Hoof Woes and the Event Horse

[weixiao]

I bought a lovely 8 yr old off the track in Jan. I can’t say how excited I about this mare overall. Quiet, great mind, well put together, movement that, when she’s comfortable, makes straight dressage people take note and brave as all get out.

Unfortunately, we’ve got some foot problems. She apparently had an allergic reaction to a change in bedding to pelleted at the track last summer and it ruined her feet. They were very dried out and she got what looked like chemical burns all around her coronet bands. Even now, the hair grows straight out and the skin is different there. She has quite a small foot and her heels are not level. My farrier has been trying to improve her foot balance but it is a work in progress. We had several old abscesses and corns grow out and she was looking more comfortable but now she has developed quarter cracks and is very sensitive. RF worse than the LF but lame in both.

I’ve ordered Kombat Boots supplement and we’ve been treating the cracks with Corona hoof ointment. The farrier was out last week but he didn’t want to do anything with the cracks other than prescribe the Corona. Vet wants him to come back out and patch the cracks so waiting to hear when he’ll be out for that.

Is there anything else I can do? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

[Jumper_girl221]

Is she shod? Or are you trying to keep her barefoot? I find with feet that are cracking its really hard to grow them out without a good shoeing job.

[weixiao]

She’s shod. She was barefoot when she came off of the track in Jan but was too uncomfortable so she’s had shoes on since Feb.

Vet recommended perhaps bar shoes?

[CatchMeIfUCan]

I can’t recommend what to do because I am not a farrier, but from experience, get a really, really good lameness farrier. That’s what I did with mine who was all over body sore because of his poor soles. The farrier put him up with pads cut to just the shape of the shoe, so that his soles are farther off the ground. He is 110% better now and sound, and I trust this farrier implicitly. No maintenance from my end because he knows just what to do!

[EventerAJ]

I’m not a farrier, but I’m not sure how Corona would heal the cracks. Corona is good stuff, but I’ve only found it useful to temporarily “waterproof” a hoof during bathing, hosing, or dewy turnout. There is some thought that massaging it into the coronary band can increase hoof growth, but it’s debatable whether the Corona is doing the work or simply the massage stimulation. Nonetheless, if my farrier told me to do it, I’d stand on one foot and sing Twinkle Little Star if he’d had success with it.

Minor cracks are usually due to hoof imbalance and/or weak walls. Help strengthen the walls from the inside out with nutrition (Kombat Boots is a good idea). I also am a BIG believer in Keratex (or Crossapol, whatever’s cheaper). I like to paint shod feet daily with Keratex on the walls. Consistent use really does limit cracking around the nail holes and results in a more stable foot. Perhaps everyday is overkill, but it doesn’t hurt.

It seems what you’re doing isn’t working, so it’s time to try something else to patch those cracks. My farrier has applied bands (either aluminum with epoxy or steel with screws) to stabilize the crack and let healthy stable hoof grow down. Perhaps glue ons would help if her walls are too weak to hold nails?

From what my farrier has taught me, I would only use the bar shoes as a last resort. They tend to crush the heels, are easily pulled off by an exuberant horse, and thus may cause more issues than they fix. They do offer great support, but can be more of a band-aid rather than a true solution to problems.

Sorry for what you’re going through… bad feet suck, but usually they can be managed. It may take some trial and error, and a lot of patience as growing a good foot takes time.

[skyy]

How was she diagnosed with chemical burns - did a vet diagnose that? Are her frogs “weird”? Are the coronary bands “weird” as well?

[weixiao]

[QUOTE=skyy;7746193]
How was she diagnosed with chemical burns - did a vet diagnose that? Are her frogs “weird”? Are the coronary bands “weird” as well?[/QUOTE]
Sorry, wasn’t clear in my statement. She wasn’t diagnosed with chemical burns, and as far as I know a vet never saw her for it. It was just described to me as it “appeared” to look like chemical burns. I think it was meant descriptively, not diagnostically. I didn’t know her at the time, so I never saw it and I can’t speak to it. The frogs are normal looking, it is simply the hair and skin directly above the coronet band that appears odd.

CatchMeIfUCan- This is a newer farrier I’ve been working with (to me) but he was very highly recommended. If we don’t see improvement in a while I guess, I’ll look into some more lameness-specialized farriers for a consult as well. Thanks for the advice! I’m glad your horse turned out so well!

EventerAJ- we were using keratex 3x a week on her, maybe I should do it more often? I wasn’t sure how much was too much. I’ve been lucky with very good footed horses in the past so this is new ground for me.

I’ve always been hesitant to go with a bar shoe as well and I think her pulling shoes would be a disaster for her feet right now, so I’m glad to hear someone else who would have reservations like that. I’ll speak with my farrier and see what his opinion is.

sigh I guess they all have something. Vet adored the mare and said he thought she was absolutely perfect and he wouldn’t change a thing about her… except for the feet. At least she’s pretty?

