Youngster With Breaking Feet

N

Nessa4

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 February 2013
Messages
510
Location
North West
Visit site
My 4yo coloured gelding is a good doer in every way - height, weight, musclature etc. BUT his feet are horrendous. They are very thin walled and he knocks lumps off them when he is in field. It's so bad that the farrier cannot put shoes on (says there's nothing to nail them to) and it's holding up his education! Farrier recommended Keratex (I've ordered some) and he's on Equimins Biotin 15 and a Magnesium Oxide supplement to try and feed from the inside, but can anyone suggest anything else we could try to persuade his horn to grow? We thought of hoof boots but it would be dangerous to turn him out in them, and that's when he does the damage.
Any suggestions would be very welcome!
 
Minerals with low iron to let the copper and zinc be absorbed. Copper is a star player in hoof strength. It protects the waxes and oils in the wall and strengthens the cross-connections that make a hoof strong. Helps to spit out thrush as well. What the Biotin will do, is show improved growth coming down from the coronary band and that can take up to 7 months. The magnesium will help with metabolism and has over 300 jobs to do in the body, but the oxide form of it means you're adding more iron. There are other forms of magnesium to avoid this. The trace minerals, with low iron, are really the star players, fed, not blocks, to make he gets it. That, and a good balanced trim with a bevel to get the torque off the wall and stop this chipping in its tracks. Of the many things that a bevel does for the hoof, this is one of them. No need for Keratex and putting formaldehyde on live tissue, when a few strokes of the rasp will do it...especially if he's not sore. The bevel will hold the fort until the copper shines through, and that won't take long. Hope this helps...
 
I recommend pro hoof for this problem, ask the supplier if they recommend this or their summer balancer, you have to be patient, and try to get him barefoot, as it is not essential to shoe every horse just because it is being broken. Keeping shoes off the horse and walking out in hand for twenty minutes every day on smooth tarmac for six weeks, is my recommendation. Bevel the hoof every two weeks. Make sure farrier only lightly trims and does not prepare as for shoeing by sculpting the frog and the sole.
Try to increase the fibre and reduce sugar in the diet, so if he is stabled for maybe four hours per day provide soaked hay, obviously no molassed feeds or rubbish feeds with wheatfeed etc.
Add 25gms of salt per day and 25gms of micronised linseed.
It is important that his feet are used on a variety of surfaces, if only ever on soft surfaces they will not improve so rapidly.
 
Last edited:
chuck the keratex away it is nasty stuff, I have seen it used a few times and in the worst case it made the hoof so brittle the wall basically shattered so high up the horse was so sore he was on box rest on rubber matting for months-the owner never shod him again after that.

what is the rest of your horses diet including hay and grass, how often does the farrier see him?
 
I also agree about the Keratex. It's operative name is Formalin which is Formaldehyde and meant to preserve dead tissue, not live tissue. The sole is a living, breathing entity that functions and must be obeyed. They say it re-organizes the matrix, but what I see is the sole surface as melting down to a hard volcanic-like crust. I have also seen this stuff lock in an abscess and cause chaos. How does this happen? You get the Keratex because the horse is sensitive and bruising. All bruises have the potential to abscess, or pool and wait. You just locked all that in....here we go.... It kills live tissue and stops function in its tracks and I believe, is the reason for the brittleness. So much for giving the foot back to the horse. I wish everyone would throw theirs in the garbage and realize that the magic is in the pads of the boots, that cuts down transition time over half.....safe, encouraging, promoting, with every step.
 
If you like Equimins, have a look at swapping out the Biotin 15 supplement for the Advance Complete, which also contains biotin, but has pretty high copper and zinc levels (without added iron). The Advance Complete is pretty low in magnesium though, so I'd keep up with the MagOx. The amount of iron (as a contaminant) in the MagOx depends on its purity, so this may or may not be an issue. I wouldn't rush into finding a different magnesium supplement without doing thorough research. Other forms of magnesium can contain iron at even higher levels, or may have to be fed at a much greater dose than the MagOx to get an equivalent amount of magnesium into the horse.

Boots might still be a good idea. Not for turnout, but for work. So long as he is comfortable while wearing them, you could at least press on with his education. If his horn is so poor, there's really not much you can do to prevent it from breaking away and you'll just have to be patient for healthier horn to grow in.

As for speeding up the growth rate, biotin may or may not help with the growth rate. Studies disagree. I was hoping it would make a difference to my gelding's growth rate, but it didn't. (He has good quality horn though.) Make sure he gets enough quality protein (building blocks for the horn), particularly if you otherwise have to restrict his intake to keep his weight in check.
 
ditto I would switch to the advanced complete. I use it but also add extra mag ox. I'd also add some linseed, I can feed a mugful a day without any increase in weight.
 
Some years ago I had great success with Formula4Feet for a mare who had horrendously cracked feet; Farrier couldn't believe the difference after just six weeks. Yes, it took a fair time for them all to grow out but it helped produce very strong healthy feet.

Taken late August and all cracks, even the one that we thought had damaged the coronet band had grown down by the next March,
feet008.jpg

feet006.jpg
 
U
Maesfen said:
Some years ago I had great success with Formula4Feet for a mare who had horrendously cracked feet; Farrier couldn't believe the difference after just six weeks. Yes, it took a fair time for them all to grow out but it helped produce very strong healthy feet.

Taken late August and all cracks, even the one that we thought had damaged the coronet band had grown down by the next March,
feet008.jpg

feet006.jpg
Click to expand...

Ooh we need to see the after shots of these!
 
Magnesium oxide contains no iron and does not add iron as missyclare has said. She has been misinformed, or misunderstood somewhere.

Put the horse on one of the barefoot supplements that contain zero iron, zero manganese, high copper, magnesium, zinc and good selenium. And get it working, movement is essential. Walk the horse, in hand if necessary, as much as possible on whatever surfaces it is comfortable on, in boots of necessary.

Forget shoes for the moment, shoeing those feet before you have got at least six months of good growth is a recipe for a horse written off with navicular lameness at five or six.
 
Thanks all for your very helpful comments. It is becoming clear that, as I have suspected all along, it is a problem that needs solving from the inside rather than topically!! We are working him in hand on as many different surfaces as possible (it's just ridden work he's a bit footy with), so will just have to continue with that. I need the exercise anyway! Meanwhile I will sort out his diet and supplements, and hopefully he will end up with feet like Maesfen's mare. The after pictures. Thankyou everybody. 'Nessa
 
Maesfen said:
Forgot this one, shows the damage better!
feet001.jpg


But this is the closest I've got of an after, you can't see much, I forgot to take any on the yard!
009-5-1.jpg



Gratuitous one of 20 months later from when I bought her.
LaceyandTom1stdayout033.jpg
Click to expand...

Well, she looks very happy now. She's lovely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top