Severe Lamness After Shoeing

[Katie-Nicole]

I took on a possible navicular rescue horse about 2 weeks ago. When he got home, I noticed that his heels were severely underslung, with the points of the heels closer to the apex of the frog. Obviously, the heels weren't providing any support to the horse at all. Even so, the horse was only showing a 2 out of 5 lameness and would improve with movement. Well, we shod him with 2 degree wedge pads and aluminum shoes and now he's completely non-weight bearing on the right front. Shod on a Wednesday, lamness appeared by Friday. I'm baffled. I feel guilty because I was trying to do the right thing for him, but seemingly made him much, much worse. Any insight into what might be going wrong here? Calls are into both vet and farrier. But in the meantime, your advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

[blinddogfarrier]

sole pressure or perhaps a bad nail.

[Rick Burten]

sole pressure or perhaps a bad nail.

And/or shod too short in the heels. And/or lack of or incorrect support for the frog, bars, commissures, and sole, caudal to the true apex of the frog.

[blinddogfarrier]

And/or shod too short in the heels. And/or lack of or incorrect support for the frog, bars, commissures, and sole, caudal to the true apex of the frog.
Agreed!!! Just thought I would start with the two most obvious, IMO. :)

[Katie-Nicole]

There's a reason I don't often shoe my horses... Too much can go wrong. I don't believe it to be a bad nail as he was completely comfortable through shoeing. Shod on wednesday, only becoming symptomatic Friday. I believe the pain is through his heel as he pulls his hoof away quickly when I've checked for rocks and impacted mud under that wedge. This is very non-characteristic for this horse. Farrier hasn't called back - I've left four "I have a horse who's walking like a three-legged dog" messages. I'm half tempted to go pull the shoe myself, and throw a hoofboot on him in the meantime. I've been giving him bute, 1g 2x/day and even that isn't helping 100%. Thanks for all the thoughts, I don't think he was shod too short in the heels, as he has overhang of both the shoe and the wedge. Personally, I'm thinking sole, heel or bar pressure. His feet were pretty messed up - overgrown bars, the worst heels I've ever seen and a really flakey, unhealthy sole. Maybe killing a fly with a sledgehammer in shoeing him?

[Mike Ferrara]

If the horse is that sore, my money is on the bad nail and that's probably what I'd look for first. Pulling the shoe might be a good idea but sometimes you can tap on the clinches with a hammer and get obvious results when you tap on the offending nail...and just pull that nail.

Don't you hate it when people don't return calls?

[Katie-Nicole]

The pain actually seemed isolated to the toe. Pulled the forward-most nails and he has improved. Still on daily bute. I bought the tracme shoes to try to give him an improved breakover and relieve the stress on his toes.

[Rick Burten]

Its now two months+ later and your horse is still on bute and is sore :eek:

Its well past time for you to get a full lameness evaluation including radiographs, and nerve blocks as necessary.

Until you know the source/reason for the pain, anything you do is going to more than likely be far less than successful.

[Katie-Nicole]

He's had radiographs and and lameness eval and they were relatively useless. Vet says still needs more buildup on the heels to support the tendon. The breakover is bad on the shoes he has now and is grabbing the toe when he steps. I think it's a combination of bad hoof physiology and my farrier's less than aggressive approach. Like I said, I bought the tracme shoe, with a 3 degree angle and the roller toe to help alleviate some of the issues we're having. As we speak right now, an MRI is out of the finances, but I won't rule it out for the future. I am looking for appropriate pads/packing for this guy. I don't want the frog to seek ground in these shoes and wind up with a buttload of other problems - to put it nicely. I really do like my farrier, but he's a bit old fashioned when it comes to his approach. He shoes out of a bucket - literally. He says everything he needs to shoe any horse can be kept in a 5 gallon bucket. I'm not so sure about that. But, he's always open to guidance and learning new approaches. Hence, my handholding here. :-)

[Scottish Linda]

I am no help here with whats going on with your horse, but with having one with navicular, it must be someway reasurring that your horse does not have navicular. This would have shown up on the x rays. Best of luck with him.

