Need ideas...

[CarolU]

I have a client horse here with very narrow feet and thin walls. She was overgrown when she came here and lost a shoe the other day, her hoof crumbling under the shoe. WHat is left is flaking off like pie crust. We pulled the other shoes today to even her out and found the thin hoof walls. What hoof wall there is is flaking off in chunks now.

I have her on biotin and have been treating her with Lanolin based (Absorbine) hoof treatment inside/out. Her current stall is hard pack clay and mud (it's been raining) and she's turned out on wet washed sand daily. She is from Arizona and has very DRY DRY feet.

Any ideas on supporting her hoof walls while she grows new hoof would be appreciated. If I put hardener on the outside of the hoof will that help, or will it keep water from penetraing in and hydrating the hoof???

This is new by me...I normally have very healthy feet here.

[motorgypsy]

That sounds terrible. Is there no infection or previous founder??? There is a twopart farrier's repair stuff that they used at one of our boarding barns for a barrel horse who managed to yank half her hoof off and it never grew back so there is some stuff out there to support the hoof. What about Easy Boots? I'd add MSM too. It's supposed to be great for hooves, hair, lungs etc. and it's cheap. I posted pictures of a mare who had been on nothing but pasture with totally cracked feet who had been on TC senior for six months and it was totally amazing how much her feet had improved. They are now crack free by the way so good feed and supplement should help but in the mean time please let us know what you do for this problem????

[Abejita]

I also agree with the msm ..and check out all the different keratex products.They are highly recommended by my farrier..he has seen them work wonders..(he's a little dissapointed right now they have not helped one gelding here although I am now convinced his soles are not sore..that the problem is in his heels/frog area) They may look expensive but you use so little at a time ..I had my best luck contacting them by caling the number on the website and leaving a message They called me back pretty quick,answered my questions and I did my order right there ..had it in a few days (but they are in MD ,so shipping wasnt that far)

[GeorgeGuns]

Definately the Keratex - the liquid, not the gel. You can put it on sole and frogs too.

Yes some horses have thinner walls than others, that said, there is a more common rason for this kind of scenario. I can pretty well guarantee that this horse is growing adequate wall thickness at the top of the hoof. Shoes left on habitually more than 6 weeks put amazing leverage on the wall, and this can stretch the whiteline causeing flare. All that flare is then rasped down after the shoe is on to make the hoof look nicer. Then, the only evidence you have that there was ever a flare is the stretched whiteline because there is no visible flaring on the outside.
Now in a bare hoof with great sole callous, this is not an issue except that if its too thin too high up the hoof the bump and ding protection to the outer wall is lost. In a shod hoof that is probably not as well calloused, this hoof needs protection badly. Chances are she isn't going to hold a shoe, but Hoof Armor can do the trick. Normally its used only on the sole for an extra hard layer of protection, but it can also go up around the wall. If you have a farrier that is really god with rebuilding hooves that is another option but it doesn't always stick... and the shoes fall off again.

Be careful when applying anything that is going to actually cover and seal the whiteline - you may be locking in bugs and begging for WLD, Applying a gentian violet solution is an excellent preventative, esp Thrush Buster which has formalin in it - just dab it around the whiteline.

Keratex isn't a sealant, its a bonding agent, it gets in the walls and bonds the tubules to strengthen them, it doesn't interfere with moisture balance, can actually improve stability of correct moisture balance.

Hope this helps