Julia
Teenage BLM Mustang Mare
05-23-08
Julia was pasture-trim barefoot for most of her life. Recently she was
diagnosed with navicular disease, and radiographs show significant
changes to the navicular bone in her left front foot. A real life
reminder that no shoes isn't the whole ball of wax! When I saw
that hoof in person today, I couldn't wait to get those shoes and
wedge pads off of her and get to work. With those shoes on, her toe
angle was almost vertical! But Julia wasn't too keen on somebody
messing with her feet...it took almost an hour and a half of coaxing,
petting, singing, pleading, and cajoling to win her acquiescence.
Finally she let us get the nails out of her feet. Once that part was
behind us, she was a model client!
Julia was only about 2 weeks out from her last shoeing today. Her left
front is extremely clubby, and base narrow. She did not want to weight
her heel. She did show some signs of thrush, so White Lightening soaks
are on the schedule. We'll also size her for some boots next week (it
was raining pretty good by the time we finished trimming, and I think
she'd probably had enough of me by then anyway!), and we'll experiment
with pads to see what makes her most comfortable. Julie is being
treated with Previcox for pain (although the squirrels had made off
with it this morning, so she had not had her meds today.)
We'll proceed slowly and cautiously, listening to the hoof as always,
with a goal of getting that heel lower.
06-18-08
Okay, I have to go off on a little bit of a rant here.
I cannot for the life of me figure out
what the *bleep* the shoer was doing with Julia's left front -- the
hoof itself WANTS to be normal. Her collateral groove depth at the
frog apex was almost 2 inches. What is that???? Shoer was
achieving the same weird angles with all of the other horses -- just hadn't managed to damage
them as badly yet. Julia shed out tons of sole today; her heel is
still very long, but she's a whole lot closer to a "normal" hoof, and
she was actually weighting the heel after her trim, which she was very
reluctant to do before this trim. Still lame as all get out, but
clearly more comfortable. (You can see she is weighting her heel in
all of the after trim shots here, but not in any of the shots right
after we pulled her shoes.) I trimmed her second, after one herdmate,
Appy gelding Dan, and then did the other mustang, Travis. Julia
came over after I finished Travis and I swear it was like she was
going, "Who are you, anyway, and how did you know how to make my foot
feel better?" Here is a side by side of the LF before her first trim,
and after her trim today:
07-17-08 Julia's feet continue to look
more "normal". She still heavily favors her left heel when
standing, but is using the foot more normally when walking. |
