background source: pets4homes.co.uk
"There is no horse without the hooves". It is worth to notice how important it is to care for the hooves, as many afflictions and injuries that the horse's hooves are susceptible to, are caused by our negligence or fault. In this article, you will get to know a list of threats that might concern your horse and you will also find out how to effectively protect him.
How is the horse's hoof built?
The horse's hoof is a complicated and complex structure. From the inside it is covered with hoof wall, which protects the short pastern bone, coffin bone, and navicular bone with ligaments that are inside.
Structure of a hoof.
Remember that the first and most important thing when it comes to noticing any kinds of symptoms that might proclaim some afflictions or injuries of the hooves, you should contact a vet as soon as it is possible. Treating a hoof on your own will, usually, do more harm than good.
Below, we enumerate the most common afflictions and injuries of the horse's hooves. Information that you will find serve only as a help in assessing the horse's health, diseases, their symptoms, and ways of treatment, but most of all: prophylaxis and way of acting with a sick horse until the vet comes.
Frog rotting
Often called "the disease of neglect".
Rotting frog before (on the left) and after correction (on the right), source: heikebean.com
Causes:
- factor that causes the frogs to rot are bacteria or fungus, as the frog cleft is a perfect environment for them to grow
- keeping the horse on a wet and deep litter
- wrong care or lack of the hooves' care
- horse's immune deficiency
- wrong shoeing
Symptoms:
- the frog cleft is filled with a sticky black-grey slime of ugly smell of rot
- tip of frog is very soft, can fall off in pieces, is easily detached
- the horse feel pain while cleaning the frog, he is restless and nervous, tries to whip his hoof
- if the disease is highly advanced, grey masses might appear on the frog, and that means frog cancer
- in the advanced stadium of disease, limping might appear
Treatment:
- place your horse on a dry ground, arrange his station so it is filled with clean
- mechanically clean (thoroughly) the frog cleft, and then sterilise it and its area
- you can fill the frog cleft with copper sulfate (available in a form of unguent or loose crystals - the latter might be mixed with vaseline so it is easier to apply it and so the substance will stay longer in the frog - it's good to use a regular syringe for quick application); then clog the frog with cotton wool, putting it pretty firmly, so it won't immediately fall out
Copper sulfate of a characteristic blue colour, source: dnepropetrovsk.flagma.ua
- there are ready-made preparations for the simultaneous care and regeneration of the frog apax, which might be applied both in treatment phase and as a prophylaxis (for example Keralt Strahl-Liquid)
- if the frog cleft is only soft, with no apparent exudation, you can try to use wood tar (not more than once a week)
- if the disease is highly developed and your horse limps - call a vet, as is is highly possible that the rotten parts have to be removed
- remember that treatment is long-lasting
Prevention:
- there is no better prophylaxis than often paddocking the horse on a dry and grassy ground
- mind for your horse to have regularly changed litter in his station
- clean the hooves every day
- once every week you can prophylactically use a specific that is meant for the hooves' care (for example Keralt Strahl-Liquid)
- take care of a proper diet for your horse
- provide him a proper correction of the hooves - proper shoeing, constant control of the shoe's condition, etc.
Puncturing
Causes:
- perforation of the horse's hoof by a sharp object, for example nail or glass; depending on the puncturing place and depth, the hoof's material might be damaged as well as deeper structures (tendon, joint, or bone)
Symptoms:
- limping, hurting, bleeding, festering, and swelling
- the horse tries to protect the hurting leg by shifting his body weight onto the remaining ones
- often, the animal lifts his leg, not allowing the hoof to touch the ground
Treatment:
- immediately contact a veterinarian!
- if it's possible, remove the foreign body, then wash and sterilise the scathe area (with iodine or rivanol), and also put on a sterile dressing
Prevention:
- after returning from a ride, field visit, or from a paddock, check and thoroughly clean your horse's hooves
- try to ride only on a well-known and prepared ground - manege, and tried field paths
- don't allow drinking beverages from glass bottles on riding grounds
- after renovations in the stable, thoroughly pick all the nails, bolts, pieces of wire, sheeting etc.
