Posted by jan on July 18, 2003 at 08:05:08:
In Reply to: Re: Rapid Heel Growth in Foundered Horses - Tree posted by TE Couch on July 17, 2003 at 04:26:02:
: Not Tree but a comment
: with rotation the coffin bone tip goes down putting pressure on the front coronet - the palmer process is forced upward, which pushes up the lateral cartilages - the coronet in the lateral cartilage area is pushing up - due to this the lamellae of the corium are deformed, stressed or torn and inflamed. The heels are growing faster due to less pressure - the toe is growing slower or being compressed due to more pressure. Not a protective measure and if not correctly addressed can produce a very deformed hoof.
: TE
First of all, I would like to thank both TE and Tree for their comments. I guess there is no absolute proven answer yet. And I agree, it makes no logical sense that extreme heel growth would be protective, unless you believe releasing the pressure the pull of the DDFT will reduce the amount of rotation and/or provide pain relief by doing so.
TE, your comments above make sense. It was very easy to see the toe growth on my horse's worst foot getting "crunched" back up into the coronary band while the heels grew VERY rapidly. She is doing so much better now that my trimmer is using Gene Ovnicek's recommended trim for foundered horses (and measuring where to start from the frog apex) rather than the mustang roll she had previously done. In fact, the horse was trimmed again yesterday and we were both thrilled to see the amount of new growth at the toe and heel was identical for the first time in seven years!
Jan