My horse was recently diagnosed via rads with mild pedal osteitis. He had been barefoot, and is now shod with pour in pads and he is so much more comfortable.
I’m looking for other experiences - shoeing approaches that helped, other therapies, supplements, etc. Also any specific experience with EasyShoe polyurethane shoes.
One word: FormaHoof. Seriously, try and find a local hoof care practitioner to apply. Serious protection for the hoof, while still allowing expansion & contraction.
I used Equipak to help build sole depth. And we did regional perfusion of Tildren but that probably wasn’t totally necessary as just doing shoes/pads made a big difference, but it didn’t seem to hurt. Interestingly, later on that horse had too much foot. Looked normal from the outside but the last rads I had showed like 3 horses worth of sole, and I only used Equipak after the original incident during the prime hard ground fly stomping season, which we switched to a shallower pour.
My mare was also diagnosed via x-rays after she came up with shifting lameness up front over a harsh northeastern winter. Things that have worked: plastic pads, aluminum pads, keeping her toes short and rolled, a 5/6 week trim cycle, and only turning her out indoors if there is any potential the ground will freeze.
Leather pads were not enough for her. Her soles are too sensitive for pour in pads, equi-pak, or even dental impression type material. I have her on a biotin supplement, use farrier’s fix a few times a week (especially around the coronet band), and just purchased Reducine on the advice of my farrier. I will also say that my mare’s feet are overall not great and have some other things working against them (chippy TB feet and a propensity to pull shoes).
@IPEsq - did your rads show any difference in the extent of the demineralization after Tildren? I’ve heard anecdotes about rads showed less “feathering” of the pedal bone after using Tildren or Osphos, but my vet was not optimistic.
My horse with pedal osteitis could not tolerate sole pressure. What worked best for him was frog support pads with some sort of dental material. YMMV This horse had a host of other problems so my experience may or may not be similar to a horse with only PO.
We retook solar xrays after a few cycles in Equipak and finishing the Tildren. My vet thought there was improvement, but to be honest the PO was mild and only one side as it was. Horse was just super sensitive. I think it depends on how much bone loss there is, how long it’s been going on. We did regional perfusion of Tildren to lessen chance of side effects from normal IV or using Osphos. Horse was also 6 but still growing (grew thru age 8!).
He did fine in that respect for years and the next time he went lame in the foot it was the other foot but interestingly the RF showed more navicular area and DDFT changes than the lame foot on MRI. We checked both feet because of the PO history but we didn’t spend much time analyzing that one foot on xray since the other foot was the one that went lame. Don’t have much else to add since I lost him to colic shortly after the MRI.
In the years in between, we would just xray to check angles etc for farrier.
That is really helpful, thank you. I’m planning to do another round of rads down the line and we’ll see where we’re at. Mine is also incredibly sensitive so I’m taking her comfort as a good sign but want some more info on whats going on now that we’re closing in on 6 months from the first set of rads.
My horse was also very sensitive to sole pressure and could not do any kind of pour in pads. He did best in an egg bar shoe with no pads, but of course they were hard to keep on. His feet weren’t great. The on and off lameness persisted no matter what I did, but this was 20 years ago. There are much better treatments and drugs available now. The only thing anyone could suggest to me back then was retirement and/or nerving. I retired him. He was not safe to be just a walking trail horse. I did get him sound enough to be barefoot retired. The frozen winter ground was not good, but otherwise he did fine on solid, flat ground. I wish Tildren and Osphos had been available then, or perhaps they were and I was just given bad advice.
Pour-in pads & Osphos have been game changers for my horse with fairly severe pedal osteitis. I don’t really have the same lameness constant foot issues I had for a long time since his diagnosis and this regimen. I am really conservative riding in the summer when the ground is hard.
Also fly boots in the summer!
Now I just struggle with the kissing spines & chronic lyme issues 
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