Sonny's 16th Birthday

20th October was Sonny's 16th birthday.

To celebrate it I took a few photos of him in the setting sun. He was standing so nicely & the sun was outlining his body with gold.

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Got That Toe Shorter Again

While the casts were on the toe ran forward again. I was so disheartened.
 
Anyway I waited a few days then took a heap off the toe again. There was some fresh blood from the stretching but hopefully the toe will respond faster now.
 
I also took a tiny bit off the heels as an experiment to see what is the right height for Sonny.
 
Here are 2 shots for comparison between how his toe was after the casts & then a few days ago after taking the long toe off again.





 



I didn't get a photo of the finished feet. There was some sort of upset happen among the horses right at that moment & I let Sonny go forgetting to take the final photo. Anyway I rasped off all the unevenness & made the rocker a lot more sloped taking it back under the toe.

Here is one with the foot held up.

 

 

See how upright he is standing right after I nippered off that long toe. Compare this photo to the one in the previous post where he is all slumped down in the front end. Admittedly he was still sick from colic, but it's amazing how easy it is to get him standing much better.












A lot more photos are here at this link:-  http://s340.photobucket.com/user/claireT_2008/library/2013%20%20all%20photos/2013%20October%201%20Sonnys%20feet/2013%20October%203%20Sonnys%20feet

It's a week since I did this trim & I will be doing them again in next day or 2 focusing on the heels.

 

Toe Callous

Quite a sizable toe callous developed between removing the casts & this latest trim from last week. When I rasped the toe for the above trim, I rasped back to only halfway through that toe callous. Having it seems to help settle down the soreness but it tilts the foot up at the toe & makes P3 almost ground parallel which seems to not be to Sonny's liking. He seems to need or prefer about 6-7degrees so that is what I am working towards but at the same time I know I need to shorten the heels a little. Getting the heels more upright will solve that problem & it is happening slowing.

 

The way the frog seems to be sucked up into the heel is a dead giveaway to the fact that things are not yet correct inside the hoof.

 

 

New Supplement Growth

One thing that is now noticeable is the paler new hoof growth coming down from the coronet band since changing to the Dr Kohnke's mineral supplement. That new growth should hit the ground right about when the rain starts again & that is what I planned for. I want to see how that hoof stands up to the wet season. The horn that is now on the ground was formed with no help from a supplement. It seems to be quite good quality with good wall thickness & the horn itself is reasonably supple even with the yellow serum deposits on the sole.

 

Exercise

Currently I'm feeding some extra energy into Sonny in readiness to start exercising him again. Currently he is dead slow & reluctant to move even though his feet are quite cool & don't seem to be sore. I could flog him around the round pen but that will only make him resistant & sullen. I think he has gotten so used to not doing anything he is now quite lazy.

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Colic After Casts & Changing Heel Height

I removed the casts last Friday. I didn't realise Sonny was a sick as he turned out to be. Within an hour of me doing it he coliced & just after dark I had to call the vet. He still isn't 100% 5days later, although a new horse that arrived to go on agistment on Thursday is keeping him well exercised. This photo below that I took after trimming his feet yesterday shows he is still well off colour.

Lowering The Heels a Tad

Yesterday I began changing the sole plane angle of Sonny's front feet. Changing the sole plane changes other angles & functions of the horse's legs too. It tightens the tension on the DDFT which affects the stay mechanism of the horse's front legs. So the horse has to stand a bit differently to equalize the tension on the front & back tendons in his legs. If the sole plane angle is changed too much or too rapidly it can cause soreness in the legs tendons as well as his body.

I had hoped the new heel bud would be close enough to the ground for me to bevel the heel to it, but it's still a little way off because his feet aren't growing quite as fast as I thought.  So there won't be too much change today, but during the next week I will take a little off every second day. Hopefully he won't be too sore after. This is to shorten the heels a little. I have mentioned before that the current heel height is purely for his comfort as each time I took the heels down he got very sore & sometimes abscessed. But it's not good to leave the heels this high indefinitely so because a new more perpendicular heel is growing down, this is a good opportunity to lower them a tiny bit. Again, only by small increments each time.

The other thing to look at when the sole plane angle is changed is whether it causes the whole sole to become longer & create leverage again to the toe. In Sonny's case, yes it has made his hoof longer so I have to modify the toe somewhat although I don't want to work on both toe & heel in same trim. This can cause too much soreness for him. Better to wait a few days inbetween. But I can't leave the hoof unbalanced to allow leverage & undo previously successful work. So I rockered the toe a little but again I wanted to preserve the toe callous as that is giving him height off the ground. I wouldn't normally rocker the toe as it removes a little thickness under & infront of tip of P3. However due to having casts on for over a week he has developed this sizable toe callous so I feel I have a tiny bit to work with.

