Foot troubles

'Mr F' has been off lately, more so over the past 5 days.

At first I thought it might be his early stages of arthritis in his lumbar section giving him grief. But watching him walk in the menage it seems that it might be his hip that is playing up as he was hesitant putting weight on that leg. 

I text 'Suzie' (our equine Vet) and ask if it will be OK for me to put him on a small course of bute. "Yes fine but please do make sure that you don't miss an abscess in his foot, while assuming it is the old injury. There is more attached to that leg ..."

With that in mind I go about fetching in the boys for the night and while preparing feed etc I recall an incident just over week ago:

I went to fetch the boys to come in for the night. 'Mr F' didn't want to leave the field, or more: he didn't want to walk through the (deep) muddy patch where the gate is. I found us a route that was less deep. Although most of the gateway is covered with hardcore, the area leading up to it is at the moment rather muddy, some heavy, almost clay like mud.

As 'Mr F' pulled his left hind leg out of the mud (the one that appears to cause him discomfort), he refused to put it back onto the ground. 'Aha ... something really is not right here' - "Come on chicken, lets get you into the stable. I'll check it out." He needed rater a lot of convincing to get going and displayed considerable lameness for the first couple of strides. It's only a short walk to the stables and with each step he moved a little better. If the discomfort was higher up in his leg he surely would have remained 'equally' lame all the way to the stable. The fact that he seemed more comfortable on flat ground made me now look at this from a different view: something must be up with his foot. It was time to have another good look.

I lead 'Mr F' into his stable and went to fetch the youngsters. He behaves more panicky than usual today at being left behind. Another pointer at his discomfort. Past observations when dealing with other horses have shown me that a horse in pain does seek comfort and security within the herd. 

Once all the boys where in their stables I begin with examining  'Mr f's hooves. At first I can not find anything obvious. There was that cleft in the center of the frog on his left hind foot that I noticed a few days ago. Wet conditions and hooves are always a sore point especially so with a barefoot thoroughbred. I have been keeping a close eye on this cleft and cleaned it every evening.  I also mentioned this to the barefoot trimmer who had visited a couple of days ago. She did say to keep a very close eye on that cleft because he could loose stability in that hoof if it festers inside.

I had already been cleaning his feet regularly and especially this one hoof by flushing it out with a water spray and then applying an anti-fungal and antibacterial hoof pack (Red Horse).

Further recent observations were pointing towards a hoof issue:

When I took 'Mr F' for walks, he was enjoying the grass but was also rather keen on turning  back home where as normally he wants to keep going and explore. Yesterday he didn't even want to go for a walk. Well, he wanted to go somewhere, but he realised that he wasn't comfortable. As we were wandering along the lane I noticed that he was very determined to walk on the grass verges, trying to avoid concrete wherever he could.

I had been concerned about 'Mr F's general well being for a while now. He seemed quite down and dull although he ate as usual, his poo was normal, he didn't have a temperature. More and more did he begin to look like 'Victor', the other veteran horse here at the age of 26. 'Victor' looks quite miserable most the time and when stabled he often just stands in a corner, head hanging. Although I understand that 'Victor' apparently suffers from all kind of things so he is probably in pain most of the time. 

That one day when I lead him out of the field he hadn't shown any further signs of lameness but was certainly very stiff in his hinds.

All this went through my head while I began very thoroughly examining his hoof. It is then when I noticed that 'Mr F's right back hoof was rather 'flexible'. By this I mean that when I held the hoof in my hands as though I was about to hoof pick, I was actually able to slightly move each half of the hoof by pressing on the frogs. I had never noticed anything like this. In comparison his other hind hoof was completely stable. It seems that this is where the problem lies. Just how deep a problem, literally, I had yet to find out.

I very thoroughly cleaned his hoof and the cleft in the centre of the frog. 'Mr F' didn't react to my pressing and digging around in the cleft. Tomorrow he was to go out with a dry wrap and a hoof boot to keep the hoof dry and clean. With any luck it might improve over the next few days. If not, I will ring 'Suzie'.

Over the years 'Mr F' has become accustomed to being very patient when I 'fiddle' around with his hooves, which I have done now so many times, including all the times when I was trying to get different hoof boots to fit.

To be able to work with both hands I let him rest his foot on the bridge of my foot while my foot rests on my heel only. This if comfortable for him and myself (plus I have both hands free) and allows us to work with as much time as needed to apply poultices or wraps or to fill in gaps with hoof paste etc.

The following morning - dry poultice-style wrap: Cotton wool on base of hoof, food freezer bag on top. This then is wrapped tightly around the hoof. It then is cut open at the front so that there is no pressure at all on the actual 'flesh'. Hoof is then inserted into 'Mr F's by now slightly oversized (flares have grown out) hoof boot (easyboot glove). More cotton wool inserted around the pastern to soak up any moisture that may accumulate. Food freezer bag pulled over fetlock. All gets loosely wrapped into place. The good thing about vet wrap is that applied loosely it can be 'mouled' into shape, securing the inner layers without applying pressure to the leg. To make sure the vet wrap doesn't come loose in the mud, it is secured with duct tape, also loosely wrapped around. 

And this is how 'Mr F's foot looked upon return from a day's turnout in rather muddy conditions. All is still in place and his hoof was perfectly dry.

This was the inner layer of the wrap ... all still dry.

I shall do this now for a week or more and see how matters develop.