Slow growth still - ideas please!

[Roofio]

J's feeties are still growing painfully slowly and I am impatient!

He has Baileys lo cal and a small amount of fibrebeet. He's living out 24/7 now with a good amount of grass, but not too much. Dylan has exactly the same and has good growth.

He was having magnesium but I don't think it made much of a difference and have now run out so am looking for something to replace the magnesium with.

Any ideas?

eta- we have tried, in no particular order, farriers formula, biotin, seaweed, D&H surefoot (i think that's what it was called), equimins seaweed and rosehip. All when shod though so might it be different now?!

[domane]

How long did you try the FF or biotin for? Cherry's hooves have taken around 18m to grow out so I just wondered if you had given them enough time?

Never used it but I have heard rave reviews about FF.... although, by Christ, it's expensive!!! :eek:

[Roofio]

he was on FF when i first had him for at least 6 months - there was no discernible difference in growth rate or quality of growth, but that could be due to him being shod and the strange pressures on his walls. It's not really an option financially now unless i drop the lo-cal, and i don't really want too as he looks so good on it so it must be doing good things inside too.

eta - he was on biotin for around 3 months after his shoes came off. initially his growth picked up but since has slowed right down to next to nothing again.

[Pink's lady]

Some horses feet just grow slowly. Horses are highly domesticated animals and that domestication has ruined certain 'natural' aspects. Some horses will never grow the thick coat they need to keep themselve warm in winter. Some horses feet will never grow fast and would never cope in the wild (and some horses teeth are appaling). In nature natural selection takes place those horses would have died out. We mess that up and as n effect, domasticated horses have problems they 'shouldn't.

Point is that his feet might never grow fast enough. Brodie's feet never did:rolleyes: Even on a perfectly balanced diet, with boots and wear and everything else, his feet just didn't grow. Which was a right pain in the ass.!

[Roofio]

*gathers toys in readiness for flinging them out of the pram*

but i WANT them to grow quicker!!! i want that good foot we have at the top down on the floor! and quick! :p

[Iron Maiden]

Have you tried walking him in high-density foam pads? At this time of year the soggy ground probably won't stimulate much growth, the pads may help. It's a PITA but it worked a treat for JS.

[Roofio]

he is pad walked usually at least 3 times a week - well not so often since we moved but i'm still doing it when i can get him away from Dyl without the world ending :rolleyes:

[Bay Mare]

I've found that Saffy's growth rate slows right down in the winter but come the warmer weather (and harder ground) she grows almost too much and ideally needs a trim every 3 weeks :eek:

Personally I've not found any supplement that makes any difference at all. I know that some people have found TS Anti-Lam good for horn quality though.

[Montana]

Was it the D&H Safe and Sound you tried Roof? If so, I wonder how long for? Monty's been on it for 3 months, and EP can't believe how quick his foot grew during last trim. No other changes, so I have to think it migth be related.

[Cheeky]

I found biotin (used for 4 months for us) helped the growth, also keeping the hooves dry in the winter. :)

A certain type of hoof oil also promotes good healthy hooves (you can see within a week) too :) But I wouldn't use an oil in the winter.

[MelanieD]

Are they growing slowly when you look at growth coming down from the coronet band or just never getting any excess length?

Equimins Hoodmender is meant to be good, haven't tried it personally, but high doses of biotin possibly only help if there's LGL so if he hasn't got LGL it might just be a total waste of money.

Since he's on a good diet and lots of different supplements haven't helped diet might not be the problem.. maybe what he needs it plenty of work, in boots if needed, for the whole pressure = growth thing to work. Feet generally don't grow really fast if they don't need to so if he's growing enough to keep from wearing them down to nothing but its still not very fast he might just be growing what he needs and you need to persuade them to grow faster with some work..

[Roofio]

To be fair I didn't give the D & H stuff for that long, 2 tubs maybe?

He isn't doing a lot of work since the move - hopefully when there's an extra half an hour of light we can get back to the long lining he needs for his back as well as feet.

I think part of the problem is that i'm comparing him to Dyl who grows good quality stuff like there's no tomorrow. Haven't taken a good set of pics for a while so am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the amount of good growth there is.

I just have no patience! :rolleyes: