trimming and being footy - is this normal?

[connieD]

my mare was trimmed today. her feet look great as they always do. she is currently barefoot although has been shod in the past (years ago)

after being trimed she walked very slowly on the way to the field and when i caught her in she was quite footy and going lame when treading on stones:eek:

ive never had this happen before when shes been trimmed, is this just because of the hard ground and im over reacting - its just the swear word 'lami' comes to mind.:eek:

is it possible for laminitas to show more when they have been trimmed - anyone had this happen??:confused:

[Yann]

It's possible, but rather than full blown laminitis it could be what's described as 'low grade', the horse doesn't develop any overt symptoms but does become less capable, and this is the right time of the year. It's possible many horses are affected but it doesn't show up clearly if they're shod. However it's possible that the trim may have been over zealous, it does sound like a rather drastic turnaround considering this is a long term unshod horse without any previous problems. Who does her for you? Do they trim the sole at all? In most cases it should be left well alone.

[connieD]

thanks, the trim looks fine, like it always does, he barely touches the sole, allows it to shed naturally. cant feel a pulse and feet were cold this morning but still a little footy. just worried as trim is same as normal but this has never happened before, especially with this bout of rain we have just had!!

trying to keep her in as much work as possible and turning her out for 8 hours instead of 12

any other ideas??

[martini55]

I wouldn't rule out laminitis as being made to stand on three feet for a trim could trigger it if they were on the brink of an attack. After what I've just been through (have a look at the blog in my signature for more info) I'd definitely play it safe. If you can, then perhaps taking your horse off the grass for a couple of days might do the trick. I hope it's just a simple case of being footy but IME it pays to be careful.

[connieD]

checked my girl again today - she is fine on the soft in the field but as soon as she gets on concrete she is short in her stride and goes lame on and off as she treads on stones

no heat in the feet, cant find any digital pulse, has small not particularly hard crest.

she is slightly over weight but not bad, she has a couple of ridges in the hoof wall about 1/2 inch down so not overly concered as about at the end of winter.

any more thoughts - do i aire on the side of caution and keep her in for a few days walking out in hand or does it sound likes shes just a bit foot sore from hard ground?

[domane]

You haven't just tapewormed her have you?

There is some discussion that Pramox is causing footiness in some barefoot horses. I had the same problem as you have last month following a dose of Pramox, a possibly too severe trim and an ill-timed hack out on my semi-retired gal.... so possibly caused by one, two or all three reasons :confused: She was short stepped and pottery and stumbled a lot, picking her way carefully and choosing verges wherever she could. We have had 4 weeks of footiness... After a week, I spoke to my vets, kept her in for a weekend on a deep bed and gave her Danilon (I was almost convinced I had caused her concussive lami but no heat, pulses and no "standing on heels stance" either) to rest her feet from her hard, dried-out deeply rutted turnout. These two days of enforced rest deffo took the edge off for her and she turned a corner, seemed a lot better generally afterwards, although still visibly sore, just not as bad as she had been. And her progress has gone from there really. We have been walking her up our lane in hand for about a week and I had my first short hack out last Thursday, for about 20mins... although I did get off and lead her along a particularly gritty/stony part of the road.

[MelanieD]

If normally sound on concrete then I'd keep in for a few days just to be sure, better to overreact than risk getting a bad bout of laminitis. They shouldn't be more footy after a trim, unless its a bit of a cr*ppy trim that's too short removes sole or trims the frogs too much.