Friday 12 February 2016

A normal foot emerging

The weather so far this winter seems to have consisted of fog + rain, wind + rain, gales + rain and hail so its a relief that and its finally over the last couple of days decided to stop doing most of those things; the sun even came out briefly - may there be plenty more in the days to come. 
Anyway, it got so bad earlier in the week that I decided not to even attempt photos or video but as of yesterday I reckoned my cameras could probably cope again, so here is a slightly belated 4 week update on Minty. 
He arrived in shoes with a mystery lameness and on video was landing flat and on the lateral edge on his worse foot, which is this left one. His feet were very long and you can see he has already grown out the nail holes despite not being trimmed at all.  
Straight out of shoes he had lots of false sole and a rather weedy frog, as you can see. 
Now his frog is much better already and he can land heel first and with the sole exfoliating naturally from walking about on the tracks he also has better concavity (you can see the last of the false sole still there at the apex of the frog). 

His frog and palmar hoof are building up nicely but Minty is more short-striding than one would expect one a tough surface so he will be having a blood test for PPID next week. This is something that our vet and I often do once horses have been here for a few weeks if they are not becoming more comfortable despite being on a safe diet. 
In fact the rings on his feet suggest that he has had some nutritional or metabolic challenges in the months before he came here so it will be helpful to know whether there is an underlying metabolic issue. If so, there are some good treatment options which should make a big difference to his comfort levels. 

Again this foot in shoes had a weak frog and once the shoe was off the dead sole was clear to see. 

As with his left foot, its now mostly gone with no need for trimming. He has some longer medial wall left on both feet which will also go in the next few days but its not causing him any problems for now. 

Apologies for the less than brilliant quality of the last photo - I'll try for a sharper shot next time!


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