Is this a club foot?

[kriskyl33]

This is regarding my daughter's pony. I posted the full story under the "problems with shoeing or trimming" heading. My question now is how does one tell a congenital club foot from just a foot with heels left too high. This pony's RF always wants to grow more heel than his LF. When we first got him farrier said heels were high on that foot and she would bring them down slowly. Pony then went lame on that foot a few weeks later but we attributed it to a cut in the frog. At that time farrier noted Rf was 55* and was steeper and smaller than LF. Then we moved barns and changed farrier. When I asked new farrier if RF was "clubby" he said no and after a few proper trims it would look just like LF. Pony did great for almost a year, then I noticed heels were high on both fronts and RF was higher-I pointed this out to farrier. At next trim he lowered heels on both fronts, and lowered angle of RF from 55* to 53*. Pony went lame and has stayed lame for 7 weeks. So my question is: could it be that RF really is a mild club foot--which means shortened DDFT from what I have been reading. He always stands with that foot back when grazing. If that is the case then from what I have been reading he should have more heel on that foot and it shouldn't match his LF. So trimming heel could have really strained DDFT. But how can one tell if heels should be trimmed or left alone? I am posting x-rays taken 2 weeks after heels were trimmed and RF angle lowered. If someone wants to see pictures of feet taken around same time, they can be seen in my other post. Thanks for any help. The RF foot has a pad on it in these x-rays in case anyone was wondering.
Ellen

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Ellen,

My question now is how does one tell a congenital club foot from just a foot with heels left too high.

} One does not. The X rays shows the status of a foot, if that feet has high heels because the shoer left them that way, or whether the heels are high because it's a club the X ray doesn't tell...........

So my question is: could it be that RF really is a mild club foot--which means shortened DDFT from what I have been reading.

} Tendons do not contract. They may have some minor stretch, just before damage occurs and that minor stretch may be gone after strain is reduced, but tendons do not contract to a point they cause a club. Muscles do.

Looking at the X rays the RF needs to be lowered in the heel. I mentioned this in the other thread you mentioned. The fact that the horse is lame after heels are lowered does not mean heels need to be high. It just means breakover needs to brought back. A square toed shoe like the NB guys use or like the one I posted would be a thought to try.

By the way the X rays do clearly show that breakover is way too far forward and caudal support is way to little.

Ellen


Ronald Aalders

[kriskyl33]

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately I am having trouble finding a farrier that seems to know how to address breakover. After the x-rays were taken my vet talked directly to the farrier that she recommended, and according to him all that was discussed was lowering heel even more. When I asked about breakover, he just muttered something about there not being much foot to work with (I assume he was referring to too close trim done by original farrier). When I questioned vet later about lowering heels without addressing breakover, she just said she thought she had mentioned to him to move the breakover back. This is very frustrating. I am not educated enough to tell farrier how to shoe my horse, but I can't seem to find a farrier that can just look at the foot and know what needs to be done--or at least have a good idea. I have been asking around for referrals, but the best farriers won't come to a barn to do just one horse. I do have a another question about sole bruising. Pony did get better when pad was on foot, but when shoes were reset the pad wasn't replaced. Then pony went lame again. But lameness is most obvious in soft arena footing. Outside on hard ground pony often looks sound. And lameness is only noticable at trot no matter where pony is. If this is possibly bad sole bruising due to too close trim, is it possible pony would only be lame in soft footing because shoe sinks in footing and then sole is weight bearing. Outside on harder ground, shoe keeps sole from bearing weight, so pony is sound. Does this make any sense?
My other concern, if I find a farrier that knows how to use square toed shoe, is that pony wings in due to toe out conformation. so I guess this means he doesn't break over the center of his foot. If a square toe is used will he still be able to break over in his normal spot? I don't want to force his breakover to be over the center of the foot, and then stress the rest of an already stressed leg. Thanks.
Ellen

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Ellen,


I'm in the guessing mode here tonight, but if the pony is sore in the indoor but better on a harder surface, the lack of caudal support is probably bothering it more than anything else.

Lowering the heels on the RF as shown in the rad, sounds like good advise to me. I would not lower the LF though. It looks pretty ok.

What about using eggbars? I don't like them but it's hard to not create caudal support with them. So if your shoer is uncomfortable making his own shoes, buy them premade. (I would not use the eggbars, I would go for a kind of shoe I showed a picture of in the other thread. This one is Italian, made by a manufaturer called COLLEONI. They produce an amazing variety of shoes.)

Several US brands, Anvil Brand and GE I believe produce square toed egg bars. Those are easily obtainable and may just turn out to be the ticket.

By the way from the X rays it looks as if the ML balance needs work too. My guess would be that on both feet the medial wall is higher than the lateral wall. You can check that for yourself by appreciating the height of the heel bulbs on both front feet. You want them to be equally high. Also as a rule a shoe should be centered around the middle of the coffin bone. (I prefer the center of articulation here.) So looking at the L-M X rays you want the shoe to extend just as much forward as it does backward with the coffin bone as a reference. In the L-M X rays you'll notice that more of the shoe is in front of the coffin bone. This shows us that the posterior part of the foot is not supported enough. This may be the reason the horse is lame in soft footing.

Try and communicate with your shoer and vet on this. I'm sure they want to help and they'll be much better help than anyone of us can be here behind our keyboards. Comments I made here are just things that may spark of some idea.



Ronald Aalders