Linda:)

[Katie-Nicole]

Navicular hasn't been completely ruled out. It's still sitting out there as a potential cause. We're not really sure what's going on at this point, but I know his toes and heels are sore and I'm trying to do what I can to fix those issues. Hopefully it will come along with time. He's the nicest gelding I've come across in a long, long time. Everyone who works with him just loves him. Farriers, he's the kind of horse that picks up and holds his feet for you - without asking for the leg. He knows the drill and happily works with everyone to get the job done. Definately the kind of horse you don't mind helping out. If he were a royal PITA, I'm sure he would have hit the road by now.

[calshoer]

Do you have pictures of his feet? And the XRays? Hoof balance is HUGE place to start, no matter what the problem is. And I would be a bit concerned that a farrier thinks he can shoe"everything" out of a five gallon bucket of stuff.

[Katie-Nicole]

So, new x-rays... Current x-rays show a really nasty bone spur on his right navicular bone and a smaller one on his left. They are hooking into his deep digital flexor tendon. What options do we have here? I'm at a loss.

[calshoer]

You need to do everything possible to allow the foot to roll over in any direction easily as the horse turns.to the front and the sides.
And raise the coffin bone angle to ease the pull on the deep flexor tendon over the navicular bone.
There are many ways to do this.
Rail shoes, Morrison roller shoes with wedge pads , a hand made inner rim wedge heel or rail shoe with well rolled sides, a thick half round shoe with wedge pad, or something like that.
This horse will probably not tolrate frog support very well, because the spurs are above under the frog. So the farrier will have to be careful to not actively load or put pessure on pressure the frog.
My first shoeing choice to try would be adjustable rail shoe with a hard plate insted of a flexible frog pad . Like this one, but with some soft sole pack instead of the the impression material:

[Katie-Nicole]

Is this the EDSS system?

[calshoer]

That is a modifired EDSS ..same shoe and the rails but with a flat aluminim plate instead of the frog pad, so there is no chance of any pressure upward from the ground into the frog.
The rails can be exchanged for taller larger ones if needed for a particular horse, , because they screw on. This has shown to be a very effective system for severe nvicular issues. However with the variety of shoes and materials out there now, many other shoes and combinations of pads /plates could be made to accomplish the same thing, Especially on a rescue horse where the cost of an EDSS might be prohibitive.

Most any shoe can be drilled and tapped to accept the EDSS rails, so if your farrier has the rails he can make something out of other (perhaps a little less expensive) shoes. or just get creative ad hannd build a system. It is the mechanics that are important. Just wedging is not enough, because easing the beakover around the sides is also important when dealing with severe navicula problems.

[Katie-Nicole]

I had him in the tracme shoe with the swelled 3 degree heel and roller toe. Would that work well enough with an aluminum plate instead of the leather pad he was in before?

[Dances with Hooves]

Would that work well enough with an aluminum plate instead of the leather pad he was in before?

You can also use either the plastic Castle Performance plate (I like the stiffer 1/4" rather than the 3/16") or the similar plastic EDSS multipurpose plate.

[calshoer]

I don't know that tyou woukod get quite enough medial lateral breakover with the tracme shoes, certainly not as much as with rails. And the tracme has only 3 degrees of wedge. This horse might need more wedge, given that he has bone spurs on the navicular into the DDFT.
These are the cases I really like to use rails, because I can get more wedge if the horse needs it.
For more medial lateral breakover, the new EDSS PLR shoes are really nice. They also may not have enough wedge for this one though, and I sometimes drill and tap them for adding rails, or combine the PLR wedge shoe with a wedge pad AND the hard plate on the foot side , all sandwiched together.

The hard Castle brand performance pads George refers to (they are a hard white plastic) ,or the plastic EDSS "all purpose plates" .....same thing just black), are a lot easier to use than aluminum and would also do the same job .
( I only had the aluminum in the truck the day I did that particular horse. )

[Rick Burten]

Ray Steele is now making a hard plastic pad that is like the Castle Performance Pad. It works well and seems to be cost effective.