 5 weeks - I would not have believed the difference a decent low sugar/starch diet, going barefoot and lots of movement would have made had I not seen it for myself. There are already huge changes after a short space of time. It would definitely be worth you doing your homework on barefoot rehab, particularly with such a young horse. Also its worth reading Nic Barkers blog on the Rockley Farm website - it is very informative.
This is Paddy's 4 week update and you can clearly see the improvements in his feet.
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/spring-take-2-and-paddys-update.html?m=1
 
CPT-be positive has already sent me the stuff from Oberon! My farrier isn't the biggest barefoot fan so if anyone can recommend a more supportive farrier in the Kent/biggin hill area please!! I want to get this right and seeing what everyone on here is saying is nothing but positive I want to do this!
Thank you so much for all of these replies you have made a very sad girl much more hopeful.
 
I'm sorry it wasn't good news. I see CTP has already given great advice. Oberon is also very good. Please listen to these 2 posters as they are brill when it comes to these sort of things. I know Oberon gave me some fantastic advice regarding feed when my mare kept getting brushed soles. Since changing feed she hasn't had a bruised sole since! Thanks again Oberon!!
 
Thank you Lauren :) yep 100% listening to these guys and the changes are going to start this weekend when the feed arrives. Think I might keep a diary of how we get on so I can see progress etc. again thank you so much to everyone who replied!
 
Join the pheonix horse forum too, loads more advice on there and it's not just for barefooters. Only do the remedial shoes and pads as a very very very last resort please.
 
Thank you ridefast I will have a look at that! Don't worry it will be. I guessing the problem has stemmed from someone slapping shoes on her too early in the first place as it turns out when I got her (I thought she was 5) she was only just 3 and she was already broken and Had some problems with her back. In a way I was stupid to buy so blindly. However i fell in love with her and I will do everything in my power to help her and give her the best life possible. Riding can wait she needs time off to finish growing and her feet need to be the priority.
 
AmiRobertson said:
CPT-be positive has already sent me the stuff from Oberon! My farrier isn't the biggest barefoot fan so if anyone can recommend a more supportive farrier in the Kent/biggin hill area please!! I want to get this right and seeing what everyone on here is saying is nothing but positive I want to do this!
Thank you so much for all of these replies you have made a very sad girl much more hopeful.
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Have your farrier and vet reviewed the x-rays together?
 
The barefoot gang can give superb advice! I've also got a 5yr old TB, got him last summer and he was shod, had awful feet, flat, under run heels, poor quality etc

I really struggled over winter having him barefoot, we had a couple of setbacks but he's been on a good barefoot diet about 6 months now and has been on the forage plus hoof balancer about 3 months...

the difference in his feet and how they are growing is quite amazing, they are tightening up at the top so I am pretty sure now that by the time he's been on the mineral for a whole new hoof growth he'll have great angles, thicker soles and cope with most terrain.

It really is worth doing, he's getting stronger everyday and I can wait to see how his feet develop.

I just wish I'd got him on minerals from the start! Hoof boots have also helped although he's needing them less and less.

Good luck!
 
Amymay- my farrier has just gone on holiday for 2 weeks, however him and my vet do not see eye to eye last week when she went really lame they both had very different opinions and made it clear they thought the other was wrong so when he gets back I am going to get them both over to talk about the X-rays and what I want to do and explain that I need them both to be on my side as at the end I the day I am paying them for their help.
JVB thank you for sharing that another reason to back my gut instinct on this :) looking at hoof boots on eBay now!
 
AmiRobertson said:
when he gets back I am going to get them both over to talk about the X-rays and what I want to do and explain that I need them both to be on my side as at the end I the day I am paying them for their help. !
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Good stuff.

I had a horse with a very similar problem to you - had it not been for vet and farrier working together I'd have lost him.
 
Just wanted to say don't dispair! My youngster was crippled this winter with bloods being taken and even had a course of anitbiotics. Xrays done after a month and he has basically no sole - same as yours. He basically looked laminitic when walking....... Had a natural balance shoes put on all round and within 2 hours was back to normal! :) Had him 3 years but the exceptional wet weather obviously softened the sole so much I could basically push it in with my fingers. Both vet an farrier amazed at turnaround as they though would need pads and gel etc etc but my farrier is very "lets start basic and only complicate it more if we have to". Of course I'm not saying that your horse could be cured like this but sometimes little things can have a big impact.....
ps kerretex did nothing :(
Good luck :)
 
Another who had flat pedal bones and flat feet (not sure on sole thickness here) he was 19 at the time and a year down the line of shoe removal is in full work, jumping, hacking over whatever etc :).. he was sure he heard something about retirement at some point ;).

So essentially yes feet are to a certain extent solvable/improvable and ebay is good for boots (and I'm still only on my first pair! though they only come out for special occasions)
 
Don't despair! In the face of lots of information from experts who can't agree it's really easy to panic. :eek:

Ask friends, instructors etc if they can recommend a local barefoot trimmer to come and assess your horse. They tend to look at the whole horse so can give you advice on feed & lifestyle, to improve everything not just the feet.

If you need boots don't buy blind, they are pretty pricey so you don't want to waste money. A good trimmer will fit them and let you try different ones before you buy.

Hopefully things will improve for you :)
 
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