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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