Was asked to look at a horse hooves the other day, as my friend was worried about how their health, they’d be barefoot a while, but things weren’t right. So we went up to the yard, and I did an assessment of them & yup they are looking pretty unhealthy (big cracks, poor hoof horn & atrophied frogs)….Having said that though, the horse was pretty comfortable on them and quite able to trot on tarmac.
Its an interesting case because the horse is also going through what I can only describe as an over-eager moult; lots of hairloss around the face nect and wither….which makes me suspect something is going wrong with the diet – maybe a vitamin & mineral imbalance?
Anyhow I’m really hopeful that the horse can be helped – the only problem is timing!! As yet I haven’t done the pathologies course, so I’m not able to put my hand on my heart and say what should be done. I suspect we need to check the diet, and I also suspect that there is a bacterial or fungal infection which is weakening the walls and attacking the frogs so we need to soak the hoof in something like clean trax… I also suspect that if the horse had some exercise on firmer surfaces that would help to get the hoof functioning a bit better.
But noting that this case is definitely more than I can chew at the moment, I’ve asked my mentor for her opinion…… we’ll see what she says!
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