GREAT PROGRESS!!

First anniversary of Sonny’s founder in his RF

What a change there has been in the year since! This last week he has been actively trotting here & there with the occasional canter & cavort, all by himself. I think digging those overlaid bars out has really made a huge improvement.

 

 

I’m really happy with the progress showing in Sonny’s feet now. It seems the wet came just at the right time after just the right length of extended dry season. I feel very lucky because things don’t usually go so well for me.

Everything seems to be on track other than the one thing which I have commented on in this particular photo. I’ve been at this place before & it all went to putty. Admittedly it was year 2 of the never ending wet season but that wasn’t the real cause of his founder.

I’m sure his founder was mechanical & the shape of the LF reminds me all too well that we are at that point again except last time it was the RF. It has a bit of heel, deepening collateral grooves between the heels & running out to next to nothing at the frog tip. This time however, he has a much better sole/wall connection with stronger walls. Also this time he no longer has all that ingrown bar material jamming up into his corium & heel cushion.

I wonder if it was all that jammed up bar material that set all this founder & hoof problems in action in the first place a few years ago. Perhaps it all cut into the sole cushion & corium & cut off circulation & set laminitis in motion.

 

                      

 

 

 

Left Front :- It looks like the wall is really long, standing proud of the sole. But it’s actually that the sole is withdrawing rapidly back to the correct position leaving a large gap between sole/wall connection & the bearing surface of the wall. I think the way things are going most of that long toe will have been removed 3 trims from now. The large gap shows there is no more lamella wedge growing, instead it is a nice tight connection to the P3. Still some general reshaping to stand the whole hoof a little more upright but that too will hurry along in no time.

The toe is coming back better this time. I expect to be making big inroads into that long toe in the next 3 trims. I am leaving as much wall thickness as I feel I can so I don’t leave him walking just on sole. That seems to be a trigger for the sole to run out from under the toe wall. Now there is softer soil, a nice bit gets trapped in the sole helping to hold the bit of depth that has been developed recently.

Also note there are almost no black lines anymore on the sole where the overlaid bars were jamming up into his feet. These last 3 trims I have been aggressively addressing those overlaid bars by digging it all out with the dremel & knife & the results are now obvious.

 

Here are the pretrim photos of both fronts. Note how even they are becoming now. Although the frog on the LF is much longer but hopefully shortening as that hoof gets more upright now.

 

                    

 

 

With him leaping all around obviously feeling good, I am loathe to change the trim at this point but I know I do have to bring the heels down a tad again once the tighter angle has grown down a bit at the toe.

It’s by no means perfect yet. All feet still have big problems to do with the bars mostly along with some heel angle, but also some lingering wall separation, but that too will resolve soon enough.

It’s also time to have a close look at what direction the sole tubules are growing in now. By now a new sole should have grown that should have tubules growing more perpendicular.

The remainder of this week’s photos are found here:-  www.photobucket.com/2013_February_Sonnys_Feet

 

Also this will probably be the last use of Photobucket. They are changing their whole methodology & format to suit facebook & I won’t be able to link to the photos as I have been doing so I will probably move to google, but to view the photos you might find you have to log in unfortunately. Sorry about that. It is a real bone of contention amongst the Photobucket users that the site is changing so dramatically. So far I am lucky in that my photos, posted over the last 5yrs, are still all in the right place in the various forums & blogs but who knows if that will last because many other users have lost their links. It will probably be best if I change the format of my blog posts. Also now that Sonny’s feet are so improved I may not post so often.