Phoebe's theraputic shoes

[Mellifluous]

I posted a bit of a photo essay if you are interested in looking.
Will post more info later!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49826&id=1163555511&l=7471161e1e

[Terry Wallace]

Mel tell us about it please. Looks like you are battling LTLH...is that all that is going on?
Does Phoebe have symptoms of ringbone? (Just asking because of how one of the photos looks).

[Mellifluous]

We are working on ltlh along with the aftermath of a mild founder over a year ago. We have been trying to fix it with trimming alone. I decided that it was time to get more agressive. She does not have ringbone symptoms. I know what you are seeing and I have wondered too. Both farrier and vet have checked it out too. Verdict is that it is not ringbone.

[GNix46]

Does any one have pictures of ring bone, and what excatly is it?

[CarolU]

Wow..that was a pretty drastic toe chop there. The thrush must have been very bad. My trimmer friends swear by Clean-Trax.

[Mellifluous]

I will have to check out the clean trax! Thanks for the tip.

There is one really deep pocket that he didn't get all of the bad hoof out for fear of going to deep. I am going to have to really keep an eye on it.

Her toes were really stretched out which helped the bacteria get in, you can see in some of the early pics - looking from the underside before he started, I had no clue that there was that awful thrush.

It is a pretty drastic toe chop. We had tried for over a year to get results through trimming. She just kept growing hoof back in the same pattern. I was insistent that he keep her comfortable so we decided that shoes were the only way to achieve that goal while getting aggressive with the issue.

[Terry Wallace]

For George: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringbone
http://www.horse-previews.com/1100articles/vetcorner1100.html
photos here: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=ringbone+in+horses+photos&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=dQ5RS8CrB4WWtgePwpC1CQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQsAQwAA

I have photos on two horses I did a lot of work on who had ringbone. The prognosis was bad for both. One eventually fused on its own...it took two years with corrective shoeing by me (with pads) to affect the fusing.

You CAN have a pastern bone fused by an operation...but last time I checked it was $3500 to do so. Very cost prohibative considering you end up with a non-functioning joint...something you would not want on a competition horse for example, as they will have some amount of "limp" from the joint being fused.
For a broodmare...or a horse you don't intend to ride...its no big deal as it is not painful once the joint fuses.

Suffice it to say..you don't want a horse with ringbone as it never gets better and only gets worse.
Don't confuse ringbone with osletes. Osletes are bumps on the pastern joint mostly caused by riding horses too young, or overworking young horses who are not in condition to be worked so hard. Osletes are often called "bracelets" as they look like bumps in a line around the front of a pastern joint, just below the fetlock.

Mel...glad to hear she don't have ringbone...you must have already had her x-rayed to have a non-ringbone diagnosis. It shows up on x-rays quite clearly, there is no "guess-work" involved. Sounds like you will have a sound mare in 9 months to a year! Good!

[pnalley]

Mel that is pretty much what we had to do to Caliente after his bout of laminitis. My vet xrayed him and had the farrier working on his feet while she gauged how far he could cut the toe. He is much better. the vet was surprised that he went sound as quickly as he did. He has to wear gel pads as he has dropped soles in addition to rotation.

He was just like Phoebe in that he grew loads of toe but no heal.
She will do good pretty quick I'd bet.

[Mellifluous]

Paula,

I told my farrier about your similar experience when he recommended this treatment. He smiled and said "see, it works"

Thankfully, Phoebe's founder was very mild, no rotation, no dropping of soles or anything. It really was not much of a founder I have been battling her hoof shape since the first day I got her. I don't know if you guys remember but I got her at 18 months old and her feet had never been touched.

Yes Terry, I agree - x-rays are your friend :-) Phoebe's fronts legs are pretty crazy but no ringbone.

Chuck OKed her for light riding so I will be tooling around a bit (light riding is about all I am up for in my current condition). He did forecast about a year before she is right. I am really looking forward to getting her back on the endurance circuit.

[pnalley]

Caliente was sound to ride in about 4 months. But we did make DRASTIC changes to his angles. If memory serves me right he had a 3 to 5 degree drop and a 5 to 6 degree rotation.
And before anyone says it. NO I would not buy a horse with these problems. But he is family, so we deal with it.

[Mellifluous]

I will say that Phoebe has not had soundness issues yet, but I felt like leaving her hooves like they were would end up leading her down that road eventually. She was a little sore after the parade last month and that helped push me toward something more drastic to help her.

I really hope that people can learn from the pictures I have posted. As time goes on I will post progress pics so that folks can see the changes. It will be exciting to see the "Chuck line" as the new hoof starts growing in.

[motorgypsy]

Arwen pigged herself in to mild laminitis three years ago, no sinking or rotation or lameness but then she developed an abscess in each front, then tunnels in her white line with the accompanying thrush. We used thrushbuster, nail hole disinfectant from Centaur Forge and I'm thinking some 20 to 1 clorox, then packed the holes with wonderdust after the treatment and put gorilla tape on the whole thing. We tried boots with her but the tape did just as well so we stuck with the tape. It took quite a while for them to heal but they did. She was only lame about a week until the abscesses blew and then she was sound. It was a serious pain to get rid of those tunnels. We worked on them a long time before we trimed her toes so they were vertical and off the ground which finally worked. WHEW! so I'm sure Phoebe will be fine and very glad you went to trouble to fix her feet. Oh - Arwen never had long toes but the mild laminitis and the abscesses caused the tunnels and the thrush to develop with all our rain and rain and rain.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/motorgypsy/Feb12006010a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/motorgypsy/IMG_1324a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/motorgypsy/Feb12006017a.jpg

[CarolU]

They sell these really fancy soaking boots, but for a home-job, I've found disposable diapers and duct tape work really well.

Hope Phoebe improves rapidly and you don't end up with the problems Nancy did.

Abscesses are very common after laminitis, since they form in the 'holes' formed by the stretched out lamina.