The Thoughtful Horseman: Case Studies

Jewel came out of shoes about 5 weeks before I first saw her. I wish I had seen her then, so I'd have a better idea where we started. When I met her, she was about a week post second trim, and she was very tender footed. Her vet diagnosed her with pedal osteitis, but I tend to agree with the late Dr. James Rooney's skepticism regarding this diagnosis:

"Pedal Osteitis is an equivocal condition, too often a diagnosis of desperation for the foot sore horse. Pedal Osteitis is said to be an inflammation of the laminae of the hoof wall which shows itself as areas of radiolucency ( loss of bone) along the distal border of the coffin bone. This is difficult to assess, at best, and too dependent upon X ray technique. I have never seen a bona fide case of this condition at post mortem and doubt that it really exists." (Dr. J. Rooney, "The Lame Horse")

We fitted Jewel with boots and pads, and she wore them almost 24/7 for a number of weeks. She is still not comfortable, but she is improving.

Jewel was very thin-soled when I first saw her, her wall showing pronounced growth rings indicative of laminar inflammation, with very upright hoof conformation. After her trim 10-15-08, her collateral groove height at the heel is within the acceptable range, but we still need to build sole under the coffin bone. I've beveled the heel on her left front, which shows the clubbier conformation, to encourage her to use her heel more effectively and lengthen her stride. Her frogs were extremely soft and thrushy.

Diligent chlorine dioxide soaking and scrubbing to improve frog health.

There is a metabolic component here; Jewel has been switched to a mostly-bermuda diet, and it will be important to keep her away from excess non-structural carbohydrates or sugars, but my gut tells me there may be another culprit. I'd like to see her on the So Cal Custom Blend to complement her bermuda diet, and help mitigate the excess iron in the hay.

Jewel -- and all of her herdmates -- are producing hoof wall ring after ring after ring. They're all on similar forage (mainly bermuda hay), and their supplementation, while not addressing proper mineral balance, doesn't seem to offer any glaring issues. They are on city water, not well water, so it's unlikely a water issue. But the soil in the big turnout is as red as it can be, and when the horses are turned out, hay is spread over the ground to encourage them to move around. Could the high iron level in the red soil be creating a copper, zinc and manganese deficiency? Our typical local hay profile is already significantly high iron/low copper, zinc, manganese. Adding more iron without addressing the imbalance could easily account for the issues I'm seeing in this group. The soil is the only common denominator I can identify that differs from other horses in the area.

I'd like to see Jewel and her herd stop eating off of the ground in the turnout, and start on a custom mineral blend formulated for our regional hay profile.

Jewel is holding on to sole with a vengeance, and the growth rings at the heel on her left front continue to outgrow the toe. She is comfortable without her boots, now, though. While her heel looks long, her collateral groove height at the heel measures just under an inch; I think heel contraction is responsible. Frog on the left front is not as healthy as I would like to see it, and I would encourage aggressive soaking until we get a handle on that.

Jewel has been a puzzle. She is definitely an easy keeper, and I suspect borderline insulin resistant. She seems extremely susceptible to thrush, suffers summer sores, shoe boils, and some fly bite allergy. This all points to a heightened inflammatory response. She has been on an appropriate mineral supplementation, and we finally really cracked down on her diet to eliminate any extra carbs late last fall.

We still couldn't get her 100% comfortable. Boots don't seem to help much. The vet keeps implicating her thin soles, but boots and pads would alleviate that. The real problem is something else...

After the first rains, Jewel's frogs started looking really ratty. I trimmed them aggressively, and found some deep pockets of really nasty thrush. I knew her frogs weren't as healthy as I wanted them, but after a year and a half of being the thrush nazi, I was having a hard time badgering her owner too much on the topic. Clearly my mistake! After cleaning up as much of the rotted frog as I could, I took Jewel's heels as short as I dared, and made sure Jewel's boots and pads were available if she needed them. After seeing the yucky pockets of thrush, it was easy to convince Jewel's mom that she needed to provide some aggressive hoof hygiene.

I'll admit, I sort of held my breath for the next four weeks, expecting the mare to be uncomfortable after such an aggressive trim, but she wasn't...and her heels did not grow with a vengeance like they had previously. I'm hoping this is a turning point for Jewel. Those out-of-control heels were preventing her from growing good sole under the coffin bone. Her new heel height should allow her to FINALLY grow adequate sole. Continued hygiene will be critically important!

Jewel

Paint Mare