Continuing Story's Recovery

A horses hooves are trimmed every 6 weeks, and while the trim is a very important aspect of Story's recovery there are a few  things to do to help a Foundered horse's recovery in between trims.

Good blood circulation plays a role in the recovery of a Foundered horse, it helps flush out the harmful toxins that cause the separation between the hoof wall and coffin bone. There are a few effective ways to increase circulation, the first is very basic- movement! It seems odd that a horse who is so sore on their feet should be prompted to move, but as long as they are willing to walk without physical encouragement it can be very helpful in the recovery process.

Story and I started out with a 1/2 mile walk everyday, and have now worked up to 1 mile per day of walking. Story is always hand walked because she is not sound enough to be ridden. Once she has grown in tighter connection of hoof wall and coffin bone (takes a while to grow this connection) she will be allowed to start light riding at a walk.

Story on a daily walk

You may notice in the above photo the black wraps on Story's legs. This brings us to the next effective way to promote circulation. The wraps on Story's legs are not just fabric strapped onto her legs, they are a brand of standing wraps called Back On Track. BOT wraps are made of a polyester/polypropylene fabric with a ceramic powder melted into the fabric. The ceramic particles reflect body heat as an infrared wave which eases inflammation, reduce muscle pain and increases blood circulation.

Story is wrapped with BOT almost everyday (time permitting!) and wears them between 1-2 hours at a time.

Dictionary

sound- a term used in the horse world to describe a fit, healthy, not lame horse

standing wraps- wraps applied to horses legs for protection, magnetic and ceramic standing wraps are used for promoting circulation and reducing soreness

Introducing Story

Now that you have a basic understanding of the disease Founder, I can introduce you to Story.

Story is an almost 10-year-old Quarter Horse who suffers from the disease Founder. Her old owner was unaware of her insulin resistance and Story was allowed to roam in a large field of rich grass 24/7, and she also had access to high sugared hay day and night.  On top of this, Story was receiving a bad trim and shoe job by an incompetent farrier who repeatedly disregarded her rotting hooves, as well as her very obvious Founder.

I learned about Story's case from my trimmer who took care of my horse Grace, who passed away suddenly in November 2010.  Story's owner was going to have her euthanized, as she was unable to use her in her riding lesson program due to Story's "unknown" lameness, and her mean demeanor. My trimmer knew that she could help Story  by fixing her feet, and told me that she needed to be rescued.

December 28th, 2010 I picked up Story from her barn in Portland, Ontario, and brought her home. We started her treatment immediately! Story's diet was the first step to her recovery. Instead of a lush green pasture, or a big pile of sugary hay, Story now eats a mix of low-sugar bran with various vitamins, and minerals added to it twice a day. Because horses are foragers it is important for them to eat LITTLE amounts, often. Story has hay (that was tested to be low in sugar) spread throughout her field so that she has to walk around to eat it all, we control the amount of hay she gets so that she is never being over fed.

In the winter grass isn't a problem as the snow covers it all, and if Story manages to paw any up it is dead, and doesn't carry a lot of sugar anyways. In the spring, summer and fall Story will have to wear a muzzle that allows her to drink, and eat VERY little amounts of grass and hay. This is the only way to control her intake of grass.

The next step to Story's recovery was getting a farrier or trimmer out to do an evaluation of her feet, and trim them in a correct manner. Jenny, my trimmer came to see Story on the 30th of December, 2010. A trim for a horse with healthy hooves takes 30-45 minutes on average and consists of clipping off long parts of the hoof, rasping the edges to maintain desired shape, and shaping the sole and frog of the hoof with a hoof knife. I like to compare a horses trim to a humans manicure! First you cut off the unwanted/long nail, then you file the nails for a nice smooth edge, and lastly you cut the cuticles to shape the nail.

Story's first trim took just over 4 hours to complete- 3and a half hours longer than your average trim. Story's old owner and farrier had shod Story with ill fitting shoes and leather pads, as they believed the source of her lameness was "thin soles", and this was their cure. The first step was to remove these shoes:

You can note in the above photo of Story that she is standing with her feet very wide apart compared to the back, and her toes are pointing outwards, this is due to the imbalance of her old trim, the ill fitting shoes, and discomfort caused from Founder.

The second step was to trim Story's feet so that they were even, and balanced. Since the process was so long we didn't want to bother Story longer by taking lots of pictures, but we do have this one before and after trim of the bottom of her hoof.

