warm hoofs

[NoviceNic]

I was holding my horses hoof today whilst picking them out and noticed they were warm. I compared them to my ponies hoof just to make sure and they were warm. Is it a sympton of something I need to watch/treat?

[stephydoo]

keep an eye out for smalls as this could be the start of thrush

[intouch]

Unshod hooved are normally warm - not hot - but the restricted circulation in a shod foot means that it will often be cold. Keep a check, feel each foot at a different time each day and get to know if your horse has a pattern. Then if anything is out of the ordinary, you know to get help.
SMALLS, Stephydoo?

[stephydoo]

whoops i meant smells

[virtuallyhorses]

Good advice intouch! :) There's lots of misinformation about heat in horse's hooves - but you should remember that they are living and the foot itself is full of blood and hopefully warm, living tissue.

Although 'heat' is often described as a symptom for everything from laminitis to abcesses, you are better to use the digital pulse for this - again you have to know what is normal - a bounding pulse means something bad is going on, whereas heat or cold can simply reflect, the days temperature, your horse's natural circulation, rates of exercise, core body temp (like us when horses are hot they send more blood around the extremities to cool off and when cold the capilliaries close down more making extremities cold), restrictions due to shoes etc

[NoviceNic]

Thank you everyone I checked them this moring and they are cold. I noticed thrush yesterday and will be treating it. Virtuallyhorses could you explain to me checking digital pulse and bounding pulse as I am a new owner and like to learn as much as I can to be a good mum to my mares.

[virtuallyhorses]

The digital pulse is found at the back of the pastern - try to find it when you pick out your horse's feet. Its simply another point at which you can clearly find a pulse point on a horse.

A 'bounding' pulse is the description given to a pulse that is very big and\or fast -- try taking your own pulse when you are lazing around normally and then again when you have been running around - the second time it is not only faster but stronger.

In a digital (digital simply means at the digits - fingers or for horses hooves) pulse you are getting feedback on the hoof as this is the only place that pulse is feeding. So if your horse is lounging around but the pulse near his feet is 'bounding' - big\fast\abnormal then this is a warning that something is going on.

Does that help? :)