I have no idea why it wasn’t done sooner.
We’ll get more info from vet next week if there’s more room to back the toe up further.
It’s usually due to the friction of the metal shoe on the heel. It will wear the heel down while the toe continues to grow. You will often see indentations on the heel of the horse shoe from it, or some type of wear.
If you’re battling a horse with low, under run heals and chronically long toes, often a wedge pad will help until the angles of the foot can be improved over time.
The lack of friction from shoes and the thick soles of the hoof boots as well as the ability to increase sole thickness is another reason I think hoof boots will do well for your horse. That and the ease of trimming every few weeks and going back into a boot versus constantly adjusting shoes. These horses often don’t have adequate hoof wall to support the shoes anyways.
I’ll snap a pic of his old heel lift shoes. The steel is still directly against the hoof. It just has a little lift on it. Like high heel shoes 
lol
The boots are … big …
They were also expensive. So hopefully they’ll do him some good
Do the boots have pads in them? If they are a bit too large this can help (based on my experience with one horse!)
Mine was in clouds after a too-short trim and loss of sole thickness. But only when she was turned out. It was muddy, and she ended up with thrush… fun times. But I do think monitoring for thrush is important with boots.
These days she’s out 24/7 barefoot, and doing quite well. She can still be a bit ouchy on rougher ground, so she wears boots for hand-walking on anything but an arena surface.
Umm. The sole pad bit is quite thick. I didn’t think to try to see if it was a detachable pad. He stayed comfortable barefoot for a few hours between shoes off and boots on but he’s buted and stalled so …
They are easy to put on and off so that’s good.
I’ll keep a sharp eye out for thrush. Thanks for the heads up!
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See how they stay on. They are gigantic but they help a lot of horses for that reason. If they seems to be slipping off, you can make or buy a pad to insert and that will help tighten the boot on the hoof.
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I have those soft ride boots. They were recommended by my vet and worked great. I have special gels, I think the purple/turq, for laminitis. I had a second episode of laminitis and I ordered a new set of gels to go in the boots. They are pretty handy.
https://www.softrideboots.com/soft-ride-gels.php
I did have a case of horrible skin fungus one time after taking the boots off. No problems with thrush, because I was always cleaning the hoof, I guess.
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You can use anti fungal athletes feet spray in the boots to keep them a bit more sanitary with constant use. Kinda like treating your shoes after sweating in them all day.
Worked great for my pony. No thrush or skin gunk after wearing them basically 24/7 for 2 months.
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The Soft Rides do tend to feel big. The therapeutic farrier I used when my horse was laminitic prefers Easy Boot Stratus - he feels they are more customizable as well as not so bulky.
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Thank you for that link. Very informative to see the different gel inserts. Vet is coming Tuesday and I’ll ask her if she wants me to order a different set of gel inserts. Def something to consider as he continues to wear them. I presume over time the gel will compact and be less effective.
Horse is in size 3. Maybe he needs the orange / turquoise ones. He’s a bigger horse, 1440 lbs on the weight tape and not an ounce of extra fat. He could stand to gain a few lbs.
Good idea with the athletes foot spray. I will pick some up at store today.
I guess the vet was considering Clouds at first but for whatever reason decided these were her choice for horse at this time. He might need a different pair later in recovery.
They have stayed on so far, in stall. I did have an issue with them turning, but I maybe didn’t have them strapped tightly enough.
It took him a bit to get used to wearing them. At first he shuffled his feet, then he picked his feet up way high (including the hinds) which was very silly looking. He seems to be moving normally now though.
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Horse is still doing good. He seems very comfortable (still heavily medicated of course), is tolerating his stall rest very well and eating / drinking good.
I’m soaking his hay, an orchard/tim mix and perennial peanut. I’m substituting TC SafeStarch forage for some of his O/T since it’s convenient to have something that doesn’t require soaking. I’m going to inquire about getting a hay testing probe thingy and/or sourcing hay that’s already tested. Soaking hay is no fun.
We are box blading the barnyard paddock / sacrifice paddock today to try and get rid of as much grass as we can. Once the grass and topsoil is removed the native soil is a sandy clay mix. It conveniently drains and packs semi firm. Hopefully horse will get cleared for solo turnout in the no grass turnout on Tuesday when vet comes to recheck.
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It sounds like he is in excellent hands!
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Thank you. We are trying.
Box blading done. We’ll go over it with the rake in the tractor to remove debris and then I’ll go by hand and tidy up roots and what not.
Acquired more and rearranged stall mats so I have a better surface for his farrier and vet work.
Remodeled his stall furnishings so his piggy brother can’t steal his snacks or pester him while he’s eating. Added a loose salt container to his stall. He’s not wanting to clean up his RB if I put salt in it, so I can stop trying to force feed him salt now. I’m worried he’s not getting enough Vit E or Omega 3 on his current menu.
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I feed my horses loose salt in the summer in addition to salt blocks to increase water consumption.
What about adding rice bran for vit e and omegas?
I’m a salt person too. I offer it free choice and also in their feed.
I’m checking out the rice bran, thanks for the idea.
ETA rice bran is 20:1 omega 6:omega 3 and only 50 IU Vit E per lb.
I can get Vit E supp easy enough. He’ll eat the powder one from Santa Cruz usually since it’s a small volume and inoffensive. I could get him flax, I’ve fed it to him before. He doesn’t like the texture of ground flax though unless I bulk up his feed. Alfalfa pellets maybe.
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The “wrong” kind of Omega fatty acid 
Rice bran is high in Omega 6, which isn’t inherently bad to add more of, but horses just don’t need MORE of. If they aren’t getting enough fresh grass, they really do benefit from additional Omega 3
Rice bran also doesn’t have really significant Vit E - best to supplement that specifically
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I stand corrected, probably best to do two separate supplements.
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