First off, we need to keep working on getting rid of that white line disease or whatever is giving him toe cracks and hoof wall separation. He said I need to get in there with a hoof pick and clean out all the muck and mud and dead stuff really well then put Tomorrow up there DAILY. Those cracks go up pretty far under the hoof wall and they won't close up until I kill whatever is living up there.
He also gave me a bottle of stuff to soak his feet in that will help kill the crap living in his hoof.
The other thing he said was that I need to knock his heels back more and roll the toes more so that there is less pressure on the toes. If there is too much pressure on the toe it just helps those cracks open up even more.
And last but not least, he suggested I put Twister on supplement containing lots of copper and vitamin E. Copper to help kill fungus and bacterial. Vitamin E to help boost his immune system to prevent this in the future. WHO CAN SUGGEST A SUPPLEMENT FOR ME???? Twister is already on a good deal of biotin.
So this week I have some work to do. Planning on trimming Twister on Thursday and keeping up with the Tomorrow in his feet daily. He said if I don't see a difference in a couple weeks to take straight tea tree oil and squirt that up those black holes.
What REALLY pisses me the hell off though, is that I actually thought this girl knew what she was doing. I kept getting told his feet were a mess because there was no good blood flow and that his feet didn't work hard enough and my pastures were too nice. When in reality he has some nasty shit going on up in his hoof wall that I should have been treating since LAST YEAR. Never once was it suggested by my ex-trimmer that he had something going on up there that needed medicinal help! I'm an amateur barefooter! Almost every horse I have ever leased or rode was shod... except for Lu but she'd been barefoot forever and had feet of steel. Just to think.... I could be over this crap by now with him. At least Twister is patient with me..... and at least I know that there is and END to this in the near future. In another month or so I'll probably have this other trimmer come out and do a full trim for me. But I have to trim so often that I need to learn how to trim Twister correctly myself. If I take my time, I can get it right!
Gotta fix these feet so we can show this summer and break babies this fall!!!!
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| The black hole this past spring... Hasn't really improved at all... |
Bobby gets SmartHoof and has been on it since he went barefoot. Obviously he's super sound now, but it doesn't have any Vit E in it.
ReplyDeleteI think learning to do Twister's feet yourself is a good idea. Ask for help literally anywhere you can get it, but keep in mind that a normal, well shaped hoof might not be what works for him. I let Bobby keep his weird flares on his hinds because he goes better with them there, and I know a trimmer would take them right off because they're not text book pretty feet.
Take some pictures of his hooves from the side and back on level ground with the camera sitting right on the ground. That's the best way to really analyze his angles. There are a lot of bloggers that know a lot about hooves--maybe they'll be able to give you some input.
I literally ask for help everywhere. My feed store lady knows tons about nutrition and has been a huge help and my neighbor who has learned through trial and error and anyone that does natural trimming or has taken their horses barefoot. This trimmer I met yesterday seems like the real thing. But we shall see!
DeleteHe gets these monster mud soars once or twice a year too which I think is all immune system because when I give him SMZs they go away and when I stop they come back. So Vit E probably won't do anything but help him. It's cheaper to do SmartHoof in the Smart Pak form so I can always just add the Vit E.
I had a thoroughbred who benefitted hugely from a biotin supplement. Which was cheap at the time but they don't make that brand anymore!
ReplyDeleteHoofcare is so tricky, I feel like I don't know enough to know if they are well done or not. My farrier now seems amazing but Apollo still gets a fair bit of cracks. I paint his hooves with hooflex hardener when the weather transitions from soggy ground to dry hard ground. That makes me feel like I'm helping. Good luck! :)
He's on a lot of biotin already. I was looking at the VitaGold from Dumor. Yes, it's a ghetto brand, but it has lots of biotin, copper and vit e in it. Unlike NY where I come from, the soil here is rich in selenium and I was warned against feeding too much of it.
DeleteMy barn uses a lot of Smarthoof and Farriers Forumla, maybe give those a whirl? Best of lucking finding a good supplement fix!
ReplyDeletei don't know much about the supplements - but i wanted to wish you good luck!! glad you found a trimmer who could figure out what's going on with those cracks!
ReplyDeleteNo hoof, no horse as the saying goes! Try not to beat yourself up too much though -- we all do the best we can and we simply don't know what we don't know! The important thing is you're taking steps to make things better now.
ReplyDelete