Apologies if this is in the wrong place, I’m a newbie! Also typing on mobile so my formatting may be weird.
The horse: 17.3 hh OTTB gelding, 8 years old. Off track for 4 years, owned by me for 3, in full time training for about 1 year (eventing).
His diet, up until December: 6 lbs Purina Senior, 2x daily, with horse guard, Redmond rock mineral salt, soybean meal, flax seed, canola oil, and super sport at night. 20lbs Timothy and 20 lbs Alfalfa 2x daily. Full turn out on a grass field, stalled at night.
My horse has always had thin soles (typical Thoroughbred) but has tolerated the muddy, wet winters in the PNW relatively well. This past year, we thought we finally had his feet to a point where it was no longer a concern, until all of a sudden, right around Dec 1st, he started to display laminitis. He developed a strong DP in the RF with heat in both feet, and his soles became…mushy. He has been lame off and on on the RF. I immediately put him on stall rest and took him off all sugar. His diet since December 1st has been beet pulp, oil, and soaked all hay, and that is it. I also began painting his soles daily with iodine in an effort to harden them up.
Usually we had him on a 6 week shoeing schedule, which worked perfectly. As of Dec, his feet had stopped growing completely. My farrier was out today (Jan 22nd) and he has developed absolutely no new foot growth since before Dec 1st.
About two weeks ago, he became quite lame on the RF. I began treating him for an abscess (packing with magna salt and soaking in Epsom salt) to no avail. After no improvement, I had my vet out on Monday to XRay. His coffin bones dont show any sign of sinking or rotation, but there is evidence of disintegration at the bottom of the coffin bone.
Vet told me to pack his RF for another 48 hours and have the farrier out today (Wed) to see what he thinks and then aggressively try to dry the feet out.
My farrier pulled the wrap off, and with it came pieces of his sole. The bottom of his RF is now just exposed nerves and flesh. However, his foot has cooled down and his DP is less apparent.
Since he is 12 weeks out, my farrier decided to pull his LF shoe to see if he couldn’t work on that foot. He pulled the shoe, and when he rasped on the foot, it started gushing blood. His hoof wall was so incredibly thin that the slightest scrape went right to his blood vessels. My farrier immediately put the shoe back on (as my horse is unable to be without shoes) and had me rewrap it, and then called my vet, who is stumped. It literally seems like his feet are rotting off the bone.
I called called Oakhurst Equine Hospital in Oregon and they were very alarmed, and I am hauling him in Monday to be seen. However, I was hoping maybe someone on the world wide web had seen something like this before and have some ideas. I’m very very worried and am very upset. Any help is appreciated!
