Did you ever pull blood and test for EPM? I’ve scanned up and haven’t seen it, I apologize if I missed it!
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New Bolton felt that it was not high on the list right now, and that this was a limb lameness and not a true neurological issue. It remains on our list (along with a muscle biopsy) to test if the bone scan is not exciting.
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FWIW I had one who had a weird change of behavior and suspected neuro/EDM issue. He had mild neurological issues on exam but non specific. Neck Xrayed clean but my vet said he didn’t think he would come home alive from New Bolton based on presentation and wanted to try one thing beforehand and blocked both front feet. Dramatic improvement. We took him out of aluminum and into steel and 6 weeks later on re-exam, no neurological issues and clean lameness exam. From all we could gather, he just did not like those shoes/farrier and being asked to lift one front foot put an unacceptable amount of weight on the other one when both hurt. I know you said she can’t go into steels, but I have known a few that just can’t handle glue ons for whatever reason. It might be worth pulling the shoes entirely and doing boots to see if that helps get you through
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If you’ve tried everything else, x-ray for ECVM. There’s a very specific set of angles you need to take and it can usually only be done at a vet hospital, but it would explain all the symptoms.
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Yep, we took the xrays and she’s cleared for ECVM, thankfully!
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Super super interesting. The bone scan just said that her front feet are REALLY hot. So we expect that’s the source of all of this. She’s been in steel, aluminum, and glue-ons (currently in steel that are glued on with cuffs). We’re considering composites. What do you have your horse in now?
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Ooh, interesting. Does she have a digital pulse?
I have a little horse who really loves casts, if you want to toss that on the pile of things to try!
She does not have a digital pulse. She doesn’t react to hoof testers either. I have asked many times if this could be all her feet but usually she “looked sound” and she was nonreactive to hoof testers so that was not high on vet lists. But it turns out you can “look sound” if you’re bilateral lame. (And apparently look neurologic if you’re lame on 3 legs lol). RF is basically all black, and LF has one specific spot. I hadn’t thought of casts. Adding them to the list of my questions for tomorrow’s call.
He was in steel for a bit and is back in aluminum now with a different farrier and totally fine. His foot balance X-rays were perfect and he had adequate sole depth. Vet said he’s seen it a couple times in his career that horses just can’t deal with a certain farrier or shoe type and they don’t read the book on whether or not their feet should hurt. He (Dr Ober who is very good and traveled with the US team for a long time) hypothesized that some of them are very sensitive to something about how certain shoes impact the force and vibration distribution to the foot. Glue on doesn’t allow the foot to expand and contract as much, or it didn’t in my last run in with it while was a long time ago, so if she’s really sensitive to shock absorption it makes sense that it wouldn’t help. I hypothesize he had some kind of very subclinical laminitis that just made things very tender, and getting weight off him helped that. Composite might be a way to go, but I’d probably pull shoes and see how she does in some boots before I went down that road just as an experiment. Edit: also no hoof tester reaction from mine.
I’ve had her in boots in the past and she’s gotten quite sore but honestly I didn’t put any pads in those boots. I’m not against pulling shoes and trying her in boots with pads, or even just putting her in Cloud boots for a few months while we try to figure this out. I’ll be curious what New Bolton’s recommendation is tomorrow. I’ll keep everyone posted! Thank you so much!
Mine was also “sound” with no response to testers, but did have a (vexxing!) mild/moderate digital pulse.
She liked the casts straight up, but really improved when I added leather pads and a leather based packing under them. They’re just such a neat tool to have in the box!
Oh, that’s wonderful! My gelding has it and it’s so difficult.
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she’s in leather wedges right now. The wedging is new but came after behavior. Super curious what they’re going to recommend. What’s the leather based packing underneath? She’s got some sort of putty with copper sulfate mixed in right now.
