Fused fetlock

[Donnie Walker]

These are pictures of a new client that I just acquired. This is the result of a 10 month old injury and the joint is now completely fused. He is mobile and in good shape. No weight is born on the bad foot except when walking, and then very little. It is impossible to pick up the good foot. I would like any comments and suggestions you might have before I tackle this one.

[J.H. shoeing]

Donnie

I will come and shoe the left hind for you if that will help.

Jeff

[Rick Burten]

what group of rocket scientists let the limb heal in that manner?

That aside, there are only two ways I can see for you to work on those feet(others will probably have more ideas, but right now, I'm plumb tapped out :( ).

1. If he lies down , you may be able to get the feet trimmed at that time. It will require additional help and would not be my preferred way to do the job.

2. The owners can rig a sling or use draft horse stocks to support/suspend the horse so you can get his feet off the ground.

Have the owners considered having surgery done to re-orient that pastern and hoof in a more natural position?

Without some kind of support apparatus, I wouldn't get under that horse for love or money.

[Douglas_Armstrong]

Bummer it fused in that position......dunno what to tell ya....

Here is one that I've been trimming for the past 2 years....


Doug

[calshoer]

You may be able to build a patten shoe (use a stack of bars across the back bolted together if you can't forge one) with a slighlty extended toe and a bolt on splint / brace that goes up the front so he can brace the fetlock against it temporatily to work on the other foot.
Pad the brace and the fetlock really well before you ask him to try to stand on it so he doesn't hurt himself from pressure against the front of the fetlock. Or make a "dog collar" brace with the bar in the back of the leg, several straps that go around it and lots of heavy padding across the front of the leg.
Another option is to shoe him like this......a stack of pads screwed together with the bottom one extended forward. This will stabilize the foot and should help him walk better , but will not support the fetlock .And the fetlock may not be strong enough to stand for shoeing without a brace to prevent fracturing it so it may or may not work to help him hold up the other leg. But you could splint the leg while working on the good on and that would prevent a fracture. (I have seen (actually heard, it was gross) a seriously damaged then partially fused knee re-fracture while someone tried to hold the good leg up ) Patty

[Greg Thomas]

OK, time for me to cross over to the enlightened* crowd-I am fully convinced that any of these horses could likely benefit –long term-from a natural trim. The initial treatment would be easy enough but the long term monitoring to see how nature would deal with this could prove to be difficult. Figuring out where those pretty, little, fat wolf pups buried the hooves this time while avoiding stepping in what once was the inner peace, sense of fulfillment and happiness (or for that matter anything that was on the inside) could prove to be time consuming and resulting in confusing conclusions as to how they determined that the m/l and a/p balance needed to be trimmed (or gnawed) with breakover point probably not being near as important as previously thought.

*NOTE: spell check originally changed “enlightened” to “unlighted”. It is getting sorta scary when spell check seems more reasonable to me than some people.

Just tryin’ to get along with what I got,

Greg

[David Hayne]

Donnie,

Somewhere in the AFA site and I believe this site I have a horse that appears to be worse then this one your working on. If someone can put the pictures on this forum please feel free to do so.

My Honey horse was x-rayed and the joint is not fused although appears so. The Vets talked about a $7000. surgery but could not say if it would work and futher more was not sure if she could come thru the operation. They even thought that if they could straighten the fetlock joint that it would be possible to return to this Fused State again.

My main objective is to help her stay as comfortable as possible......so I put an eggbar heartbar on good foot and a patton shoe with toe extension on bad hoof. I am now working on a back brace . I run a piece of steel up the front attaching it to the toe extension an just below the knee joint I used a rubber pad material....(soft) ....this is working ...giving her more support .

My horse has tendon and ligament problems and checked by the vet she has know pain an gets around nicely. 12 hours box stall rest and 12 hours indoor arena turnout.

Once I get the pictures of brace I will post them....

hope this helps...

David