Posted by Patty Stiller on June 30, 2003 at 21:46:07:
In Reply to: Severe Club Foot posted by Belinda Romanuski on June 30, 2003 at 01:48:11:
: I read the archives and did not find anything about the problem of Club feet being as bad as what we are dealing with. We were given a "FREE" horse. He is a 9yr old Bashkir stallion. He is about 300# underweight(His previous owner operated a feed store). This horse was confined to a stall the last 8 years of his life. His off fore hoof is bent under, and he is walking on the front wall of his hoof, from behind you can see the sole of the foot. His ankle on this leg bends foreward. His other front is not real bad. His off rear hoof is also tipped to where he is just walking on the tip of the toe. My farrier is coming to shoe another of our horses, and to look at "Nevada". I do not care if he is ever rideable, butwant to know what any of you think about the possibility of making him comfortable. Or should we put him down. When he does try to move faster than a walk, his tail is up and he will be a beautiful horse with the proper weight. I would just like some opinions on the possibility of keeping him sound enough for a pasture horse.
: Thank-you
: Belinda
It will really take a combined assessment from the vet and farrier to help give you a prognosis for this severe of a deformity. I have sure seen some really creative shoeing done for extremely knuckled over feet help horses like that be comfortable. Tendon Surgery may be an option too, but often in long term cases of devere flexural deformity the navicular bone gets fused to the lower end of the pastern bone ,(because it has been shoved up there so long) or there are bad adhesions in the connective ligaments and tendons which prenvents repositioning the joint without without more risk to the horse.Shoeing these involves trimming the heels to the sole plane to get the frog functioning again, and seeing how far off the ground he the heels are fixed due to the tightened tendons ligaments etc. I then add enough wedging the foot to get heel support with the ground.A warning... NEVER trim both feet at the same time and ask the horse to stand, as he may imediately rip the heck out of the tendons. Trim and wedge one at a time!
I suggest you get Xrays and then have the vet and farrier discuss possibilities and have them work as a team. And I hope you also plan to geld him when he gets a bit healthier so he can have a happier life around other horses.
Patty