Posted by Patty Stiller on May 08, 2000 at 22:46:40:
In Reply to: could farriers shoeing affect my horses leg?? posted by Cyndi Acord on May 08, 2000 at 21:58:59:
: About 2 weeks ago, my farrier, we will call him Dan, of 6 years (with about 40 years shoeing experience and his entire life around horses)shod my racking horse. Immediatly after setting the left back hoof down we noticed the horse didnt want to put pressure on it. Dan said he may have nailed the last nail into the quick of the hoof. But after checking the horse out more he said the horse was "off" in that leg, we took him to the vet she said it was windpuffs, but Dan says it is a serious joint problem, the funny this is no one- including Dan ever notice the horse being "off" before- could this be his shoeing?
Certainly shoeing will affect the legs, either in a good way or bad, depending on the shoeing.SDince the vet felt that the shoes were not the problem, I would be inclined to trust his/her professional opinion.
However,"windpuffs" are just a catch-all term for swelling in the fetlock(ankle) area, and are only a *symptom* of old joint stress or arthritis-type problems and not in themselves a cause of lameness.
Therefore if the horse is still experiencing problems, you may want to get more vet diagnostics, including some temporary nerve blocks in the foot, and/or X raysof the suspect areas. The nerve blocks can help determine if lameness is really in the foot or higher up in the leg. Patty