I’ve not mentioned all this, mainly due to the fact I’ve been slightly burying my head in the sand and hoping it go’s away.....
It may be long, sorry!
He’s an ex racer, always had a bit rubbishy feet. No shoes when I got him and he was turned away for about 6 months. Came in sore.
Shod in front, helped but not 100%. Still out of work at this point but stabled over night to get them in the dry.
Came sound and started light work in early summer. Was going ok, very slight on and off footiness so I got a vet who suggested pads. Did this and he became obviously lame on his off fore, only for a few days.
A few shoeings later he was mostly ok but would get the odd lame steps here and there.
Got the vet out. Of course he trotted up sound, including after flexion, we lunged aswell and she did see a few dodgy steps but he wasn’t lame enough to block. We decided to bute for two weeks, no different.
She thought that he needed to adjust to new shoeing technique and altered foot balance. Suggested trying to work through it almost, keep hacking lightly and see how he went. Hoping either to get better or worsen to a point we can successfully block him. She also said she was 99.9% sure it was just his awful feet but that my farrier was doing a great job at supporting his heels and taking the toe back, so on we went.
Then he had a bad abscess, this grumbled on for weeks. After one visit the farrier told me to call the vet back.
Vet came, no sign of the abscess by now! V hard to see how sound he was as the shoe was off and he’s crippled without a shoe.
So we did full xrays (like hundreds of them!!) on the “bad” foot (near fore) and balance xrays on the off fore.
Xrays were surprisingly good which was a relief. He has absolutely no sole and not much heel so she said is basically walking on his pedal bones.
Working alongside the vet and xrays my farrier has shod him using a wedged frog support pad with dental impression material underneath.
He’s still not right
I’ve only ridden him once and led him off Jake a few times. Fine in walk but lame in trot. I can’t decide which side which is driving me nuts as I’m pretty good at lameness!
I have someone coming today to trot him up for me so I can actually see him move properly and hopefully decide if it’s one or the other or both sides.
I’d really expected him to be sound if the issue were his awful soles once they were so well protected.
He’s no better or worse on stoney ground and it’s been trotting on the road I notice it. So hard flat surfaces.
I have spoken to the vet again and she suggested it’s, again getting used to another new way of shoeing. We plan to see how he gets on and reassess in another week with a view to trying blocking him and just seeing how that pans out.
The awkward bit and the bit that’s making me doubt myself is that I’m convinced his off fore is the issue yet everyone else who I’ve got to look (although the vet said bilateral) thinks near. I wonder if that’s because he’s never properly lame so hard to tell and that foot is obviously worse looking than the other.
My vets opinion seems slightly of his feet are so terrible he’s probably always going to be this way and that keeping him going and using a bit of bute as and when needed might be as good as it gets.
All in all is completely mashing my brain but I do need to crack on and find out what’s going on here.
Any one have any comments or suggestions?
Apologies if anyone got that far you too now have brain fog!!
It may be long, sorry!
He’s an ex racer, always had a bit rubbishy feet. No shoes when I got him and he was turned away for about 6 months. Came in sore.
Shod in front, helped but not 100%. Still out of work at this point but stabled over night to get them in the dry.
Came sound and started light work in early summer. Was going ok, very slight on and off footiness so I got a vet who suggested pads. Did this and he became obviously lame on his off fore, only for a few days.
A few shoeings later he was mostly ok but would get the odd lame steps here and there.
Got the vet out. Of course he trotted up sound, including after flexion, we lunged aswell and she did see a few dodgy steps but he wasn’t lame enough to block. We decided to bute for two weeks, no different.
She thought that he needed to adjust to new shoeing technique and altered foot balance. Suggested trying to work through it almost, keep hacking lightly and see how he went. Hoping either to get better or worsen to a point we can successfully block him. She also said she was 99.9% sure it was just his awful feet but that my farrier was doing a great job at supporting his heels and taking the toe back, so on we went.
Then he had a bad abscess, this grumbled on for weeks. After one visit the farrier told me to call the vet back.
Vet came, no sign of the abscess by now! V hard to see how sound he was as the shoe was off and he’s crippled without a shoe.
So we did full xrays (like hundreds of them!!) on the “bad” foot (near fore) and balance xrays on the off fore.
Xrays were surprisingly good which was a relief. He has absolutely no sole and not much heel so she said is basically walking on his pedal bones.
Working alongside the vet and xrays my farrier has shod him using a wedged frog support pad with dental impression material underneath.
He’s still not right
I’ve only ridden him once and led him off Jake a few times. Fine in walk but lame in trot. I can’t decide which side which is driving me nuts as I’m pretty good at lameness!
I have someone coming today to trot him up for me so I can actually see him move properly and hopefully decide if it’s one or the other or both sides.
I’d really expected him to be sound if the issue were his awful soles once they were so well protected.
He’s no better or worse on stoney ground and it’s been trotting on the road I notice it. So hard flat surfaces.
I have spoken to the vet again and she suggested it’s, again getting used to another new way of shoeing. We plan to see how he gets on and reassess in another week with a view to trying blocking him and just seeing how that pans out.
The awkward bit and the bit that’s making me doubt myself is that I’m convinced his off fore is the issue yet everyone else who I’ve got to look (although the vet said bilateral) thinks near. I wonder if that’s because he’s never properly lame so hard to tell and that foot is obviously worse looking than the other.
My vets opinion seems slightly of his feet are so terrible he’s probably always going to be this way and that keeping him going and using a bit of bute as and when needed might be as good as it gets.
All in all is completely mashing my brain but I do need to crack on and find out what’s going on here.
Any one have any comments or suggestions?
Apologies if anyone got that far you too now have brain fog!!
