severe injury, input desired

[Carol Newton]

Next week I am going to be working on a horse who put her hind foot thru metal on a pole barn, severely injuring her coronary band and shearing a chunk off the lateral side of PII at the joint of PII/PIII. I have seen the X-rays and discussed trimming/shoeing with the attending veterinarian, and other than suggesting making sure there is lateral support the rest is up to me. The injury occured approximately 4 weeks ago, and the veterinarian said it is healing nicely. He said he would like to see PII and PIII fuse, he feels that is her best chance at soundness.

I have not yet seen the horse. I don't know if I can get a shoe nailed on, I'm thinking if I need a shoe, a glue on would be a better choice. My questions are:

How much lateral support, do I extend the shoe laterally beyond the wall and if I do this will it add too much torque?

Do I wedge the hoof? The owner has apparently made her more comfortable by duct taping wedges on.

Do I use a frog support? How much?

How about a NB shoe with a frog support pad or a wedged frog support pad(If frog support would help)


I have a pair of urethane shoes that I could shape with some shoe extended out laterally and redrill nail holes appropriately. They look like a bar shoe. They are quite light and about 1/2 " thick.

I have also thought about using an EDSS laminitis package with the rails, but will the rails being set in as they are allow enough lateral support? I am very familiar with the EDSS laminitis package, trimming protocol, etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations for any other type/brand of shoe that would be apporopriate here? I will order whatever I need if I don't have it.

Would barefoot be better at this time?

Thank you for any input. Carol Newton

[Mike Ferrara]

I can't say that I have worked on one with that exact injury but I would think that if the injury is that close to the p2/p3 joint that alighnment would be that much more important so I wouldn't do anything to unbalance the foot. I don't think I'd wedge the foot unless there was an obvious reason to do so.

How far along is the healing? how is the horse moving? What did the vet mean by lateral support? I wonder if easy breakover in (all directions?) might not be beneficial.

[Gary Hill]

The vet wants the joint to fuse, so lateral support means support on the outside of the hoof. In this case putting the shoe to where the normal hoof wall would be and using Vettec or something to fill it in. A barshoe would be the shoe of choice if I was doing it. Good Luck , let us all know how it turns out and pic's would be nice? Gary

[Derin Foor]

I tend to agree with Mike and Gary...........I would put the foot where it would naturally be....the barshoe idea is a good one and I would definitely use impression material for sole support

dont forget about the opposing limb....this is the foot I would wedge and fully support to avoid foundering on that side

if the coronary band sustained a lot of injury, you may never have a good wall on that side of the foot and may always have to build a wall there

is the vet using anything like a Lacerum treatment on the c-band?

Derin

[Carol Newton]

I went to see the horse. Her injury has healed very nicely.

I don't believe I mentioned this is a hind foot.

She will walk and trot at will. Her landing is very much heel first. When she is weight bearing on the injured hoof, however she will knuckle her fetlock forwand, yet her toe seems to want to come up.

She seems quite stable medially/laterally, but really needs heel support.

My thoughts are to use the plastic bar shoe with a flat pad and impression material, making sure there is plenty of heel support. I intend to grind the toe of the shoe and set it to achieve breakover under PIII.

I was thinking of using "Adhere" to apply the shoe. Any thoughts on this? Will the shoe stay on with adhere and no nails? I don't believe the mare is ready for pounding on her hoof.

Thinking about it further, if I use Adhere to glue on the shoe, I would use equipack for the frog support.

Any thoughts on the overall plan? Thank you. Carol Newton

[SlowShoe]

Ive never run across this type of injury (while shoeing anyway) but Ive just been shoeing a few years. So rather than advice, i'll just post up what I would most likely do. I agree that pounding on the foot would not be a good idea. Consintrated blows in one spot with a hammer probably wont help things.

I would consult the vet in his opinion on hoof balance/breakover. He will probably suggest getting everything very lined up and setting breakover where it should be. If he wants p2 & p3 to fuse breakover maybe should be a hair further back? I may be wrong (someone correct me if i am) but I say this because being where breakover is naturally there is some movment in that joint where in it flexes downward the more forward that the breakover is.

In my experiance with filling big gaps in the hoof wall includeing sheered or missing heal, I drill holes and use roofing nails (cut to the correct hight of course) through the shoe in the area you want to retain the filler to create a sort of 're-bar' for the epoxy to adhear around. That way it wont pop out or move on you.

I would go with the plastic type of shoe, or an aluminium with some sort of shock absorbtion pad.

-Josh

[Phil Armitage]

I like your plan, should work well, Adhere will stick pretty good to material like aluminum and platic shoes, the foot needs to be dry and clean. If the foot has any lubricant, pine tar or iodine on it clean it off with denatured alchohol only use the alcholol if you need it, even this is too much moisture dry it up with a hot air gun. Do not use paint thinner to clean the foot. Brake cleaner is a good cleaner for the shoes, it cleans good and evaporates very quick. You might want to use a plastic shoe with clips and a couple of race nails to help keep the shoe on. The equipak is best if you use a the styrofoam board method and use your thumb or palm of your hand to make an impression in the toe.