[GoForAGallop]

I have a TB mare with “sensitive” feet. She did fine for her first two years off the track, barefoot. But I moved to a new barn with harder ground/harder ring, and she just started getting sore.

She’s in shoes and pads now, and that noticeably helped. (Went from just shoes, which helped, to the shoes and pads, which REALLY helped.)

The cherry on top is using Durasole on her soles. I’ve only been using it for about a week, and the results have been amazing. She is stepping out without hesitation, has her lead changes back, etc.

Granted, she has decent feet (for a thoroughbred…nothing compared to my Quarter horse!) to begin with, but the shoes and Durasole made a noticeable difference in helping her be more comfortable on the harder ground.

[skyy]

You know how you’re always sensitive to things that you have been exposed to? We have a horse that’s been diagnosed with pemphigus, an auto immune disease, and his only symptoms are weird looking coronaries with the hair above the coronaries growing straight out; very dry looking, cracked hoof walls; and weird looking frogs.

[MontanaDun]

Bar shoes can definitely help stabilize quarter cracks and bell boots are your friend. Maybe try that for a couple of shoeing cycles and see if that can get her on the road to recovery.

[weixiao]

[QUOTE=skyy;7746278]
You know how you’re always sensitive to things that you have been exposed to? We have a horse that’s been diagnosed with pemphigus, an auto immune disease, and his only symptoms are weird looking coronaries with the hair above the coronaries growing straight out; very dry looking, cracked hoof walls; and weird looking frogs.[/QUOTE]

Interesting… this mare has a couple of odd lumps in places. Noticeably, there is a large hard lump under her eye that the vets can’t figure out. It often looks a little raw, but they blamed that on her rubbing it with the flies/fly mask etc. She also has to odd scar looking but very “disk” like hairless circles/lumps on one front leg that are purely in the skin and don’t seem to bother her. Trainer on the track said she’d had them since she was a 2yr old. Wonder if I should get a blood panel done.

[merrygoround]

Quarter cracks are almost invariably a hoof balance problem. Perhaps in attempting to rebalance her foot the farrier has unbalanced it. I would get a good lameness vet to look at her and probably take radiographs to check the bone alignment.

[AKB]

I think it is time to go to a vet school or other referral hospital that has an in house farrier. The vets will examine the horse and work with the farrier to develop a plan for your farrier

[netg]

Are you willing to spend $$$ to keep her i nwork? I would go to glue-on shoes, preferably something like the EasyShoe Performance which has frog support, and I’d get her hooves trimmed every 2-3 weeks, very small amounts, to get her rebalanced.

I had to take my TB barefoot (with boots) in order to get him at correct angles. In his case, he couldn’t hold a nail on shoe if shod more than every 6 weeks (and that was still questionable) but his hoof angles couldn’t be corrected without more frequent trims. I have kept him booted to stay sound, and use EasyShoes when going to shows. There are plenty of products, that’s just the one I know because I work next to one of their stores.

I think VERY gradual, correct adjustment of the balance to avoid soft tissue injuries, but with very small trims done frequently is the best thing you can do for a hoof with such issues - and try to stay away from adding nail holes to the cracking hoof. I found my horse’s cracks went away when he went bare, but he didn’t have major problems there - his angles were just heading toward very dangerous territory.

[Heinz_57]

Are you sure the skin issue isn’t some kind of mud fever-like fungus? Sounds a bit like it (maybe a mild case?) based on the description. And I’m curious, did your farrier discuss a plan for the quarter cracks other than smearing on some ointment (), or is he just thinking they are going to go away?

[runNjump86]

Bar shoes, bar shoes, bar shoes! And bell boots.

My guy popped a quarter crack earlier this year. His RF was essentially flat, NO heel, and the laminae was detached from about halfway on back. My farrier is awesome (thankfully) but he immediately went to a bar shoe for that foot to help support the heel. Also, your farrier should be floating the area under the quarter cracks to relieve the pressure, and her shoeing cycle will probably be much shorter. If at all possible try to have her reset BEFORE that part grows out and makes contact with the shoe, or it could make her very, very sore/lame. I’ve been dealing with this for several months now. It is not fun, and it is a slow process.

After doing some digging on “the google” I started using this about a month after the crack appeared. He now has heel growth and the laminae is starting to reattach. Might be because of the farrier work, might be because of this. Either way I’m going to keep him on it until I have reason not to. Good luck!

ETA - Definitely get radiographs, preferable with the shoe to see how it is affecting the balance and also without. The only ointment I was told to use was something like Biozide to help fight infection. I also rinsed the crack out with alcohol every day until it grew out.

