HOOF Help Needed -- UPDATE

["C Eyler" <eyler@mindspring.com>]

Things went from bad to horrible overnight.

Where yesterday Jack was lame over stones or at a trot, this morning he was
three-legged lame.  Absolutely pitiful to see him hurting so.  Farrier came
out and removed the shoes/pads, and found silted dirt under the RF.  And the
beginnings of thrush.  No heat and no reaction to hoof testers, but clearly
in a lot of pain.

Here's the daily plan for this week:  Soak the RF in epsom salts.  After
removing all traces of the salts with acetone, apply Keratex Hoof Hardener
and then bandage the front feet [need to stock up on epsom salts and duct
tape -- thank heavens I have plenty of sheet cotton and his turquoise vet
wrap].  He'll also be on bute for a few days.

If he's doing better by next Saturday (e.g. able to withstand the farrier's
hammer) and hasn't destroyed the hoof wall he's been growing, he'll get
Natural Balance shoes (my farrier has NB training from Gene) with rim pads.
In the meantime, I'm to get the x-rays from the vet so the farrier can
adjust his angles, if necessary.  We're also going to try to eliminate two
other possible sources of our summer from h*ll [geez, now well into fall]:
test for Lyme Disease and take him off his 24/7 grass.  He's not going to be
a happy boy stuck in a dry paddock.

BTW, he's been on a biotin supplement (Gen-a-Horse) for well over a year,
but my vet instructed me to switch brands to one he's seen produce great
results -- HT20.

Many thanks to everyone who responded.  I really want to give the Keratex a
chance to harden his soles.  When he's sound again (please, please) we'll
probably stick to riding in the ring for a while.  If it doesn't bore us
both to death, we'll get to work on our dressage basics while buying time
for KHH to do its work.

BTW, this evening he was acting like a sick-ie wanting to be coddled.
Jack-the-vacuum-cleaner hadn't eaten all of his sweet feed/wetted, shredded
beep pulp mixture (with ground-up bute mixed in).  But I discovered that he
would eat it out of my hand.  Spoiled?  Naw.

Cindy Eyler
Baltimore



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