The writing on these photos is for Jenny's reference, but the green circle shows the ideal shape of the hoof. You can see in the before picture how long Story's toe is, and can only imagine the stretch it is creating on the White Line. Just after one trim Jenny has managed to get Story's foot much closer to the ideal shape by trimming back the toe.

The third step was doing an anti bacterial soak on Story's feet to treat the infection in her white line that was rotting, and eating away her foot. Below is a photo of Story in soaking boots, the boots are put on, water and treatment and poured in the sides, and then the boots are tightened and left on for around 20 minutes.

The second frame in the above photo shows the extensive damage fungus has done to Story's foot, this disease called Seedy Toe, or White Line Disease is present on both of Story's front hooves and is treated by soaking.

The fourth step is putting casts on Story's hooves. The casts are a cement type wrap that are made wet, and then quickly applied to the horses foot before they dry. The reason we decided to cast Story's feet is because her hooves are so disconnected from the coffin bone that she is sore, because of this when she walks she tries to put the pressure of her weight onto her toes which only encourages the disconnection, and slows the healing process. In order to resolve this Story needs lots of padding so she isn't sore to walk, and then she will start landing on her heel first, and then forwarding her weight to her toe midstep.

A photo of Story in her casts. Notice that although her feet are still wide apart, her toes are now pointing forwards opposed to outwards because she is standing on a balanced hoof, and is now supported by the casts.

The last step is to put Story's boots on, these boots offer her good traction (as the casts can be slippery) as well as more support. We took an extra step to add another layer of foam padding in Story's boots to conform to her foot, and once again, add support.

After all this, Story is FINALLY allowed to go back out into her field, and munch on her much missed hay.

Dictionary

Quarter Horse- A specific breed of horse

The Basics About Founder

Founder in horses is sadly becoming very common due to horse owner's not being aware of the effects that an abundance of lush, sugary, grass, or a bad hoof trim can have on their horses hooves. 


Horses are naturally foraging animals,  when living in the wild they have to travel long distances to get little amounts of wild grass- which is generally low in sugar. Unfortunately owners of domestic horses tend to over feed their horses with hay, which is generally high in sugar. Not only are domestic horses being over fed high-in-sugar-hay, they are also confined by fences and aren't moving around as much as they were made to, or would in the wild.


Despite the unnatural habitat some owners provide for their horses, they often adapt and are fine.. Unfortunately, there are horses who don't adapt- those horses are the ones who suffer from Founder.


Below is a diagram (taken from http://equine-help.deviantart.com) of the bottom of a horses foot to refer to for terms.

Founder occurs when the lamellae become inflamed and produce toxins which weakens the connection between a horses coffin bone and hoof wall. The other way Founder can be caused is by a bad hoof trim. Many Farriers and Trimmers trim horses feet in a way that causes the toe of the hoof to grow too long- once again, weakening the connection between the hoof wall and coffin bone.


Here is a diagram (taken from http://edenvalleymessenger.com) displaying the hoof wall, laminae, white line and coffin bone.

The weakened connection between the coffin bone and hoof wall of a Foundered horse causes the white line  to stretch- which actually becomes visible when looking at the bottom of an affected horses foot. 
When the hoof wall and coffin bone loose their tight connection, the hoof wall begins to stray from the coffin bone creating an ugly hoof angle, and stretching the white line between the hoof wall, and coffin bone.

Once the tight connection of the hoof wall and coffin bone is broken it allows for the coffin bone to essentially "sink", and stray further from the hoof wall.

Here is an x ray (taken from http://naturespathhoof.com) of a hoof with a rotated and sunken coffin bone.

The white line drawn on the x-ray (not the White Line IN the hoof!) shows the disconnection between coffin bone and hoof wall, and the coffin bone "sinking" into the sole of the hoof.

Here is an x-ray of the same hoof shown above once treated properly (taken from http://naturespathhoof.com).

You can see in the above x-ray that the coffin bone is now at the same angle as the hoof wall, and the coffin bone no longer points towards the sole of the foot. As long as this horse continues to be trimmed correctly and on a regular basis and is kept on a specific low-sugar diet, it should go on to live a happy, healthy, normal horse life.



Dictionary


lamellae- inner hoof wall
hoof- a horses foot
Farrier- a person who shoes horses
Trimmers- a person who trims a horses foot naturally, and does not shod the horse

References

http://www.all-natural-horse-care.com
http://www.backontrackstore.com