I'm really worried about my boy Marim so asking for some advice from all of you knowledgeable people! Be warned this is a looooong post
He is barefoot and always has been apart from when I first bought him and the dealers had put front shoes on him to sell him.
He is nearly 9 now and I've never known him be footsore ever, he has always had brilliant rock crunching feet.
Anyway, when we had the really bad snow and temperatures down to minus 14 I noticed he was moving a bit gingerly on his feet. I just put it down to frozen rutted ground and him getting cold feet. It got so it wasn't safe to put him out so he spent nearly 3 weeks in his stable and corral combination where he was perfectly happy with his haynets and treat ball and most importantly safe. During this time though he seemed to put on quite a lot of weight I presume mainly from not moving around as much.
When we finally thawed and he was going back out for the first time ever he stumbled a bit on some stony ground. I have big areas of limestone hardstanding in his field around the shelter and water trough and normally he gallops across this with not a care in the world. He has stopped galloping around and playing like he usually does though and spends most of his time now eating hay in his shelter.
He was definitely moving gingerly on his front feet so I had the vet out asap who checked him out. He did flexion tests with Marim, had the hoof testers on him, watched him moving in tight circles and lunged. His conclusion was that Marim was showing some tenderness in his front feet near the toe. He said it would be a big jump to say he had laminitis but that because he has developed some fat pads above his tail head and on his crest he has the look of an EMS horse.
He suggested that Marim could have the fasting glucose test but that at this stage he didn't think it was really necessary. I was left with the homework of getting some weight off him!
I have joined the metabolic horse group and changed his high fibre nuts to Allen and Page fast fibre that is lower in sugar. I have also started soaking some of his hay and have put him on Global Herbs restore for a detox. He has hardly any grass on his field and as I said is spending most of his time in the shelter anyway.
Can anyone suggest what else I could do for him? Would you get the glucose test done? ....and thanks very much if you read this far A very worried Helena x
I think you have done everything right , trouble is there was so much laminitis around after the cold spell and I have a horse down with it , the only thing to do is have him x rayed for it. I did this and yes she was lami , so had heartbar shoes on and a strict diet , plus keeping her on a very deep bed has seen a great improvement in her . thats all I can suggest .
Barefoot horse suddenly 'footy' advice please
Posted - 26 Jan 2011 : 10:56:53 AM
I presume mainly from not moving around as much.