Laminitis
Characteristic position of a horse with laminitis, source: animalclinicww.com
Causes:
- giving too much of a ration (grain, for example barley, oats) - with too little movement
- fodder too rich in protein (for example intake of a big amount of grass on the beginning of pasture season)
- watering heated up horse after physical effort with cold water, especially if he's not used to it
- leaving heated up horse on cold or in draught
- too intense movement on hard ground
- wrong shoeing
- post-natal abnormalities at mares (placenta hold-up)
- poisoning of various origin (diarrhea and other dysfunctions of digestive system)
Symptoms:
- hot and painful to the touch hooves
- characteristic posture with the front legs pushed forward
- difficulties with moving, especially on hard grounds
- shifting from one leg to another and trying to lie down
- if only the front legs are sore, the horse take positions similar to sitting dog
- the horse while forced to move, shambles, first placing the back part of a hoof (the so-called heel)
- high temperature
Hoof after undergoing untreated laminitis, source: hoofcare.blogspot.com
NOTE!
Treatment that is taken too late or wrong leads to irreversible changes in the hoof's wall area.
Treatment:
- immediately call a veterinarian!
- as soon as possible provide your horse with constant hooves' cooling (water them, put an ice compress, or you can try to arrange a "pool" for the horse - that means, you should remove litter from your horses stall, then lay a foil out, and fill it with water)
- lead your horse shortly and in short intervals of time, as to awake blood circulation in the legs
- only specialist, intensive treatment can give pleasing effects
- usually, treatment doesn't bring back the value in use from before the disease
Prevention:
- avoid factors which might cause an inflammation in a hoof
- pick a proper ration for your horse's race, gender, age, dedication, and amount of movement
- obey all the restrictions regarding digestive system's afflictions prophylaxis
- see to the proper correction and shoeing of your horse
Sore foot
Causes:
- unshod horses working on hard, stony ground
- not removed stone from between the hoof and shoe
Symptoms:
- limping, high shoe's temperature, sensitivity to touching with hoof feeler
Treatment:
- will be undertaken by a vet depending on the lesions
Preventing:
- don't work with unshod horse on a hard or stony surface (if you encounter this kind of surface in the field, pass it in a walk or even get off the horse and walk with him in a hand)
- during everyday care, thoroughly clean the hooves, removing all the foreign bodies from them
- control the accuracy of shoeing
Problems with nails
Causes:
- spiking the hobnail too deep, so that it pinches, or even punctures the wall of the hoof
Symptoms:
- achiness in the area of wrongly hammered hobnail, limping
Treatment:
- contact a veterinarian
- remove the hobnail that causes pain, if you can (don't hammer a new one!), and the hole after it sterilize and put on a sterile dressing
Preventing:
- the horse's shoeing entrust to a qualified and proven smith
Inflammation of the navicular bone
Causes:
- overloads in the front digital tendons area
Symptoms:
- shortening of gait, stiff walk, unwillingness to jump, momentary improvement after a few days of rest
Treatment:
- contact a veterinarian
- it's long-lasting and expensive
- requires a special shoeing
Prevention:
- try not to overload the young horse's movement apparatus
- early detection of the affliction increases the chances of treatment
Sand crack
Causes:
- mechanical injuries of the coronet or heels of the hooves are usually caused by boots or wellies that's been wrongly picked, but also if the horses (treading the front heels with his hinder legs), and striking off (chafing one inner side of a limb on another - both front and hinder).
Symptoms:
- open wounds of the coronet or heels
ATTENTION!
Serious injuries might happen to the horses shoed with wrapped nails.
Treatment:
- apprise veterinarian
- sterilise the hurt area and apply a sterile dressing
Prevention:
- after finished work, always unscrew the nails (also before transport!)
- during transport, maintain proper distance from the other horses
- coronets and heels should be protected with properly picked wellies
How to take care of the horse's hooves?
1. Remember about thorough cleaning of the hooves before a ride and after coming back to the stable. 2. Regularly change litter in your horse's stall. 3. Ride your horse only on well-adjusted grounds - maneges and tested paths in the field. 4. Always unscrew the horseshoe nails after a ride or start, and also before every transport. 5. Maintain proper distance from the other horses while training. 6. Regularly take care of the frog and sulcus, using wood tar or another specially designated products.
background source: talk2theanimals.net
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