Horses are home, hoof problem
Finally I have my horses home, but Tequila (who is new to me) has some serious issues with his hoof that I need advice about.
This is the view out my bedroom window now. It's such a great thing to wake up to. Tequila is on the left and Apollo is on the right. And before anyone asks, hell yes those t posts are capped! :p
Apollo eating breakfast. And being dirty and needing grooming haha. Somehow they are finding a ton of burrs even though I thought I removed them all from the paddock!
Tequila showing what he thinks about breakfast being over. He is *such* a sweet horse. He's a paint x thoroughbred and was used in mounted training and is pretty bombproof. My cat even climbed onto his back the other day (on his own accord!) and Tequila just stood there! He's got a great temperament and is going to be a good beginners horse for my boyfriend. But he has serious issues with his front right hoof.
Obviously I am very concerned about this. These were taken Sunday on my first farrier appointment with him. I wanted to get pictures of the bottom, but the shoe was not removed. My farrier and I are planning to monitor this very closely. The cracks do not run into the hairline, though they are quite close. Tequila appears to be in no pain even though the crack has passed through the wall. I am very concerned about infection and wonder if there is a possibility for injury to his sensitive laminae or pedal bone. My farrier is coming back in 4 weeks (so long as nothing happens in the mean time) and says that if we have to we can put a staple in it, among other options. I want to get a better look at what is actually going on but am afraid to wash it out because I don't know if it should come in contact with water. I am interested in any information you guys have about supplements, moisturizers, infection prevention etc. *Anything* you think would help, please let me know! I heard Hooflex would help, what do you think of that? I will be calling Jim again tomorrow to discuss the issue more in depth and will bring any suggestions you have. I have been blessed in that Apollo has always had rock hard feet, so this is my first experience taking on something like this. Due to that I am trying to be as proactive as possible. Also I have never used an lj cut or posted pics here (which is hard to believe haha)so I hope I did it right! Thank you all a bunch!
Eta: I have new information about the origin of the problem. Apparently the crack had existed for about a year, in a similar length without much change (I don't know how deep it was). The old farrier kept stating that it would grow out, but eventually it became obvious that this was not the case. One thing I suspect was a large cause of this (in addition to probably not having good feet to begin with) was that the old farrier repeatedly filed off the periople. After the old farrier was gone, about a month ago, the chunks we see missing were actually removed on purpose ( i believe to relieve pressure). Does this shed any new light on the problem?
This is the view out my bedroom window now. It's such a great thing to wake up to. Tequila is on the left and Apollo is on the right. And before anyone asks, hell yes those t posts are capped! :p
Apollo eating breakfast. And being dirty and needing grooming haha. Somehow they are finding a ton of burrs even though I thought I removed them all from the paddock!
Tequila showing what he thinks about breakfast being over. He is *such* a sweet horse. He's a paint x thoroughbred and was used in mounted training and is pretty bombproof. My cat even climbed onto his back the other day (on his own accord!) and Tequila just stood there! He's got a great temperament and is going to be a good beginners horse for my boyfriend. But he has serious issues with his front right hoof.
Obviously I am very concerned about this. These were taken Sunday on my first farrier appointment with him. I wanted to get pictures of the bottom, but the shoe was not removed. My farrier and I are planning to monitor this very closely. The cracks do not run into the hairline, though they are quite close. Tequila appears to be in no pain even though the crack has passed through the wall. I am very concerned about infection and wonder if there is a possibility for injury to his sensitive laminae or pedal bone. My farrier is coming back in 4 weeks (so long as nothing happens in the mean time) and says that if we have to we can put a staple in it, among other options. I want to get a better look at what is actually going on but am afraid to wash it out because I don't know if it should come in contact with water. I am interested in any information you guys have about supplements, moisturizers, infection prevention etc. *Anything* you think would help, please let me know! I heard Hooflex would help, what do you think of that? I will be calling Jim again tomorrow to discuss the issue more in depth and will bring any suggestions you have. I have been blessed in that Apollo has always had rock hard feet, so this is my first experience taking on something like this. Due to that I am trying to be as proactive as possible. Also I have never used an lj cut or posted pics here (which is hard to believe haha)so I hope I did it right! Thank you all a bunch!
Eta: I have new information about the origin of the problem. Apparently the crack had existed for about a year, in a similar length without much change (I don't know how deep it was). The old farrier kept stating that it would grow out, but eventually it became obvious that this was not the case. One thing I suspect was a large cause of this (in addition to probably not having good feet to begin with) was that the old farrier repeatedly filed off the periople. After the old farrier was gone, about a month ago, the chunks we see missing were actually removed on purpose ( i believe to relieve pressure). Does this shed any new light on the problem?