Foot Question

Hey .......

There is a supplement out there called OPTIMAL by purina....It is formulated for Yearlings and pregnent mares....I fed it to my Yearling for a year and all I did was have the ferrier out every 4 weeks....There was no way I could let him go 6 to 8 weeks..and this was the winter months...not spring time......I know young horses has hooves that grow a bit faster but.....I said to many at the barn and they all agreed that if anyone wanted some hoof growth was to try this stuff....Just a suggestion.... Now that he is 2 and I have taken him off the supplement his hooves can easily go to 6 weeks before a trim I can't believe it ..I plan to put him back on it for the winter.......It is about $30.00 a bag and lasted a month and a half...you just add it to his grain....you can check it out on the purina web site.....It is is the same line a equilizer..

just a thought....If you wanted to get his hooves to grow out faster!!!

I was browsing thru your "issue", and remembered reading a Pete Ramey article that had mentioned a "wall flare" ... Read on, and maybe this could help you as well ...

Daily topical treatment with a 50-50 mixture of Neosporin Plus Pain (or generic triple antibiotic ointment plus) and human Athletes Foot Cream (1% Clotrimazole) continues to be the best medicine I've ever seen for deep frog sulcus infections. Often overlooked, these infections cause severe lameness in the back of the foot, which can then cause chronic toe-first impact, which in turn can cause distal descent of P3, subslolar abscesses, hoof capsule rotation, wall flare, navicular damage, ligament and tendon injuries throughout the distal limb.... In short, every energy dissipating feature of the foot can be completely erased by the pain of a simple frog infection- and the gait of the horse altered into a destructive force.

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In the past, I've used a 60cc catheter tipped syringe with a pencil-sized, 2 inch long tip. This works well in most cases, but often in dry environments or with particularly thin, deep sulci, the tip is too 'fat' to reach deep enough for effective treatment. The insertion of the large tip can also be very painful for the horse. Here's an effective tool that fixes the problem- Monoject 412 Curved Tip Syringe (12cc) (available thru any veterinary supply). It reaches deep into tight crevasses and the curved tip allows you to roll it in- minimizing the risk of injury to the horse.

I mix the concoction in a sealable jar, top-load 30cc at a time into the large 60cc syringe with a butter knife and keep the large syringe loaded for storage (in my truck). Then, as needed, I load 3-4cc at a time into the Monoject 412 by pulling out the plunger and squirting it in from the larger syringe. It fits easily in a pocket on my chaps, and seems to double the effectiveness of treatment, while cutting the volume used/wasted in half. Pete Ramey

Hey Fiere, how are the feet coming along??


Greenpaint:..I went to a Pete Ramey clinic and he told us the same recipe for trush, it worked very, very well..I bought the no name stuff, and it did not cost me much...

Oh his feet are superb. The only thing that would make them better is if they widen up, which only time can accomplish. He still has some flaring issues on the hinds, but honestly I think his feet just grow a little funky back there. I rasp him once every 1-2 weeks, his heels grow fast and we are still working on lowering them to the correct angle, but they are leagues better than they were.

But his feed is changed and before he got sick he was doing marvelous on it, he is moving a lot more evenly and landing heel first as opposed to flat on or toe first, and no more skinned heels! I am quite impressed.

What are you looking for, for an angle? What are you measuring?


And if your heels regrow quickly, something is not right... you may be trimming them too short too soon... and the hoof will compensate by regrowing the material as quick as it can to protect some sensitivity back there... maybe it is weak frogs.. or maybe they are just being trimmed to short creating some soreness in the heel area...

I'll have to take a picture. His heels are maybe 1/4-1/3 an inch shorter than in the 'after trim' picture I posted. I don't want to take them back too much because they are still a little more underslung than I'd really like them to be, so in my mind shortening them wouldn't benefit that. I'd rather let them continue to move back and even themselves out and just take a couple rasp strokes off them each trim. The trimmer I had out to inspect my work said the length wasn't bad on them, they could be a little shorter, but what I should be focusing on is maintaining the hoof shape right now, getting it into that nice round barefoot shape, before I worry too much about height, because right now his heels are not rounded out yet from being so contracted way back when. So that is basically what I am doing. When I do my trim, I take the rasp over the underside of the hoof a couple times, then do 2-3 extra pulls over his heels, and then use my funky rider's rasp thing to round out the wall. Barely any 'hoof dust' on the floor when I am done and it might take me 45 seconds a hoof (and only that long because I haven't mastered a good stroke yet), the Rider's Rasp doesn't take off enough to reshape the hoof, just rounds the wall.

