Hi all, Trying to figure out if I need to be doing anything different with my mid teens warmblood gelding. Admittedly this last shoeing he went a little too long- about 9 weeks- due to scheduling conflicts. Normally I try to have him on a 6 week schedule. Had an abscess in RF at the toe 4 months ago. Now looks as if he has another one in same foot. Farrier coming out tomorrow to hoof test and pull shoe. His diet is low carb- low starch pellets (1/2 lb, so not much) and lots of hay. Has an old DDFT injury in this foot, so kept in wedge shoes. I'm wondering if he may be landing toe first with these shoes? Been in them a little under a year. Turned out in rocky (and sometimes muddy) paddocks and does lots of w/t on trails, some with harder ground. Overall in light work given age and old injury. Any thoughts/ideas? I will get to barn tomorrow to take some pictures.
Nine weeks is more than a little long. And when this sort of neglect is combined with high moisture and rocky terrain the likelihood of frequent abscesses is very high. You should be able to tell by watching your horse move at a walk and a trot over flat solid ground whether it is landing on its toe or heel or flat. It's simply a matter of observing the position of the foot when it comes in contact with the ground.
I'd query whether it really is 2 absesses or the bacteria and pus was not effectively drained or root cause resolved so it never actually healed and has flared up again.
Well I wouldn't call 9 weeks neglect- had tried to schedule for six but without getting into details farrier could not come out until 9. I'm pretty meticulous; this was a one time occasion, but yes, one that may have cost him. I'm wondering if he is also thin soled... odd that this is the third time he's gone lame within a week of being shod (different farriers...)
Do you know what the cause of the first abscess was? 9 weeks isn't all that excessive this time of the year.
If he gone lame 3 times after shoeing it's possible he has thin soles. Do you have any pics of the feet? Sometimes their are mechanical reasons why a horse may have thin soles.
Hoof testers would be useful to determine if your horse is thin soled. This is something you should discuss with your farrier and vet -preferably both at the same time so they can examine the horse together and compare notes. If you have a recurring abscess it is possible (as Thomas already pointed out) that the original abscess was never fully repaired - some foreign matter trapped in the area of the original abscess that causes it to return because it was never expelled. Thus it may help to have your veterinarian involved and perhaps get some x-rays to rule out that possibility. A great product to toughen this soles is Durasole -http://durasole.com
The first time he went lame he was given a slew of X-rays- nothing, other than on old DDFT calc in his RF. Farrier at the time tried some New Balance shoes for DDFT issue; horse went sound. Second time he was lame, more X-rays done, nothing. Minor arthritic changes but horse is 16 and looked pretty good for a lifetime of campaigning as a jumper. Took a while but finally vet found abscess and pus pocket drained. This time I called farrier first- I'll get vet involved if symptoms don't improve over next couple of days. Yeah, could be same abscess, but horse is very sore over entire toe with hooftester and it would have to be a big abscess. So... yep, thinking thin soles and we need to be more careful trimming going forward. What are your opinions on pads for such a horse? Definitely getting some Durasole!! ETA: Will try to post pix soon!
You should be able to tell fairly quickly with a look at the xrays how far the coffin bone is from the ground. Somewhere around 15 - 18 mm is usually a good range. If if the coffin bone is less than about 15 mm from the ground that's a good indication that he's a little short. As for the pads, it depends on what's going on. If he's cut short pads aren't necessarily going to solve the lameness especially if he's abscess lame. If it's thin soles he should probably show some signs of lameness other than right after he was shod. Or it could be a difficult horse which the Farrier needs to be careful trimming and could use pads. When it comes to a horse who's been lame after shoeing a few times it's nice to get an xray to see vertical depth and make sure you're correct on shoe placement.
Good point- calling vet first thing tomorrow to see if we should get another round of Xrays before farrier is out again. At the very least I can get them to look at last set to determine how far coffin bone is off ground. Thanks for the ideas- keep 'em coming!
If there isn't much vertical depth the next thing to do is figure out why and what to do about it. Your Vet and Farrier should be able to help you out with that.
Pad options are numerous and each farrier has a preference based on what has given them the best results in various situations. Same goes for packing under a pad. Your farrier probably has his own favorites, so that would be the place to start. I have my hoof packing custom blended by Ray Steele of Horseshoes Unlimited. and I get my pads from him as well. I'm partial to leather pads on thin soled horses. Ray has a great leather pad that holds up very well in wet environments. He also makes a leather/plastic hybrid pad where the leather side goes against the foot and the plastic side goes toward the ground. That and a dozen different kids of plastic pads and spider plates, wedges, from soft to hard and every color in the rainbow.
