Jissus Gary, I now wonder how the fly had time to lay the eggs ,and for the eggs to hatch, on an uncovered hoof and not be destroyed! amazing, thanks for passing it on. Now i ve got to look up gestation period for fly reproduction,amazing.thanks Ray
I think what happens Ray, is that flies lay eggs on the poop in the field and the horse treads in it - this forces the eggs, with the poop, deep into the clefts of the frog where they hatch into maggots and start munching away. When owners pick out the feet they either don't, or are not able to, clean out the central cleft fully which is why I have invariably found the maggots infesting the central cleft. Blow fly eggs (the most common fly for maggot infestation here in the uk) hatch in 8 to 12 hours.
And I thought Gary did such a balanced job of shoeing that the horses were just floating over the ground, barely putting any weight on their feet, and therefore allowing the eggs/larva to live there w/o being crushed.
I had an interesting case this past week. A quarter horse with a grade 2.5 lameness in the left front. I looked at the horse then called the vet and we talked. We could see the toe had stretched forward and there was blood in the laminae in the lateral toe region. When looking at the hoof, I could see the hoof capsule was pushed up at the hair line from the lateral toe back to almost the wide point of the hoof. The horse had thin soles and had just been trimmed and shod. The vet had pulled the shoe in order to do an exam. When I re-shod the hoof, I set a heartbar shoe to take some support onto the frog. I also left some medial support as the horse was standing hard on the medial heal and in need of extra support. I had to use a pad to build up the horn wall so I could relieve pressure on the lateral front quarter, so I selected a shock tamer sole and ground out the section I needed. Once I was done, the horse walked off sound. Was great to see. Oh by the way, when you look at the pics, those aren't my file marks, but yes I did fail to take time off. My mistake.
I think it was a combination of two things: 1. There was bleeding in the lateral toe laminae I believe came from pressure, I could see at the hair line which I believe was the major cause. 2. Because of the imbalance there was too much pressure on the medial heal and sole pressure on the lateral side. Both the vet and I did not believe it was from the think sole itself, but as I stated I needed a pad to raise the horn wall enough around the rest of the hoof to relieve the pressure on the lateral quarter.
