Billy
04-17-08
Billy has LOTS of sole, and good concavity at the apex of the frog.
Much of the lumpy sole was ready to shed, easily popped out with my
hoofpick or the tip of my nippers slid under a corner. I brought his
bars level with the existing sole; I think he was simply overgrown and
hadn't been working on rough enough terrain to stimulate shedding the
extra bar, but we"ll see how fast it regrows. I expect he will shed
out a good deal more sole material now that his wall is not so long.
He has some toe flaring, but that should come under control quickly
with timely trimming. His heels had not grown as much as the rest of
the wall, probably because his frogs are not in good shape, and he is
not weighting his heels enough to stimulate much growth there. His
frogs are full of the creeping crud; while he doesn't show the deep
central sulcus and contracted heels indicative of long term chronic
infection, what should be thick and tough is swiss cheese: ragged,
soft, and peeling. Our first order of business will be to eradicate
that with White Lightening soaks (and probably some White Lightening
Gel) and get his frogs thick and healthy.
Billy got a gold star for being such a true gentleman for his first
trim. :-)
05-08-08
A little
improvement in the raggedy frogs after a WL treatment on 04-30-08, but
a long way to go to eradicate the infection. Like his "brother"
Sydney, Billy is growing bar like it's going out of style to protect
his diseased frogs. More WL soaks in the very near future for
this boy. His feet are coming into balance quickly, and his
flaring is coming under control nicely after only two trims.
Billy is one
of my "gold star" trim clients...a real pleasure to handle!
06-05-08
Frog health
is much improved, and indeed, his whole hoof is looking healthier. He
is no longer growing as much bar, and the lumpy look to his soles is
smoothing out and starting to show real concavity.
08-11-08
Well, the
thrush has gotten ahead of us again, so we're at a bit of a setback.
Weekly Oxine soaks should get us back where we were, and then some!
|
