Re: sore, sore, sore

MA Sandy wrote:

> To Catja, I never said I didn't notice he needed shoing, just that he
> had fallen through the cracks with spring shoing changes.  His shoes
> still were on really well at 6 weeks, 

Bzzzt. Wrong answer. 

As Tom will tell you, 'shoes staying on' is not a sign that the horse
does not need shoeing, nor is shoes coming off necessarily a sign that
you have a bad farrier. 

A horse needs reshoeing when his feet have grown a certain amount;
particularly if his feet grow unevenly, particularly if he's sensitive
to changed angles. (When Crumble wore back shoes, he was shod every five
weeks. More than six and he'd go lame. He's also been lame from being
left too long in the toe in front. He was a sensitive soul.


> so the farrier felt he could go
> two more weeks until he was due to trim the ponies and do shoes on
> another horse.  He just got kicked out of that day because one of the
> mares had come sound enough for us to use this spring, and she needed
> shoes to start doing the therapeutic lessons at which she excels!  

But *your* horse needed a trim in order to stay healthy. 

> By
> the time we were already into another cycle and we just kept
> forgetting to put Reason on the list.  Not good management, I agree,

No. Utterly lousy management. My horse went eight weeks one time because
the farrier was injured and I was living in a place that only one
farrier would attend - I would have found another way if it had gone on
longer, but it took more time to find another farrier than it did for
him to come out.

That was eight weeks, not twelve, and I didn't forget him, I had no
op****tunity.


> but of all the horses up there, at that time, he was being ridden
> least and we all felt he could wait awhile.

I think you ought to find a better yard. That kind of attitude would be
reason enough for me to move my horse. Even when he wasn't ridden, my
horse deserved the best possible care. And I called a $$$ farrier to put
shoes on a pasture ornament rather than make do with the cheap one, and
I will call those guys out again. ($170 for a set of shoes. OUCH.)


> As I said above, he has indeed abcessed when he has thrown a shoe as
> he has neared shoing time in the past.  

Which, of course, you don't see as a reason to make certain that he's
shod on schedule. If there's one horse that *cannot* be left overly long
between shoeings, it's a horse that does not do well barefoot. 


> So, I was treating him with
> that in mind (with icthamol on the coronary band and NO soaking; new
> research says the soaking only helps the human to feel better!!!)
> starting Tuesday am when he came in shoeless and gimpy.

And did you feel his feet? Did you feel for a digital pulse? Did you
observe whether he was adjusting his stance on hard ground/gravel? Did
you notice him becoming less happy about picking up feet? 
 
> He is VERY flat soled and is almost always tender after a shoing, but
> only for a day at most.

Crumble always walked off happy after a shoeing. When I first had him,
he was so tender footed that he was happier to be shod on one back foot
before pulling the other one, and so thin-soled that he stood on a stone
and bled several times, much to the horror of my (excellent) farrier,
who really had not nicked his feet at all. 

 
> Laminitis did indeed cross my mind, but the farrier should or would
> have seen blood in the lamina, correct?  

Maybe. If it's been going on for a while. If your horse has white feet
and your farrier has been paying attention. Not all of Crumble's feet
showed blood in the laminae. 



> And as I said above, I have
> foundered a horse before, and this really doesn't present the same way
> EXCEPT for the laying down bit.

Every case presents differently. My horse being my horse, he was an
entirely untypical case - other than three strides across gravel where
he *did* take on the typical stance, and of course the heat and the
digital pulse. His second attack was in the backs only and milder still,
but still laminitis.

 
> Called BO at home while waiting for the quill dog to arrive at the
> hospital and he went down to the barn to go out in the field and check
> on my boy.  He left a message on my machine that he is a bit better,
> and definitely no worse.  He hasn't seen him lie down at all today,
> and he is moving around and grubbing on the little bit of grass in the
> paddock.

It's your horse, and your conscience, but I'd rather be paranoid for a
couple of days than take the risk. 

 
> I will *****s him in the am, 


You have a potentially lethal threat to your horse. Why will you not go
out there tonight? 


> and if I feel he isn't getting better, I
> will have his vet out.  I hate to do it on a day on which I can't be
> there, 

As a vet tech you ought to know that if there's one thing vets hate far
more than being called out for trivial issues, it's not being called out
for serious ones. I'm certain Doc Newell will back me up on this one.


> I know that asking advice of strangers is not generally the first line
> of defense, but I really wanted to pick your brains to see if I was
> missing something.  I have been around and taking care of horses for
> almost 30 years now, and have seen a lot, but every once in a while a
> new curve ball is thrown at me!

You've never dealt with a sick horse before? You've never learnt that
letting a horse out on lush pasture ought to be done slowly and while
radically cutting back his hard feed and, if possible, increasing his
exercise? You've never learnt that if a horse is lame, you cut his
access to carbs, because otherwise there will be problems? That's not a
new curve ball. That's one of the first things you learn when you get
into horses. 

I've known people who kept horses for many years in their own field. And
every spring when they let them out onto the summer pasture, they had to
stable them at our yard because at least one of their horses would come
down with something. Fifty years experience between the pair of them,
and every bloody year they made the same mistake. 

Catja


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