I have a 15 yo welsh pony, she gets tender footed every wet season, this year the vet was coming out to do vaccines and I asked her to check out her feet. Pony was barely positive for hoof testers but she had gained about 75lbs and insulin was 121 and did X-rays. First set of pics are her first X-rays, she was put on melformin, footwise powder and thyrol-L. A month later down 100 lbs and insulin 72 with the next set of X-rays.
Does anyone have advice or opinions on this, does it look good/bad, she is a hunter pony and loves her job, will she be able to jump again? When?! Etc…
Is she lame? It does look like there is some rotation there. Did the vet give you the degree? Our mini had laminitis associated with IR and a small amount of rotation about 2-3 years ago and she is sound now. She gets pergolide for the IR.
Oh I should have said that! She was lame in the beginning for 2 days, after I stalled her and treated her with tea tree oil and purple she was normal again. She didn’t do a degree for me.
Did she say anything about her being rotated? If she is sound now I would be hopeful that she will remain sound!
She said that her rotation should grow out now, but might take a year. Wants to do X-rays again in 2.5 to 3 months
Our mini is perfectly sound now, it did take a year or less. She developed abscesses after the laminitis. Good luck but she definitely sounds like she is on the right track!
She definitely foundered, more on the L than the R
Doing a quick side by side, it does seem the L (I didn’t do the R) has improved a little, so that’s great
Is she SOUND, or just not head-bobbing lame but could be low grade bilaterally lame? I guess what’s most important is that she’s moving around pretty well on her own accord, which is great.
What’s really critical in this early stage is keeping on top of heel growth and keeping the toe back. Heel will want to grow faster than normal, so it’s got to be kept in check. Keeping toes short helps reduce the leverage on the compromised lamina that has separated from the lower portion of the coffin bone area. The hoof wall should be parallel to the face of the coffin bone, and you can see the wedge here
What’s really frustrating is the vet didn’t mark the coronet band, which is used to check the relationship to the top of P3, which makes it much easier to see any sinking. I THINK it looks good in that respect, making a guesstimate on where the coronet band is by the shape of things. If/when you get another set of rads, make sure that’s properly marked.
I do see what looks like “the event” line a little down from the coronet, where the hoof wall starts to diverge to a lower angle a bit. That’s also why it’s critical to keep the toe nice and short - in the horizontal breakover direction, NOT simply removing excess vertical wall.
To me, this looks mild enough that, if the trimming is done well for the next 6 months, should result in a healthy foot.
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Awesome, thank you for your response. She has been sound since after a couple of days, running trotting etc
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Unfortunately I have a lot of experience with laminitis. This does not look like a significant rotation to me. I give my laminitis horses previcox as a precaution all grass season and that was what made them stay sound, in combination with limited grass and a grazing muzzle. You need a great farrier to work with the x-rays. If I wanted to keep jumping a horse that had foundered, I would probably x-ray their feet every year or two to make sure they were being trimmed appropriately. I might also consider hoof pads to provide extra cushion
Just to be clear. Rotation does NOT “grow out.” Her hoof can re-grow laminae in 6-12 months, but that drop is permanent and can only be helped by proper trimming.
Proper trimming of the hooves, usually in a shortened 3-4 week schedule will keep these horses at their best, along with diet (low starch and sugar.)
But the rotation is there to stay and hopefully not get worse if you manage her correctly.
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Rotated P3 can absolutely be corrected IF - the cause of the laminitis is removed, the diet managed well, and the trim is done correctly (quality and frequency). This does also require that the rotation not be long-term enough that it’s permanently altered things, such as the shape of P3 and anything else above it.
I see it fairly often. The healthier the foot at the time of rotation, the quicker and more likely this can be fixed.
If you can fix negative palmar/plantar angles, you can fix founder. Not all of either of them can be, but simply saying that rotation forward or backward can’t be fixed, isn’t correct.
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Check out the ECIR group and refer to Dr Eleanor Kellon
Keeping weight down is super important to preventing laminitis. I see you were able to get your horses weight down pretty well. Hoping for the best! My vet sometimes prescribes Thyro L to help facilitate weight loss in some horses. We’re trying to get weight off my 20 yr old gelding who seems to have come up with a barrage of issues in the past year.
