Re: Rapid Heel Growth in Foundered Horses - Tree

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: : : Hi Jan, : : : Since no one else commented that rapid heel growth in foundered horses is caused by inflammation I'll just assume it's accepted. : : : However, not all foundered horses will end up with high heels so it seems to me the rapid heel growth must come from something else. : : : Think about this, horses with heel pain can actually alter how they use themselves in order to place less weight onto their heels and more onto the toes. When they do this they will compress the toe walls more. With less weight placed onto the heels there's less resistence to them and they appear to grow more quickly.<< : : I agree with that. However, my laminitic horse has always had dramatic (way more than what would be considered normal)heel first landings at the trot and canter. I never knew why she did this. I have to think now she was trying avoid putting weight on her toes. She also has never responded to hoof testers at the heels. Still, she grew rapid heels despite favoring the heels for weight bearing. Maybe because this area was getting more circulation? Don't know. : Jan, : How much heel does your horse stand on? How much foot does this horse stand on might be the better question to ask though. Did her heels even move beneath the hoof testers? More circulation would create more sensation/feeling in the horse's foot. Maybe your's has less than you think in the heel region. This could explain her lack of response to testers. Testers can make even the sound going horses respond if squeezed hard enough. : : : : Dr. Pollitt's Hoof Studies video proved that when heels were raised this altered the blood flow into the hoof. Less blood could enter in the heel regions so more entered into the toe regions under those circumstances. So therefore, to say there's inflammation in the heels of a foundered horse with steep/high heels would be incorrect. There would actually be more room for increased blood flow to the toe regions particularly in the areas where the bone has lost its laminar connections.<< : : Yes, increased blood flow, but is that flow competent, i.e., flowing through intact vessels? I've read somewhere that some experts believe blood vessels can burst during acute laminitis episodes from increased pressure (which is felt through strong, rapid pulses). So, while there is a lot of blood flowing into the hoof, it is not always available to the cells in a normal way. : Is that blood flow competent? I would think that burst blood vessels would cause a horse to have inflammation and this would bring about a pain reaction from them. As a rule, the blood vessels will enlarge with the increased pressures on them. The holes in the coffin bone where these vessels enter and exit from will enlarge as well to accomodate for the increased vessel size. Bones respond to pressure quite easily hence why they will remodel. The pulses usually felt in foundered horses are from the arteries in the heel region. The pulse increases in these due to the blood flow being altered during rotation. The heel region is restricted with the raised caudal areas of the coffin bone. It was also likely restricted anyway, due to contraction, excess heel height and/or a shoe being on the foot. Pollitt's video also showed how applying a shoe altered the blood flow. When the blood cannot enter the caudal areas it will back up and this, I beleive, is why the strong pulse is felt in this region. : : : : : I would suspect that these types of founder cases started with heel pain problems which went unnoticed until the laminitis set in. It's quite likely these horses has heel pain which in turn caused them to shift their weight forward onto the toes, stress the toe laminar connections and start a vicious cycle which ended with laminitis/founder. : : : So why would a foundered horse of this sort still want to weight its toes and not the heels? Well consider the treatments being applied to them. It's quite likely their heels are now being raised on purpose to relieve the tensions to the coffin bone via the DDFT. It's not a choice any more that the horse places more weight onto the toes because it's now set-up to do so. : : : Do I think the rapid heel growth was a protective measure. It depends on how you define protective and what it's seeking to protect. I think it's more of an avoidence action vs protective. If this sort of horse had heel pain first, it was trying to 'protect' itself from pain. Or, it was seeking to avoid pain. If a horse owner recognized the early signs and had someone take care of this, via trimming to remove the causes of the pain, the horse would've returned to its natural posture, placing more weight onto the heels where it belongs.<< : : Lowering my horse's heels through frequent trimming and backing up the toes did not prevent her heels from growing overly fast. See above. : No, it wouldn't. Not seeing what balance your horse's hooves had though, it's hard to say what would be causing the heel growth other than to suggest that although she would strike heel first, she may have still been able to place more weight onto her toes. I can't be sure because I haven't seen your horse. : : : I used to wonder why some foundered horses hooves would grow such an excessive amount of heel. It would make sense to me that heel pain pre-existed the laminitis/founder. It's makes more sense that the raised heels does more to weaken the laminar connections in the toe regions. It makes more sense that the horse is now 'setup' for laminitis and if the right trigger comes along, founder.<< : : I believe if an intial laminitis episode is severe enough to cause significant rotation and this is not corrected through special shoeing/trimming, the laminae don't heal normally and the horse will always be at high risk for it to happen again. Each episode causes further "scar tissue" and decreased laminar integrity which is permanent. : : Yes, if the causes for the founder are not dealt with and the bone returned to its normal position the new laminae haven't a chance to be as strong as the original connections. However, if you do get the hoof right, the new laminae, depending on the duration of founder and damages done, WILL heal back and be as strong as before. It may take 2 full re-growths in order for everything to be right but it can. The chronic horses are so because either the treatments haven't set the hooves up to fully heal or there's some sort of metabolic disturbance(s) undermining the trim work/healing processes. I've owned a horse that foundered only once in her life. We knew what caused it and once that condition was removed and she healed, she never foundered again. In her case, she was grained while on lush pasture. Dumb huh? Yup. However, she could remain on lush pasture as long as she wasn't grained. : : : The other sort of founder cases would be the sinkers where all laminar connections were lost and the coffin bone came to rest on the sole. Those types don't tend to grow excessive amounts of heel. Their feet tend to platter or pancake...just go flat.<< : : Agreed. And most sinkers don't seem to recover. : : Jan : : They can but again, if the treatments don't set the feet up to heal, they won't. : Tree