Saturday, November 14, 2009

Work in Progress

The farrier came this morning to work on Beau. I got some photos throughout the trimming.

Before the trimming, Beau was rocking on that bad front foot. It's like the bottom of the hoof is a rung on a rocking chair, he just rocks back and puts his weight on his heel. The other front foot was flat but long. So we'll try to make things a little more comfy for him.

I started him on a Silver Lining Herbal Supplement called "Laminae Support". It's supposed to promote blood flow to the hoof and laminae, allowing it to heal and grow faster. Here's what the website says about the product:

"This product may be beneficial in maintaining the natural temperature in the feet and legs, important in avoiding laminitis. The herbs responsible for this are devil’s claw, boneset, white willow bark and yucca. It is also important to keep the natural health of the feet’s circulation and maintain capillary and venous integrity so we add butcher’s broom and hawthorn. The natural function of the kidneys needs to be addressed and we do this with uva ursi and juniper berry and the liver gains its support from the Oregon grape, garlic for the maintenance of the systems natural killer cells, slippery elm to maintain smooth muscle tissue and kelp for the high mineral content it contains."

Devil's Claw and Yucca are the same ingredients in B-L Solution, which Beau is also on to address and relieve pain. I started him on it yesterday and he is walking MUCH better this morning.

We found an old abcess. Beau is now wearing a soaker boot for the day and is very put out about it! You can see along the "white line" that there is still a void. After just a trimming and before the shoe was put on, Beau was walking 100% better! So that is great news!




This is the "After" with the new shoe. You can see where the toe is still pulled back and hasn't grown out yet. This isn't necessarily "bad" news. The farrier didn't think we'd need to fill with epoxy. Seth set the shoe back further to support the sole, but prevent any pressure on the toe.


His front right is actually in very good shape.



His back feet are in grea shape! Beau is VERY stiff in the left hind hip, but is walking fine on it.

4 comments:

Nikker said...

Glad to get the positive news on the old fellows feet!

Drillrider said...

Considering what you started with on Beau's feet, I'd say they are looking GREAT! The hoof wall takes an entire year to grow out from the coronet band, so expecting miracles quickly just doesn't happen when the feet were neglected that badly. Hang in there!!

Karen V said...

Poor dude could hardly walk this morning. :o(

Drillrider said...

BUMMER! Poor Beau......hopefully it is just from his recent trim and his feet grow out to be "normal" someday!

Makes me angry that people can't afford a $25/trim regularly to avoid this. I paid for a neighbor's horse to be trimmed because it had such bad feet and founder. The hoof wall looked like swiss cheese. The neighbor was still able to find someone to buy that horse.....not sure how!