It could be weak frogs, he is shedding his frogs constantly. I don't think I have ever seen them full and intact without flaking. He doesn't have thrush or anything, just really crappy frogs. I'll get a picture tomorrow, they look good IMO, but as compared to my pony who was always kept barefoot, they're kind of lack luster. I'm just maintaining the trim right now, basically. Time is the only thing that can do the rest.

Okay, here they are! I'll state where I think he improved and where he still needs improving, someone can correct me on it if they like, everything helps!

Left Hind: As you can see, the flares are gone, the heel has widened out and the frog has come down a lot. Also you can't really see it in the picture but the hoof has great concavity to it now and the toe callus is getting quite nice. I'll get to the problems in a sec, they are the same and more apparent on the front hoof.


Left Fore: (sorry for the quality, bad lighting in barn + cell phone, tried to lighten the pic and this is the best I could do) The concavity on this foot is great, the heel widened amazingly well, the toe callus is very apparent , and again, the flares are basically gone aside from two tricky spots. Roundness of the foot could use some work, he grows a little bigger on the inside fore corner of both fronts. Thick walls, mostly I think.


Now, the cons with both feet are the heels, as you can see in the pics (I should've taken a rear view), the heel buttress and bars are long and thick. The bar is raised to the point where it can more load bearing than the whiteline (hence my rasping it off almost weekly), and the buttress grows very quickly. I think you said it right, TC, with him having bad frogs as I really don't think I am taking them back too far. His frogs are terrible, for how much his heel has widened out his frogs really haven't. The hind frogs have also come down a lot but the fore frogs will not grow past the bars, they almost look/act like a bad case of thrush, but aside from that he has no other symptoms. I treated him for it anyway and no change. I condition his hooves 3x a week and (I'd like to think) take very good care of his feet. Anyone have any ideas?

Is it just me, or do the frogs look better in the before? They are more mud-caked granted, but I should hope he didn't deteriorate. Once I get this stuff in my head I scrutinize it to death, good grief.

The bars will grow in quickly too, to protect the sensitive back of the foot when the frog is crappy......

What I find that works quickly, especially in the wet season when other protucts wash off as soon as they set foot outside.. is Diaper rash cream with as much zinc as you can get.

So far, Desitin max strength is the most I have seen. 40% zinc... helps dry the frog up...killing off fungas and bacteria...



Clean the foot well, especially in any cracks and crevices of the frog.... A dry hoof will work best for this stuff to satick too it... so even if you have to blot it with and old rag, it will help.

I use rubber disposable gloves, and slather this stuff on all over the frog, in the collateral grooves, and anyting left over on my hands, I run around the whiteline and the rest all over the sole.

Doing it daily is best...but if you have to skip a day, you will find when you clean the foot next time, there will still be a layer between the hoof and the manure...up in the collatoral grooves at least..

Once the frog is back in shape, the heels and bars will maintain themselves because the back of the foot will be used more... and they will wear down better.
I rarely have to touch heels or bars now that I took care of the frog issue..... :)

Awesome, will certainly try that out! I have oodles of Desitin around the house from the baby. Thanks again, TC!

About his heels, they look really long (and the are) but they are almost parallel with the ground. I was told to rasp them level and leave them be until his foot is maintaining it's shape. Here's my question: When that time comes, wouldn't rasping the heels back create weird angles on the foot? Since it is level now, after all. They need to move back, should I just take them back 'quickly' over a month or take them back in increments over several months? Or take them back as far as I can without hurting him right off the hop? I've taken them back a lot since August but they seem to grow long and low, very underslung heels he has. From the hind he looks like he is walking normally on the heel and then you pick the foot up and that is not at all what the case is!

Measure the collateral grooves back by the heels..that will tell you if you should be touching them any at all......

If they are deeper then about 3/4 of an inch... then rasp them to 3/4 or just a more while the frog heals... if they are more shallow then this... leave them be...



(I have one of these hoof picks...their great! )

Ok, sounds good. They are most certainly not shallower than that. My concern is how long the heels are, in that pic you posted the V is right at the heel bulb, where as T's V is a good inch in under the hoof. Will maintaining the 3/4 inch collateral groove eventually move the heel back?I'm wondering if maybe that's why his frogs are so torn up because he is not bearing weight on them properly thus exposing them to more damage than if he was using them as just a shock absorber. Of course this could be a total moot point, just thinking 'aloud' here.

ETA: I am going to find one of those picks, how useful are they!

I have a client who started washing her horses hooves daily with a scrub brush, hot water and dish soap. She really scrubbed the frog and underside of the foot. The imporvement is amazing! I think washing and then applying the Desitin or Pete Ramey goo mix after would be the best bet.