ETAA - Two of my trainer’s UL horses go in bar shoes to support their heels. My farrier’s long term plan for my guy is to be in a bar shoe as long as possible to stabilize his heel. The last thing we want to do is crush it, yet we’ve noticed a dramatic improvement with the bar shoe. He lives in bell boots and doesn’t get turned out (for a few reasons), but I’ve never had a problem with him pulling it off, even when he acts a fool in his corral.

[wildlifer]

The more I learn about hooves (& I’ve done a LOT of research & talked to a lot of great people in the field), the more I realize how delicately complex and simulataneously amazing and maddening they are. They have their own incredible built-in system to deal with changes in moisture content, which we often mess up with putting goop on them.

No one here can tell you what the answer is (although true on the Corona, it nothing topical can “heal” hoof wall, the most anything can do is reduce bacteria, etc, in the case of white line separation, i.e. iodine, White Lightning, and the like) – your horse sounds like a definite foot rehab case, which requires seeing the foot, the whole horse, in person, along with a lot of experience (making sure you have the latter is my advice & then the hard part: waiting). If you do have a good vet school nearby, they are a great resource.

In short – improving a hoof comes from the inside out, excellent eyes and hands on the case, and keeping the horse moving, because every step she takes helps the healing process.

As my farrier, whom I would trailer across counties for, says, “How long did it take to get that way? Well, add that plus a big margin for the unpredictable and that’s how long it will take to fix.”

–Not Unsympathetic Owner Of One Horse Whose Heels Were Cut Off By Ex-Farrier & Another Who Self-Resected His Own Front Foot & Bruised All Four Feet…At The Same Time.

[judybigredpony]

OP, I am dealing with a horse who is NOT one of my sales horse just to be clear…He has a long history of quarter crack issues an unlevel heels etc.
We xrayed bot front feet so we had a clear idea of what was where inside before embarking on a Long Slow Process. Then I pulled from retirement IMHO one of the finest Farriers we had in our region. With Blessing of my 2’highly qualified respected vets we are Slowly trimming his feet back to Balance For His Comformation and foot dynamics. After much consult and Nutricianist input it was determined any Dietary suppliment for Foot takes a full year to see a result and when on a quality diet of high protein it won t get any better than that. I was advised to peel some of,his weigh off since every LB of flesh rides on the feet. We keep,his feet as healthy as possibly bedded on straw, no wet boggy pasture time and clean stone dust in shed where he is turned out. Not left to stomp flies, fans in stall blowing floor to keep fly stomping down as well. Some low impact work at walk on grass not in sand ring. He is seen every 3 weeks like Swiss Watch for trims.
I have worked with this Farrier on High profile Race horses with almost career ending QC s and had huge success and a few other horses with same.
He does travel a lot now,that he is Semi Retireed and if you message me I can share his information.
Patches are just that patches, everyone was in agreement shoes off and just wait, re shape and grow. Since we started 9 weeks ago there is already a Marked improvement and feet are really growing.
Pine Tar is the only thing we are allowed to paint on soles, he does have white feet not cheesy or crumbly and you can hear when rasped how much better they are growing out. Shoes maybe in 12 more weeks.
Best of luck.

[frugalannie]

I am neither a vet nor farrier, and I don’t even play them on TV, but when you’re talking to someone more knowledgeable ask if dental impression material under a pad might a) make her more comfortable and b) stimulate circulation in the foot and therefore increase growth.

[findeight]

[QUOTE=weixiao;7746308]
Interesting… this mare has a couple of odd lumps in places. Noticeably, there is a large hard lump under her eye that the vets can’t figure out. It often looks a little raw, but they blamed that on her rubbing it with the flies/fly mask etc. She also has to odd scar looking but very “disk” like hairless circles/lumps on one front leg that are purely in the skin and don’t seem to bother her. Trainer on the track said she’d had them since she was a 2yr old. Wonder if I should get a blood panel done.[/QUOTE]

You know, bloodwork is not expensive particularly compared to treating something that has an underlying, systemic cause that needs to be treated. I’d do that much.

Not it sure about " treating" hoof with Corona, it’s just a lanolin based ointment that softens and might help hair and hoof growth. Makes your fingernails nice too. I’d look to a second opinion from another farrier, preferably who will work with vet and get on dietary changes, maybe a supplement (one of the few areas they seem to actually help).

The stuff on her legs? Sounds like she might have tangled with something as a youngster, seen something like this that turned out to be rope burns from a hobbling experiment gone wrong and souvenirs of a trailer mishap about the same time. Found out from a friend of a friend of the owner at the time. God forbid they tell the truth when they sell:no:

Important thing is find out if there is anything systemic going on and get her pointed towards recovery and growing out nice new feet.