We had one whose feet lit up come sound in leather pads w steel shoes. He was also sound in Woofwear Medical Boots. He had the poorest quality feet I’ve ever seen. We did give him copper and zinc to try to improve his hoof quality. I hope this information is helpful somehow.
Thank you! She’s in steel pads with leather pads right now. She also gets copper & zinc as well as additional biotin to help with her hoof strength. I’m talking to the New Bolton vet shortly and I am hoping she has some shoeing recs and will share when I get them.
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It’s called Rate:
Casts do require your involvement (or a lot of farrier visits.) My little filly lasts a week in casts. Most horses seem to go two? But one of the reasons it worked well for us is that ability to make small, frequent adjustments in the foot. There’s a bit of a learning curve in application, but it’s not hard. Casting was quite a bit less $$ than going to shoes for me, too (and I just had zeeeeero faith in her ability to keep a shoe ON with how quickly she ditched casts.)
Curious what plan you get from NB! Hope they’ve got a solid path forward for you!
Outside of it being a little cheaper, there doesn’t appear to be much difference between this and Magic Cushion.
Just pointing this out, if someone wanted something that’s easier to get locally or from bigger shops.
Interesting. I haven’t used Magic Cushion, but just looking at the videos out there showing how it’s used, the Rate stuff is a very different texture. It’s a lot thicker/denser. It’s not particularly sticky.
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That’s helpful to know because while I love magic cushion, my farrier prefers I don’t use it on feet that are getting glue on shoes because it leaves a film that makes it hard for the glue to adhere.
I have an update!
After going to New Bolton, the head neurologist at New Bolton felt that her neurologic signs and issues were fairly mild, and that her lameness issues (which I sometimes see at home, but don’t always see, for reasons that become apparently in a paragraph or two) were contributing more to the farrier/movement issues than neurologic. They did not think it was appropriate to pursue neuro issues further at this time.
We did pull vitamin E test and despite the fact that I supplement for vitamin E (liquid, natural), she is on the lowest end of normal. So they do think she’s potentially deficient without supplementation and want me to double her ius up to 5000 ius daily. We’ll retest in 3 months.
They clocked LF and RH lameness, which I see at home, and I can hear a difference in LF and RF foot falls. But whenever a vet sees her jog, they say she’s sound. We blocked LF and she went lame on RF. They blocked both front and still saw a mild lameness LF but much improved. We would have kept blocking except she was not cooperative about the blocking.
We did a full body bone scan. It lit up a LOT in her front feet and over her SI. After much discussion, we did OsPhos for her front feet and injected her SI with a steroid. I know that people have OsPhos horror stories, so please withhold. It’s already been done, the vet’s rationale for choosing this felt really valid, and we talked about why people get into trouble with it (frequency of use and NSAID use). We’re hoping to get her over the hump of the pedal oseitis/coffin bone bruising in her feet so that these new shoes can really help her.
We’re keeping her in the same shoeing package for now. They want to give it more time before we evaluate efficacy.
Injected the SI with a steroid. She said that was the best choice for a steroid and hopefully we get a lot of time out of this injection (this horse’s workload is relatively low and my goals are relatively low) but that this will likely need maintenance. And hind shoes. So we’ll work on getting those!
They finished the radiograph series all the way down to T1 and saw no malformations or issues there. I cannot possibly express how glad I am to rule out ECVM for this horse. She doesn’t get many lucky breaks so I’m glad we got that one.
Overall, I’m really glad I took her in. I’m glad I didn’t just inject her neck and that I pursued this further with diagnostics. I couldn’t do it without insurance coverage (even though I’m holding my breath to see if they approve this claim!) but worth the money I spent to have some clear answers on farrier behavior but the last two years of lack of forwardness and canter issues all wrapped up together.
And I feel VERY validated in my belief that this has all been her feet 
Which was not a view that I felt supported in (by vets/farriers/everyone around me) until now lol
Fingers crossed we start to see some improvement soon and that it sticks around! If it doesn’t…I will probably lay on the ground and cry at this point.
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