Pee
Wee
03-07-09
Make that "Saint" Pee Wee. I wish they were all this sweet and
cooperative. What a doll!!
Coffin bone rotation with extremely flared dorsal wall. Severely
underrun heels. Poor horn quality and extremely thin soles.
Pee Wee is an older (18 - 20?) QH gelding. He is one of those horses
that is just simply worth his weight in gold. I thought he was a nice
minded horse before I started working on his feet. But after pulling
his shoes and doing a very conservative set-up trim on him this
morning, we have officially "Sainted" him. Didn't budge a hair,
even though his worried expression spoke volumes in terms of his
experience with hoof care.
Astoundingly, Pee Wee goes sound, with the most deformed right front
I've seen short of a real, live sinker. I wonder if that right front
started out just as a club foot, which was then allowed to flare in a
(misguided) effort to create a more "acceptable" toe angle. If so,
here's your poster child for NOT TRIMMING FOR TOE ANGLE. I'd be really
tickled to turn this foot into a run-of-the-mill, well-trimmed club.
His sole on the right front is CONVEX.
Hello there, Mr. Coffin Bone. Yikes. His heels on both fronts are very
underrun, obviously more severely on the right; heels this
folded-under make for
a tough read on the collateral groove at the heel, but even if I was
certain how much heel height was superfluous, I didn't want to take
more than a hair
today. The first week post shoes, a lot of things happen very quickly.
Pee Wee's horn quality is horrible; hopefully, as often happens, we'll
see a
rapid turnaround in that first. As soon as I finished my minimal trim
and took photos, I fitted him with boots (no small feat with that
toe). He walked
briskly back to breakfast, looking very comfortable. I'd like to leave
him booted 24/7 for the next week, to protect P3 from rocks until he
has a chance
to grow at least a little bit of sole.
The toughest part about cases like this is growing sole under P3. The
constant pressure of the coffin bone on the sole corium diminishes the
circulation and inhibits sole growth. To do this, we will need to get
the heels back where they should be sooner rather than later. But if
the heels are
brought down too quickly, Pee Wee is liable to be sore, which could
force him to toe walk, and then we're right back where we
started....with a horse
tiptoeing around on his coffin bones. Boots and pads, and judicious,
frequent trimming should help us get through this sort of Catch 22.
My immediate and urgent goal is to bring back that run-away toe.
Judging by the top inch of growth down from the coronet, there is at
least an inch of
lamellar wedge I'll need to start backing. Pee Wee is also getting some dietary changes;
he scores about a 7.5 on the condition score scale of 1 - 9; I'd like
to see
him at a 5. A horse with that kind of rotation and pretty much nothing
holding P3 up in the hoof capsule is about a tablespoon of sugar away
from
pushing right through his soles. We're eliminating the alfalfa in his
diet in favor of straight Bermuda, cutting out some rice bran and corn
oil, and
switching from Senior to Strategy GX. He is already on a biotin
supplement, so we'll keep that!
03-10-08
After
letting Pee Wee's feet breathe sans shoes over the weekend, and
staring at his photos to better decide what to do first, I
re-evaluated him today and retrimmed. I was able to bring his
toe on his right front much farther back. I started addressing
the huge medial-lateral imbalance on that foot. It looks
like we may find Pee Wee is actually very turned in on that foot, and
the medial side was allowed to grow in an effort to straighten the
leg. Aaarrrrggghhh!! His heels on both fronts are so
underrun they are curling, but the collateral groove depth at the heel
is very shallow. I took just enough heel today to give him a
flat surface at heel purchase, instead of the rolled under wall.
The aggressive mustang roll will improve his breakover so greatly that
his stride will be considerably longer; in order to mitigate the
inevitable heel pain we would create by addressing those heels at the
same trim, I did not attempt the heel bevel I will eventually use.
03-31-08
Starting to
shed some sole, and that radical flare is coming under control.
I took a tiny, tiny bit of heel -- just enough to remove the folded
under wall -- and immediately found serious bruising on all four feet.
I also removed some of the flaps on his frogs, but I knew he would be
sore if I took much. There are chunks of flap half an inch thick
that run up a third of the length of his right front frog, but
removing the whole piece would make him miserable. I'm
thinking PeeWee may be a candidate for a Cleantrax treatment. He
is tender after this trim...with so many things going on, it's hard to
say if his new breakover, his heel bruising, his unhealthy frogs, or
the proximity of P3 to the ground is to blame. But he put on a
pretty good show in the pasture today, galloping and trotting in his
EasyBoots. I have been exceptionally conservative with
everything except bringing back that frighteningly flared toe, which
is definitely the priority here.
I shudder to
think what a farrier would have done to set a new shoe on the right
front the day we started his trimming...
05-05-08
It's hard to
believe it has only been two months! Still a long way to go, but
PeeWee's feet are healing. Still very little sole under P3 on
either front foot, but at least the proportions from the solar view
are starting to look closer to normal. Every trim exposes
bruising in the medial quarter of the right front from the very
impacted wall. PeeWee's frogs are still atrophied and unhealthy,
but they have definitely improved. I am still uncovering fungus
under the sole as I trim. He had his first White Lightening soak
today; I think he would probably benefit from soaking every 7 to 10
days. While his feet look dramatically improved from the side
and front, a look underneath tells us just how much healing he has
still ahead of him.
To date,
PeeWee has been able to work in his boots, although he moves
carefully....smart horse...with no shoes nailed to his feet, he is
finally able to feel just how close P3 sits to the ground, and protect
himself accordingly!
06-02-08
PeeWee has
been banished from the grass pasture. It's often hard to
convince owners that this is necessary, but it only takes a few days
for horses to become MUCH more comfortable. PeeWee definitely
benefited from the grazing ban!
His hoof
wall is looking much healthier and thicker. Still gradually
balancing. White Lightening treatments continue.
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