Cindi typed
>> Bare foot trimming may save some horses, applying shoes many have saved
>> others. My horse was saved by having his tendons cut. He needed
immediate
>> action if he was to keep living. His shoes were pulled because the vet
>> recommended applying styro foam pads to relieve the pressure on the
>> hoofwall
>> and the coffin bone. Trimming alone didn't cut it for him. In each
>> individual horse it depends the degrees of rotation and the sinking of
>> the
>> coffin bone.
>I don't want to say anything mean or hurtful, but didn't he then
>colic? And does that mean colic and die?
Yes, it means he colics, and he died on the operating table. This occured
16
months after he foundered.
The attending surgeon assured me there was no connection between the two
events, and personally,
I tend to agree with him. The type colic was Strangulating lipoma, if you
can somehow tie that to foundering 16 months previously, you can probably
make a million bucks with the information.
>More and more people are
>deciding that the whole health of the horse is related to those feet
>functioning properly. I am very sorry for your loss (if that's what
>happened) and there is no way I'd want to minimize it or make light of
i>t -it's awful, period.
The horse was functioning "properly" at the time of his death. His insulin
levels and glucose levels functioned in the desired range. He metabolic
system had been function thus for the previous 15 months. He could walk,
trot and canter in pasture. He hadn't worn shoes since February of 2006. I
had a Strassite neighbor, who was famous hereabouts for riding his dead
lame, barefoot horse at a canter down the middle of the road, tell me the
horse had foundered because he had been shod. Your implication of His
Wallaceness' colic relating to him foundering is just as preposterous.
>> No, he rotated and was sinking, I think it is pretty clear from the Feb
>> to
>> March films. At the time the March rads were taken, the vet felt the
>> horse
>> was 2mm from becoming a true "sinker" ie, the coffin bone piercing the
>> sole
>> of the hoof.
> My horse was sinking straight down with no rotation. The DDFT is
> thought to be what's pulling the coffin bone away from the hoof wall,
> from the tip, back.
The your horse wouldn't have been a good candidate for cutting tendons.
Horses that rotate and sink are generally successful candidates.
>> Everybody else in the world would prefer not to cut tendons. It is a
>> salvage
>> procedure. It works in some instances. If I had waited to see if a
>> barefoot
>> trim would work, the horse's coffin bone would have pierced the sole of
>> his
>> hoof, and it would have been all over.
> I'm not sure you can predict that for sure, or with a different
> (better?) trim, but all that aside, coffin bone penetration is no
> longer a death sentence.
I'm curious how you perceive the horse didn't have an effective trim for
his
hooves.
> All the big name barefoot folks have cured
> many, many cases of that, each. Most even turn the horse out on many
> acres of land and let them run around "naturally" with their coffin
> bones penetrated. The movement speeds the healing. You can find case
> after case of coffin bone penetration with no pain, because the two
> conditions (trim, removal of the causative cir***stances). I am pretty
> sure we will one day find out that we can tell if the trim is right
> and if the initial insult is removed simply from whether or not the
> rotation stops. Since your horse's rotation did not stop, I would say
> one or both conditions were not met. A lot of barefoot folk agree
> with me; I do know it's still a fringe statement.
How was pain managed in many, many cases the big name barefoot folks have
"cured"? Did they give bute for the months needed to the hooves to heal
themselves while nerve endings were exposed?
After having spend time with a particularly stoic horse and seeing his
experience, I'm given to thinking many, many horses spend many, many
months
in pain, while their soles regrow. How do the barefoot folks manage pain?
From my perspective, the cycle of pain, resulting from foundering, was
relieved by cutting the tendons. I think you have missed the point.
Avoiding
having the coffin bone pierce the sole of the hoof is better than any
other
option available.
>> I don't regret having the tendons
>> cut, in fact given the same set of cir***stances (rotating and
sinking),
>> I
>> would still have it done. As far as pain management, the release of the
>> tendon on the bone was amazing. The horse didn't have the need to
shuffle
>> from one foot to the other, as is the case for many horses with hoof
>> pain.
> A good trim will do that too. You can read about Rain, my sinker,
> after her first "barefoot trim":
http://www.allisonacres.org/rainfeet.html
> She trotted for the first time in a year after that trim, and I mean
> right after, and cantered the next day.
Well, good for Rain. A barefoot trim that worked. Not all are so
successful.
Recently, The Big Red Horse sure didn't have a joyous experience without
shoes. His white line spread, the hoof walls flared. The Ramey trained
trimmer left the heels and toes much longer than any farrier before or
since. He shortened his stride on gravel, and was dead lame on logging
roads. Boots didn't fit effectively and would have been a safety hazard,
given the riding we do. He is wearing shoes again. He can trot and canter
again.
>> PS His heels were appropriate for his foot size.
>Cadaver study after cadaver study, as well as study of live animals,
>have shown that appropriate heel height does not vary more than a tiny
>tiny bit, among any breed, draft to pony. The heel height dictates
>the angle of the coffin bone with the ground, and ALL horses,
>regardless of how big their feet are, need coffin bones that are
>almost ground parallel, or that are ground parallel. In a larger
>foot, the structures are all larger, but the appropriate angles are no
>different.
If his heels had been any closer to level with the ground, he would have
been walking on his heel bulbs. I doubt that would have been a roaring
success.
Deb
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