 

New Steeper Dorsal Wall Growing Down

There is a much tighter dorsal wall angle growing in now & soon I hope to see the upward ground forces being properly negated by the correct wall angle which naturally prevents the toe running forward. I'm still trying to figure out why he is still tender footed even on soft ground. He is reluctant to trot & when I make him trot or turn corners he is obviously sore. I'm thinking sole corium is still not regrowing.

 However yesterday & today he has been chasing the new agistment horse over the fence without apparent soreness which is a good sign.

I don't think I'll put casts on again just yet. It's an excellent time with all this dry weather but the toe ran out a bit during the 8days he wore them & undid some good progress. The new heel bud was almost lost too. I think his walls need to be steeper for casts to work for the job I want them to do which is to help thicken the sole.

 I took  complete set because I wanted to document completely what the feet looked like after casting. Another thing to note is how the general heel height including bulbs is getting taller again. Hopefully that appearance will change when the heels are lowered a bit.

 

Here are the photos I took yesterday.

These first 2 show his feet before I trimmed. See how the RF has run forward but luckily there seems to be good connection to the halfway down point. The old sole is still adhering but in some places it is just beginning to come away. 

 

 I took these photos in the morning sun & it was too strong so some shots are washed out.

 The right foot shows that it ran forward quite a bit during the 8days the casts were on which is disappointing because it takes a full growth cycle to get the steeper dorsal wall again. Now I'm not sure if I should go ahead & lower the heels if I already have a toe that's too sloping.


The rest of yesterdays photos can be found here :-
http://s340.photobucket.com/user/claireT_2008/library/2013%20%20all%20photos/2013%20October%201%20Sonnys%20feet/2013%20October%202%20Sonnys%20feet

In this next shot I have drawn a line that follows the tubule growth on the heel to show where the new heel bud is. Last week before I applied the casts it was a lot more pronounced that it shows here. I'm a bit disappointed to loose it with the heels obviously running forward while the casts were on. I will still try to reset the sole plane down to this new heel height but I'm very concerned about making Sonny sore again. His feet have been nice & cool for a few weeks now & it would be a pity to make them hot again. However I think it's important to try to get the heels down a bit again because the periople & heel bulb parts are growing tall again for some reason. Anyway I'll do it a tiny bit every few days.

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Bright Yellow Casts!

9October 2013
just editing to add that it's been 7days & Sonny is doing really well in his casts which now are the same colour as the dam.....grey brown! lol There is soil caught under one foot, can't remember which....I think the RF. Only problem he is finding is that the casts have rounded off the edges of his feet removing his grip on the dry slopes covered in slippery dead grass. So he is reluctant to cavort or even trot beside me. The first time he did it he almost slipped over & that was enough for him.... no more trotting or cavorting!


3Oct2013
Yesterday was the day. I have worked towards it for several weeks. The weather had to be right, the trim had to be right & the medical condition of the feet had to be right.

It all came together yesterday. If the casts stay on, all should be good for a few weeks. After tidying the soles & frogs, I applied Thrushbuster in all the crevices then coated the soles in a copper wax tea tree oil mix prior to wrapping the casting tape on.

Then it will be time to trim again & reapply the casts if they worked well enough.

Today I rode Sonny for a few minutes on one occasion as a demo during a lesson I was giving. He didn't seem sore although he was not interested in trotting or moving fast. After he got the casts on we were playing in the back paddock which is a bit steep & covered in short slippery lawn grass & Sonny soon found his new feet slipped & slid all over the place which seemed off putting for him.

Tonight he is still slow but not lame or limping. He is walking freely even across the gravel driveway.  

While I was doing the casts I took some video which I haven't processed yet but here are a few before & after photos.
 
 
I'm really excited to see the new heel bud. I thought that phase might have passed but there it is so once it gets near the ground I will rasp to it & bring the toe back the same distance.

 

 

It concerns me that this bit of weak hoof is not repairing well enough so I cut away at least half the height of wall & dug out a lot of black stuff until Sonny was flinching a bit. I put several drops of thrushbuster in plus packed it out with copper wax.

I was advised to keep the cast low at the heels. I hope this is low enough.  I pressed around quite firmly & he is not sore in the bulbs tonight but I'll keep a good eye on that part.

 

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