On to a new farrier! I’ll start a new thread to look for one in LA area
I also took some trot film I’ll put up when I’m at my computer. Now I am worried about even riding him until this is sorted
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B97zvJ7mDWBdMzBFNFp4TEJUYkU&usp=sharing
Videos from this morning.
Sorry for the dirty horse, poor videos and overall bad lunging! Just trying to give everyone a quick idea of how this horse moves
More food for thought: This horse went 4 years with no shoes, and since starting him back into work, trainer thought front shoes would be a good idea. So we put some on two shoe cycles ago. Could that be the catalyst for all this? Should I pull the shoes? Or go a therapeutic route with pads, special shoes, etc.?
Based on those videos, I would not rush to inject this horse’s coffin bone. I would work on the hoof angles, and setting the shoe a little further back with a shorter toe. I would also consider hind shoes for this horse, due to your comments about the sacrum. I would think that setting him up behind with better traction would assist in helping him travel more evenly. Perhaps some of your front end issue is a compensatory one for what’s going on behind.
Personally, I either shoe all 4 or leave them barefoot. If a horse is going to be doing the A/O jumpers, I would definitely have it in 4 shoes.
So to me I too wouldn’t be looking at injecting the coffin joint without talking through the X-Ray’s with the vet first and maybe getting a second opinion. I had my boys coffin joints injected but that was because of an obvious spur on the joint and clear arthritis plus he was lame and it did help. What I did see on the x-Ray’s were the right fore toe is a bit long and the medial lateral balance isn’t brilliant, however the left fore medial lateral (side to side) balance is quite a bit off from level. Personally I would show the X-Rays to the farrier and see what he wants to do. It may be that he’s trimmed to what looks right externally but itMs wrong internally, I would certainly give the farrier a chance to correct if he can.
Spud&Saf,
I’ve been considering doing shoes all around for a bit, but wanted to see how new farrier did with the front first. Glad I didn’t let him to all of them yet.
rocky01,
I am inclined to find someone new just because I don’t want this to get worse and worse, but you are right, maybe I should give current farrier the chance to look at the xrays and see if he has a different course of action.
He was recommended to me as a farrier that can carry on doing the job if the job was correct in the first place. I don’t know how good he is at problem solving though.
Also, I agree the right looks more balanced than the left, but the right is what he flexed positive on and where the vet saw the most lameness! Strange
“Flipped in the gate on the track. His right side of sacrum is higher than left. We’ve been going through saddle fitting issues. A bit of neck stiffness (not sure if arthritic or not) so we have a world of problems that COULD be causing coffin joint problems I guess.”
I can’t fathom how you are blowing past that. No hoof no horse, true. No neck no horse, either. I WISH I’d known my horse had a “neck issue” three years ago. I could have done something then. I knew he had SI problems and I begrudge my vet not taking it seriously enough (six saddles, nothing ever helped.). Treat the problem, not the symptom. Don’t ignore these injuries!! These are all equally critical. Read everything you can. These are very serious injuries. You try going around with neck arthritis. Talk to someone who has it. Do some research. Please. See the forest and not just the trees.
I agree, angles look off in the radiographs. Horse needs a new farrier or different shoeing by the same farrier. Long toes and underrun heels can make the coffin joint sore. The coffin joint is often one that injected can decrease the inflammation and allow the horse to travel normally so that they do not hurt themselves elsewhere compensating.
I’d personally: Fix the feet, hind end lameness, and then coffins if still indicated.
Weluvhaha, I am definitely addressing the other issues, not to worry. Its all just a slow process. We do monthly Chiro to keep the mobility we’ve gained in his neck and sacrum. Monthly massage to help hold those adjustments. Careful training to ensure nothing is pushed past where he is comfortable. I even keep a daily exercise/general health journal and a weekly video journal.
I’m just having to address one thing at a time and moving to a new city sucked because I had to replace all of my horses support group.
I’ve got a lovely list of farriers to call thanks to some fellow cothers. Next step is addressing these angles and putting hind shoes on. Hopefully we can kill two birds with one stone (help sacrum and coffin joint)
Also for a 23 yo I have a TERRIBLE neck. I don’t go around it lightly at all. Chiro is how we deal with it now for both the horse and I. If either of us worsened, I’d of course xray and treat accordingly.
My Chiro was actually the one who stopped me from xraying. Sonething about how it’s a very difficult part of the horse to xray because you can only get a good two dimensional view of a three dimensional area. Same with backs. Anyone have thoughts on that?
I, too, have heard the neck is hard to x-ray. All the horses I know of that were found to have cervical arthritis were diagnosed via bone scan.
The chiro (who is also a vet) said the stiffness can be improved. I’m already seeing much more mobility when I do his stretches. He also sighs and licks when the chiro is working on that area.
If I could afford a bone scan, I’d spring for one. I’m sure this guy could benefit from it. But, for now he has to tell me something is wrong before I do anything (damn you limited funds)
[QUOTE=Doctor’sOrders;8693430]
Also for a 23 yo I have a TERRIBLE neck. I don’t go around it lightly at all. Chiro is how we deal with it now for both the horse and I. If either of us worsened, I’d of course xray and treat accordingly.
My Chiro was actually the one who stopped me from xraying. Sonething about how it’s a very difficult part of the horse to xray because you can only get a good two dimensional view of a three dimensional area. Same with backs. Anyone have thoughts on that?[/QUOTE]
You can get good X-rays done, but you need to go to a clinic. Portable machines do not have enough power to really get good measurements and images, although for the middle of the neck you can get a decent idea if anything is amiss. Ultrasound is helpful for use in conjunction with X-ray to see if you have joint effusion, for example. Gives you a little bit of a different view. I’ve imaged poll to lumbar. Took field X-rays of the neck first, with guidance of vets from the vet school and my regular vet’s fancy portable machine. Vet school declared them not good enough and wanted more images, so we wound up re-doing everything plus ultrasound in the clinic, plus back imaging. Should have just gone to the clinic in the first place.
