Friday 14 July 2017

Feet can improve at any age - Shannon's update

Shannon arrived a couple of weeks ago aged 22. She had been shod for, presumably, most of her life and has had remedial farriery as well in recent years. It improved her lameness for a while but then stopped working and had left her with weak feet. 
Shannon was landing toe first and was particularly unlevel on the left front. She was uncomfortable on hard ground initially but has become steadily more competent over the last 10 days.  
She developed a tentative heel first landing - tentative because although she is landing correctly her palmar hoof is of course still vulnerable and under-developed. 

Nevertheless that is impressive progress for any horse, let alone one who has been shod of so many years. 

She was not as lame on this foot but it does have a nasty central sulcus split. These are common and troublesome, prone to infection and can be a barrier to a good landing but fortunately Shannon is tough and is landing well on this foot too, now. 

A better landing, and liberal doses of Veterinus derma-gel, will be the quickest way to heal this. 

I am sure that Shannon's next update will show a much more attractive looking foot but, as her footage below demonstrates, she has made a good start. 

2 comments:

Gemmabel said...

Hi Nic, ive asked about the derma gel before. How often to you apply to horses who have an infection and do you apply to those that dont just to keep on top of things?

Nic Barker said...

Hi Gemma, I use it daily or even twice daily on central sulcus splits until the split is gone. I don't use it prophylactically.