Monday 31 May 2010

Bobby's gone home...

RF showing a clear demarcation in hoof angle. In fact, medio-lateral balance seemed to be what was causing the most problems for Bob in shoes. Because we were more restricted with him in the amount of work we could do, his hooves have grown more slowly than normal - it will be 6-8 months before he has grown a full hoof capsule out of shoes.
RF after 4 months, stronger but still with a way to go
RF 2 weeks after arrival, weak and lacking sole depth
LF on arrival, with medio-lateral imbalance
Bobby going home to continue growing a healthier hoof! He is sounder than he was on arrival, but it will be several more months before he has grown a complete hoof capsule.

Unlike the majority of the rehab horses we see, Bobby had severe navicular bone damage apparent on X-ray. Bone can and does remodel once loading of the hoof and landing has improved, but it takes time. It takes many months of soft tissue damage to trigger navicular bone remodelling - the bone damage is the last thing to happen and will logically be the last thing to repair.

2 comments:

cptrayes said...

Nic this ones been on my mind since you posted it - his feet from underneath are so reminiscent of Camperos at the same sort of timing. Campo's steadfastly refused to concave up until I put him on high doses of oil and of vitamin E when they changed almost immediately. Do you think Bobby has an underlying metabolic issue??

(I've done this as a comment because it's easier than referencing it in an email)

C

Nic Barker said...

Bobby was on a high oil, high vit E diet while he was here. What's hard to see from the photos was that the new hoof capsule was at a radically different angle but hadn't finished growing in.