Metabolic horses hooves

[walkinthewalk]

Houstonfarrier posted some really great before and after pictures of his brother's foundered Arab's hooves on the Insulin Resistance and Cushings thread. Feel free to post them here as well.

I hope others will post their laminitic or founder pictures too.

I trimmed the fronts of the three Walkers this morning and was wiped out enough that I told the Arab it was his lucky morning, he wasn't getting trimmed. Thankfully I can let the Arab go every other time, because his hooves have always babysat themselves.

I only took pictures of Duke's hooves. He is my metabolic horse and also the horse in my avatar.

Even though I know Duke's hooves are sound enough that he can really hot-foot it across the stones thru two gates up to the barn, these pictures look otherwise:(

These are Duke's hooves before I filed him down. The yuk on his legs is from the Dallis grass seed-pods in the side pasture. They went to seed at six inches this time. We can't bush hog that pasture because there hasn't been enough rain:(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/PAWALKER/Dukeshooves10-21-08/DukeBforetrim10-21-08.jpg

After I filed them down and not much difference. There's a roll on the hooves, but probably not as agressive as it should be.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/PAWALKER/Dukeshooves10-21-08/Dukeaftertrim10-21-08.jpg

And herrrres' where I get taken to the woodshed:( Even before the Pete Ramey student started mentoring me, I have never taken much sole off the barefoot horses. I was taught to take about an 1/8th" around the frogs, unless the sole was starting to shed, then remove it.

Duke is a very long-strided horse and has always "slid" his toes regardless of age, barefoot or with shoes on. If you look close you can see where he slides on the toe callous. I purposely left that toe callous on because Duke's soles are still thin and the callous isn't quite ready to slough off yet.

There is also some wall separation. That was not there until the Heat from you-know-where kicked in last July. We had temps in the mid-high 90's with matching humidity and not much rain. In other words, I am blaming the weather, because everyone's hooves did some funky stuff this summer.

The best I do with this issue, is to keep the area cleaned out and either soak it with iodine or a water/vinegar/clorox mix every other day and keep the wall filed slightly below the sole in that area so as to alleviate pressure. Barefoot horses do put weight on their soles, as opposed to horses with shoes on. That is part of why it takes awhile to transition them for riding.

Duke has never had front frogs to crow about and these look 100% better than they did one year ago.

This is the right front.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/PAWALKER/Dukeshooves10-21-08/DukeRtFrt10-21-08.jpg

Left front - same story. As an FYI, over the past 11 months, this horse has only had a "sliver or two" taken off his heels just to keep them level. He does a good job of keeping his heels worn down and pretty even at that. I rode him two weeks ago for the first time in 22 months and he was great. I let him hit a lick or two on the road and he never ouched once --- in spite of how that all looks:(
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/PAWALKER/Dukeshooves10-21-08/Dukelftfrt10-21-08.jpg

The barefoot farrier hasn't been here since last March, so I am due to be calling him back. He will be the one working on everyone's hooves that day and hopefully won't whap me too hard on the head with the rasp because there's already slush in there from two previous concussions - lol lol lol

And here's the sweetface with his ears up. Generally he will either turn his head or flatten one ear if he sees the camera - lol. He was 21 on October 3rd. Five years older than the avatar.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/PAWALKER/Dukeshooves10-21-08/Dukefull210-21-08.jpg

Hopefully others will come in with pictures and/or questions and the farriers that are on board will offer suggestions:cowboy:

[Gypsy Rose]

Interesting thread! Though so far, I haven't had to deal with a laminitis bout with Gypsy, this is very important stuff for anyone to learn. I will be following this closely, and see if some knowledge will actually soak up into my brain, lol!:cowboy:

[Miracle Whip]

Those are some DEEP cracks in the sulcus? Is that what it is called? The part of the frog that is near the heel - sure looks like he has some very long heels in some of those pictures?

[HoustonFarrier]

I'd be taking those heels down ALLOT more than you are. I think that is where your wall seperation is coming from.

Steve

[palomino]

Ditto what steve said.

[walkinthewalk]

Those are some DEEP cracks in the sulcus? Is that what it is called? The part of the frog that is near the heel - sure looks like he has some very long heels in some of those pictures?

Yes and yes. A year ago, all three of my Walkers got what I thought was thrush.

Again, the 22+ yo Arab lives, eats, and breaths in the exact same environment, but his hooves were squeaky clean. He was about starved to death when I rescued him over 15years ago and if it weren't for the "leftover" issues from that, he would be the most physically fit fella in the pasture.

Anyway, I wasn't understanding why the thrush wasn't going away. The first time the barefoot farrier came out he quickly concluded the Walkers all had a deep fungal infection that went way beyond thrush. So the nightly soakings and meds started, and eventually everyone healed.

I check hooves every other day, yet when I looked at these pictures it was like seeing Duke's hooves for the first time. It was another reason for posting them because, by now, I'm not sure if it's me, I'm missing something, or both.

It's possible my perception of the other two Walkers' hooves might be equally as skewed, I will take a second look at them as well.

I have trimmed off an on all my life and have never had hoof or health issues like I've experienced these past few years.

Thanks all for the comments - especially on the heels. It looks like I will call the barefoot trimmer out sooner than later.

[westmanfarrier]

I also agree. Get those heels back.

[IrisGreen]

I am going to post pictures of Muffins feet later today. I will go out there and try to get some good pictures of his feet.

He is a fatty right now and really out of shape. We lunged him yesterday and he was out of breath from just walking and maybe 3 laps of trotting. He is sooo out of shape. He has a belly on him but no other signs of IR. I think it's just lack of exercise and me feeding too much.

I cut back some on his cubes and he seems to be losing some of his extra weight but he need exercise to carry himself better.

His front hooves are what I am worried about. They are spreading out more but he is half draft and his feet have always been bigger and more draft like in the front. I want to get some opinions on how his feet look and if there is anything to worry about to anything I should talk to my Farrier about.

Question:
The cleft at the back of the frog where the heel is, does that need to be trimmed so it's open? My Farrier doesn't touch that part and it's grown over with a hole at the back of the heel that I guess would be where you would normally cut away a grove to that area to open it up?

I will post pictures once I get some later today and when he last Farrier visit was. Thankx.