Can supplements cause club foot?

[Pbrander]

I started feeding my 3 yr old gelding Bug Off Garlic about two months ago, now my farrier says he's developing club feet the left is worse than the right side and he trips on hard surfaces on the left. He is on pasture 24/7. The farrier is going to try corrective shoeing on August 1st, but should I drop the supplement?

[calshoer]

Club feet are caused by either genetics or imbalanced feeding or some trauma or serious imbalance that is causing the foot to get distorted .Nutrutional inbalnces that cause club foot include minerals, (especially calcium phosphorus ratio) ,or just too many calories.
Feed imbalances more often affect BOTH legs and feet, not just one.
So when a young horse develops one club foot ,I look hard at the parents because usually that trait is inherited. However since most club feet develop at the yearling state (or earlier), if he is just now developing one at three I would be more questioning the hoofcare protocols. Do you have any close up pictures of his feet and legs you can post?
I seriously doubt that garlic would throw off the nutrition to cause club feet.
There is plenty of discusion here about how to manage club feet through proper farriery.In younger horses (yearlings to two year olds) check ligament surgery is sometimes performed but in a 3 year old it would not be as effective.
Patty

[Barefoottree]

I started feeding my 3 yr old gelding Bug Off Garlic about two months ago, now my farrier says he's developing club feet the left is worse than the right side and he trips on hard surfaces on the left. He is on pasture 24/7. The farrier is going to try corrective shoeing on August 1st, but should I drop the supplement?


I think it's purely a coinsidence that the garlic was added to the diet at around the same time the hooves started changing. Tripping can indicate heel pain. The horse, in an effort to avoid weighting the painful areas of its feet (in this case, the heels) will land toe first. If the toe strikes the ground before the limb has finished its forward motion, the horse will trip because the toe caught too soon. You could also see if your horse is willing to extend its gaits or resists doing so. It may be willing to speed up but rather than extend the gait it is already doing, break to the next fastest gait instead.

Can you post some sole view pics? It would be helpful to see the conditions of these feet from the bottom and sides. Heel pain will be marked with increased heel growth and seemingly slow toe growth. You should also examine the rings on the outer walls to see what they are like. The older growth, that which is closer to the ground surface, may not match up the more recent growth. You may find uneven spacing between the rings. This would give you a rough timeline as to when the changes began to take place. You could figure 12 months to grow out an entire foot so half way down the toe wall would be aprox 6 months, more or less depending on how fast your horse's feet grow.

Tree

[Pbrander]

I contacted my "retired" former farrier and he came out - my horse does not have a club foot. He was trimmed wrong. Not enough taken off the heel and too much off the toe. He was also trimmed too short this time and is temporarily lame on hard ground. Needless to say my new farrier and I will have a discussion and he will hopefully learn from this.

[sunnysaddle]

I have a 16 mth old Saddlebred/Friesian cross, His left front foot is clubbed, I was told by various people that too much protien in his diet could have lead to this early on and too much will continue to make it worse. He has since been on a pelleted feed that has 10% protein, and it seemd to be helping (along with corrective trimming also) I am wondering if putting him on oats and maybe some vitamin and mineral supplements would be a better idea (assuming that oats have less protein) Any info. would be greatly appreciated

[calshoer]

Generally when only one front foot is clubbed it is genetic.
Nutritional problems usually cause BOTH feet to get clubbed. Club feet are rampant in saddlebreds. I rarely see a saddlebred cross who does not have the problem.
At this age I would seriously consider veterinery intervention, (surgery) before it gets too far along .
As to nutrition, when it IS the problem it is more often from mineral imbalance (calcium phosphorus imbalance) or an overload of calories in general, not from just too much protein. Growing colts need adequate protein. Discuss a good balanced diet with your veterinarian, do not just listen to barn buddies who may not really know and then go adjusting the diet of a growing horse willy nilly. This is too critical an age to be doing that.
Patty

[sunnysaddle]

Thank You for the info, my vet is the one who first said that too much protien is not good, I have read some articles on the subject and there are such differing opinions, some say this the most likely cause and others disagree.....the recommendation was to watch it and see how it developed with proper trimming. I live in Michigan and am considering taking him to Michigan State University Equine Clinic for a second opinion. (To consider the corrective surgery also.) I didn't know that club feet (or foot) was so wide spread in Saddlebreds and Saddlebred crosses. Sandy