BUT, I am now thinking it is NOT an abscess or stone bruise. I actually already knew deep down that it wasn't. That gut of mine was telling me that it wasn't. And since she hasn't had any swelling and her pulse is normal along with no more heat, I am pretty sure it isn't a tendon or ligament. So during the course of last week and really inspecting her hoof, I found something that I have never seen on my horses, nor any horse for that matter. Now I know enough about hooves to know when things are normal or not normal, but there are some things that is just beyond my area of expertise. I know that we have been dealing with A LOT of mud and wet for the last 8 months and it is not good for the horses hooves. But there is nothing I can do about it right now. It is BAD. Blame it on Mother Nature, I don't care. The weather has NOT gone in my favor at all.
So, what I found is a flap of her heel bulb that I can pull away from the heel which exposes extremely soft tissue. Now I don't know all the correct terminology, so please feel free to correct me with what I am saying. Here is a picture (sorry for the poor photo quality and the green stuff in her hoof is grass! I had just lunged her on my lawn to check for lameness again):
So my question to all my horse shoeing friends out there: Could this be causing her to be lame? I would think so because that area is really soft and I am assuming extremely tender and that is why she is lame. How do I fix this? I was thinking of using iodine to help harden her hooves or some kind of hoof hardener to toughen up her feet since it is so wet out there. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Now this might be a really stupid question, but what happens to that flap of heel bulb? I know frogs shed, but I have never seen the heel bulb peel away like that. Is this normal?
Brandy has never had any problems with her hooves before, and I do know that the wet and mud have made things really bad this year. I just want my horse to be better and I want to fix it!!
16 comments:
Oh...Owwww! Yea, I'd say that could be a good cause of Brandy's lameness.
Considering your guy's prolonged and excessive moisture this year, starting to see some things going on with feet is probably to be expected. Personally, I would think that using Iodine there would hurt like hell, but it sure looks like she needs something to seal that up and dry it out. I suspect it will grow out with no problem, if you can just figure out a way to keep it dry.
Mrs Mom or Mikey (or another experienced farrier who reads your blog) will probably have some good advice. The only thing I can think to do is coat it with a drying powder, bandage it and keep a boot on her to keep moisture out til it hardens up and grows out.
Hard to tell from that picture but it looks like her frog has shed abnormally and is down to the digital cushion. Does she react if you poke down in there lightly? A lot of horses are shedding their frogs right now, not many actually ever become lame because of it.
However I have seen an abnormally high number of strained, sprained and bowed tendons because of the mud. Their front feet sink down and the hinds bang the fronts before they can lift out of the mud. Usually there's lameness and swelling but with a strain/sprain not always. As I said in previous posts CALL YOUR FARRIER! Cheaper than a vet and a good farrier should know legs just about as good as he/she knows feet!
The solution if it is the digital cushion exposed would be, well waiting for the frog to grow back. The quick solution would be applying a shoe. Hard to really tell from that photo/without seeing the horse.
ps- Is pony girl back!? She commented on my blog the other day I was quite surprised.
Well this caused great discussion in our household, lol. We've both seen that, usually the cause is the horse reaching up and clipping that foot with a hind, but you'd see blood, swelling, etc.
Does she flinch if you poke it with a hoof pick?
First, I'd say run her to a vet if you can, see if there's any underlying infection (deep thrush comes to mind....) that needs to be treated with antibiotics. Wade says he'd put a shoe on that foot to protect it while it grows out.
If it's gone on for this long, I'd have a vet look at it and do a full exam. Do what you can to keep it dry while it's growing out, and I know you ARE doing that. Keep at it girl, it will get better!
Yeppers, that would for sure do it. Poor girl.
Swab it (weak solution of povodine and water), pack it w/ a drying agent ( I hear No Thrush in cases like this is amazing, apply powder deep into the exposed area, pack w/ cotton behind it,) and slap on a poultice boot, gorilla tape boot, or a duct tape boot under a barrier boot of some sort. Change daily.
Thats just my .02 ;) I'd hesitate to shoe it-- because of the mud situation if she should yank a shoe and damage wall, you're looking at more recovery time depending on how much wall damage she does.
Give her a rub from us!
Great info, I was hoping some of our "resident farriers" would have some insights. I wondered if she had slipped and clipped it with a hind as well. Hope you are able to get it resolved and get out of the mud
Sydney & Mikey~ I have pushed on that area and she didn't react to bad, but I didn't push too hard. It just looks so tender!
Sydney~ Pony Girl has not entered back into the blog world again, but could there be talk of a possible re-entry? We shall have to see!
Mrs. Mom~ Thanks for the advice. I had a feeling this is what is causing her to be lame. I will start a new treatment plan tomorrow!
Sorry you're having such a rotten time Cuz. This weather is just awful. We get a tease of nice weather and then it's right back to the rain and it's so cold. I hope you figure it out before it gets any worse. Take care.
Ouch! That doesn't look good - poor Brandy... Hopefully you can find a way to keep it dry - dealing with wet, wet ground is so tough on everyone.
Sounds like you're getting some great advice. I always call my farrier in the case of hoof or leg problems--he's the best, and if he can't handle it, he'll refer me to the vet.
Looks like you've got great advice... knew that would happen seeing as BEC, Mikey and Mrs Mom all read here.
Please keep us updated on the treatment you decide to follow and how everything progresses... rubs to your pony I hope she feels better soon!
I was wondering about your sis too. I clicked on her blog the other day to look back at some pics and it was private so I thought maybe she had been blogging again but keeping it low profile.
OH, and your weather & mud... by this time of year you're usually dried up right? So this is really abnormal weather?
cdncowgirl~ yes, we are usually dried up by now. We also usually have had many days above 70 degrees also and we have had only one. This is extremely abnormal weather, yes, we get a lot of rain, but NOTHING like this year! It's totally crazy!!
We're so over our usual rainfall for the year, I can hardly believe it. I have mud like you in front of some of my stalls and I've never had that before. It sucks.
Doesn't surprise me that it would translate into hoof issues. Makes sense to me that's where the lameness would come. Sounds like you have so good ideas. Hopefully something will work AND it will dry out soon!!!
Hey sis glad you are getting some great advice and will most likely be able to treat this on your own. I hope Brandy is on the mend soon. You guys need to come over and go trail riding so your little mare can't be out of commission too long!
~PONY GIRL
Ouch! I have never seen that before - but just learned a whole bunch from reading the comments! Hope she is on the mend soon!
Ewww....I'm sorry to hear that thigns still aren't improving there! Weather wise and Brandy wise. I see you got some great advice, so I hope that helps and you can get her on the mend soon. Maybe one of these days your rain will shift over my way a bit....We've been doing the rain dance for weeks now, to no avail.
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