Hooves being soft and the wall skin comes out
Hi. Long time no post here. I come to you with a burden in my heart. :(
My new horse has a hooves problem, which I am not sure how serious it is. His two front hooves just became very soft for these past 3 days. I'm not good with English and I don't know how to describe his hoof condition. By saying "soft", I mean the hoof wall is oily/soft and when we scratch the wall with fingernail, the skin comes out with it. One of the hooves has a crack behind and, since the wall is now soft, we can actually pull a big piece of hoof wall from that crack, if we want to.
A little background of him, in case it helps, he came from Europe to Asia 2 weeks ago. Since it's now 35 degree Celsius here, and about 5 degree over there, I'm not sure the sudden change of weather has anything to do with this problem. The other thing is he was panting during the first week of arrival, so we washed him like 3-4 times a day to reduce the heat for him. The hooves may be wet most of the time during that time and can lead to this problem? We also apply a LOT of hoof oil to his hooves, to prevent them from over dry from the heat. He's 17 hh. and a littlllle bit fat.
I had a vet look at it this afternoon and when she mentioned the word 'Laminitis', my heart sank. She wasn't 100% sure and the senior vet will come to look at him on Friday. Has anyone encounter this problem before? What can I do to treat it? He's not lame or anything. He's being perfectly healthy and loves to work. Please help me. :((
---------- EDIT -------------
Here are some of his front hooves pictures. His right leg is a little bit swollen and hot. It just happened this morning. We put ice on him and also massage his leg with some ointment. The wall skin cannot be seen here though as when I saw him this morning, the softness is gone. Thank Goodness. However, we discovered some more problems with his hoof instead... :/
My new horse has a hooves problem, which I am not sure how serious it is. His two front hooves just became very soft for these past 3 days. I'm not good with English and I don't know how to describe his hoof condition. By saying "soft", I mean the hoof wall is oily/soft and when we scratch the wall with fingernail, the skin comes out with it. One of the hooves has a crack behind and, since the wall is now soft, we can actually pull a big piece of hoof wall from that crack, if we want to.
A little background of him, in case it helps, he came from Europe to Asia 2 weeks ago. Since it's now 35 degree Celsius here, and about 5 degree over there, I'm not sure the sudden change of weather has anything to do with this problem. The other thing is he was panting during the first week of arrival, so we washed him like 3-4 times a day to reduce the heat for him. The hooves may be wet most of the time during that time and can lead to this problem? We also apply a LOT of hoof oil to his hooves, to prevent them from over dry from the heat. He's 17 hh. and a littlllle bit fat.
I had a vet look at it this afternoon and when she mentioned the word 'Laminitis', my heart sank. She wasn't 100% sure and the senior vet will come to look at him on Friday. Has anyone encounter this problem before? What can I do to treat it? He's not lame or anything. He's being perfectly healthy and loves to work. Please help me. :((
---------- EDIT -------------
Here are some of his front hooves pictures. His right leg is a little bit swollen and hot. It just happened this morning. We put ice on him and also massage his leg with some ointment. The wall skin cannot be seen here though as when I saw him this morning, the softness is gone. Thank Goodness. However, we discovered some more problems with his hoof instead... :/