Posted by Jonathan Cohen DVM on April 02, 2000 at 00:24:20:
In Reply to: Re: Spoon Heels posted by Kevin Boyer on March 30, 2000 at 00:33:35:
: : I have never use this nor have I seen or head of it for navicular. Is the vet thinking slipper shoes in the heel area?
: : Ray Miller
: Hello Ray
: Sorry for the tardy responce, I've been out of town for the past week. I was never able to talk derectly to the vet directly. He was never in the office and never returned my calls. I did talk to another vet in the office and he discriped a shoe that sounded like spoon heeled shoes. Maybe you could help out by discribing slipper shoes for me.
: Thanks
: Kevin
Slipper heeled shoes are shoes where the weight bearing surface of the heel of the shoe is fairly acutely beveled. The idea is to spread the heels when the horse is weight bearing. I have only used them for contracted heels, and I probablt stopped using them about ten or eleven years ago, because I don't think that they work for many reasons. I have never heard of using either a slipper heeled shoe or spoon heeled shoe for navicular. A spoon heel shoe is turned up right behind the heels to prevent the horse from pulling the shoe. Unless you make the horse sounder and start to use his foot more his heels will never "un"contract. I would try the vet again, and if you don't get hold of him I would try to explain to the owner the need for proper balance, support, protection, etc. for a navicular horse. If you think that the horse needsa different prescription shoeing wise I would speak with the vet and owner. If the vet continues to ignore you or doesn't agree you can always walk away from the job.