Post inferior check ligamnet surgery questions

[kanderso]

I've been posting on the club foot threads concerning this colt (2004 Trakehner). He's now about a month post surgery and his club hoof looks great. The vet didn't say exactly how long he wanted me to leave the extended toe shoe on, but I think it's quite a bit longer than I want to leave it on.

I'm planning to remove the extra (custom) toe wedging I did right after surgery (http://duende.dhs.org/kris/StingsShoe08-06-05.html) so I can see how the hoof angle looks without it, but I'm thinking that it may be almost time to remove the shoe, as well.

Normally I'd just follow the vet's recommendations, but since I can take the shoe off and put it back on myself, I'm thinking about taking it off and seeing how the angle looks.

Any cautions, opinions, suggestions?

Kris

[Rick Burten]

I
Any cautions, opinions, suggestions?

Kris

Apparently, your vet has steered you on a correct course thus far. Follow the vet's advise and recommendations.

[kanderso]

Apparently, your vet has steered you on a correct course thus far. Follow the vet's advise and recommendations.

One of the reasons I'm thinking about taking the shoe off (at least for long enough to see if everything looks just as good without it), is because my friends' filly, who had the same surgery, ended up catching the toe of the shoe and pulling the tendon, or a tendon, or laming herself up enough so she's back on stall rest and bute and antibiotics.

So far my colt seems to handle the shoe fairly well, but it still seems risky to me to have that toe extension hanging out there if it's no longer needed.

I know the vet wants to make sure that we get the most benefit from the surgery that we possibly can, but 1) this colt's heels came right down and are at the same height as the non-clubby hoof now, and 2) he isn't lame and never was, and I hate to leave the shoe on longer than is actually necessary.

Guess I'd better call my vet and see what he says (although I already know that he's going to want me to leave it on). :-/

Kris

[calshoer]

I recommend follow up an ultrasound exams of the ligament to see how far it has healed. Ask your vet about this.
Timing is EVERYTHING for success in these. I have seen a few go right back to where they were opre surgery because the extended/raised to was left on too long. If you leave the shoe on too long after the ligament is healed it will begin to cause foot pain againas the horse tries to get over the long toe and the flexor muscles will contract in response to the pain and you start the whole bone rotation process over again. Ending up where you were before the surgery.
If you take it off too soon, the ligament can heal too short.
Without the ultrasound, I would guess at a month out you are about ready for a change, maybe a flat shoe for a couple weeks, then I would go to a rolled toe shoe or back to barefoot and roll the toe to reduce tension in the deep flexor tendon to prevent another recurrance.
Patty

[Ronald Aalders]

As Patty described before, it makes a lot of sense to first derotate/realign P1-P3 before cutting the inferior check ligament.

After cutting, some kind of toe extension and/or reversed wedge sounds good to me too.

Obviously at the point the cut ligament starts to heal, the toe extension needs to be removed and the horse needs to be shod in a normal fashion, preferably with some extra ease of breakover.

The question is, how much has the ligament to be healed when removing the extensions? 1%, 10%, 30%, more?

Any thoughts/experiences here?


Ronald Aalders

[kanderso]

[QUOTE=calshoer]....
If you take it off too soon, the ligament can heal too short.
Without the ultrasound, I would guess at a month out you are about ready for a change, maybe a flat shoe for a couple weeks, then I would go to a rolled toe shoe or back to barefoot and roll the toe to reduce tension in the deep flexor tendon to prevent another recurrance.

We're 5 weeks post surgery and I now have the shoe off, but haven't rolled the toe, yet.

Pix are at: http://duende.dhs.org/kris/StingsClubFoot091305.html if anyone would like to take a look. I can put the modified XT shoe back on if it looks as if it would be a good idea.

As always, any comments are appreciated (whether they're what I want to hear, or not).

Kris