Some help with hoofs PLEASE!..

[iWuvHorses]

I realy dunno how to explain this...My horse..um gosh this is hard..but my horse seems to have one hoof(a front one) that is smaller than the rest..why could this be? and on his 'smaller' hoof on the bottom on the 'foot' its "weird" looking,and very soft to touch and sort of smells a little bit bad...im SORRY for he poor description...i promise i will have more info for yall on this later..but for now bare with me...its not hurting him as far as we can tell...the farrier will be out friday or thursday...

All and any help is welcome,THANKS!

[virtuallyhorses]

If it smells bad and is soft then your horse probably has thrush in that frog\hoof. (Horse's feet often vary a little in size, but I can't really comment on why one is smaller than the others).

You need to pick out the hoof regularly and kill off the fungus (thrush). Use a bleach, iodine or a specialist thrush product every day until it clears up. If the frog is badly infected you may need to get your farrier to clean it up.

[iWuvHorses]

Thanks..ya see,thats what i thought he had...but wasnt sure and wanted a second opion...We'll probally have the farrier clean it.

Thanks again!

[galadriel]

Make sure you clean it every day! And after it does clear up, be sure to pick that pony's hooves every day (if you can) to make sure it can't come back.

[iWuvHorses]

Hhhmm...another thing is that his hoofs(or is it hooves??)(mainly the 'smaller' one)dont grow much..not much at all!! WHAT could THAT be?

[virtuallyhorses]

You mean the hoof (yes, plural of hoof is hooves) wall isn't growing? or that they aren't very big (width and length wise)

Since it would be summer\autumn there at the moment they should be growing quite well at the moment, and need trimming every 4-8 weeks (depending on all sorts of stuff).

Nutrition is probably the biggest factor in slowing down hoof growth, but if you think there is a problem then your farrier is the person to talk to... its really hard to make any kind of informed 'diagnosis' without seeing or knowing the horse.

You haven't said whether the horse is shod or barefoot, a barefoot horse will naturally wear away hoof according to the footing and amount of exercise. If your horse's foot is very badly infected with thrush this may be eating the hoof wall away too.