Beckie’s Equine Letter
News, Case Studies, Questions & Answers
and a Lesson of the Month in every Issue
October 2005 -- Issue 6
News for the Month
I’ve had a bit of a funny time recently. As most of you know I had a sister in Australia who has been ill with a brain tumour over the last 5 years. Well she sadly passed away in the middle of August. It was inevitable really, but still came as a shock. I made a quick trip over there for the funeral which all went well. I’d just like to thank you all for your support and lovely cards that I received. I really do appreciate the good friends I have amongst you.
I had a bit of a wake up call at the end of August. I was shoeing a well behaved horse that pulled back. This is usually nothing too drastic and does happen. Unfortunately, I ended up going over on my ankle and spraining it. Fortunately I had two other people there with me, because I went very faint and lost all vision for a while from the shock. It has just emphasised to me the importance of having people there at all times whilst the horse is being shod. In this situation I could have been on the floor with the horse jumping on me if there was no one there to help. I’d like to say a big thank you to Jackie O’Connell and Sonia Pullinger for all their help looking after me at the time.
So if you could all try and allow time to be there for the full shoeing it would be much appreciated. I need to avoid injuries as best as I can because it’s dangerous enough as it is.
Enough of the somber stuff ...
In this months addition I have a special interview with farrier Dave Nicholls. I have asked him to talk in more detail about Negative Sole Planes. This is a follow on from Issue 4, so if you want a recap on the basics of Negative Sole Planes you can refer back.
I went to a short evening presentation by an American Vet called Mike Steward , in August. He was telling us about the new technique he uses for shoeing very severe laminitic horses. The shoes are called clogs, they look pretty strange. They are a block of wood or hard plastic screwed to the bottom of the foot with really rounded edges to enable them to roll around on their feet as if they had an extra joint on the bottom of their foot. Under the Clog you would have impression material to encourage the horse to bear weight through it’s frog. It looks like a strange thing to do but he is getting some great results. It always surprises me that which ever corner you look round there is always someone trying to think of the next new thing that might benefit horses.
Lesson of the Month
Seedy Toe
Definition.
Seedy Toe is a condition where the sensitive and insensitive laminae separate at the white line. (The white line is the junction between the sole and the wall). A cavity forms and is filled with weak crumbly horn. The separation is widest at the ground surface narrowing as it goes up towards the coronary band. It is most commonly found at the toe but can be anywhere around the white line of the foot.
Signs.
There might not be any obvious signs to you, it may just be something the farrier points out during the shoeing. Although if your horse develops a crack of any size going up the foot, this weakened area is prone to grit and dirt working it’s way up and developing slight seedy toe. If your horse doesn’t wear shoes, you might find a cavity when you pick the feet out with bits of gravel stuck in there.
This is a picture of Marley’s foot, he’s owned by Laura Royall. He is a field kept Shetland that’s never been lame. However Laura discovered these cavities in his feet where bits of dirt and gravel had started working their way up the white line in his foot.
Causes.
Overgrown feet with with long toes.
Foreign objects such as grit working it’s way up the white line.
Direct trauma, if the foot is damaged from continuously kicking at the door.
It is very common in donkeys as cavities can form very easily in their white line.
Concussion to the toe. If the horse lands toe first it can cause cracks followed be seedy toe.
Treatment.
The main thing I’d do is make sure the feet are no longer flared and causing stress to one particular part of the foot. Then I’d remove all the horn around the affected area to ensure no bacteria is being stored there, also making sure no grit is still present. Then using an antibacterial solution I would flush out the affected area. I have had some good results with a natural bee’s wax product called Venice Turpentine which I would paint on. If there was a cavity I would use some cotton wool to stuff in the hole, to help absorb and retain more of the solution.
Conclusion.
The type of seedy toe you are likely to see will be very mild. Probably where the foot has become a bit flared and a small crack has formed. I have found I can make massive improvements by following the treatment plan above, and in most cases get rid of the crack within a few shoeing's. But this is rarely a condition that actually causes lameness.
Case Study
Brenda Wickenden—Dougal
History.
Dougal is a 33 year old donkey that has been owned by Brenda all his life. She actually owned his mother as well. Dougal is enjoying his layed back retirement in Henfield, whilst still getting the odd day out to go to some of the local agricultural shows with the other animals.
Problem.
I’ve been trimming Dougal for a couple of years and about once a year around spring time he gets a bad attack of seedy toe. Donkeys feet are quite different from horses--they seem to attract the gravel and stones to them! They are generally more upright with a slightly softer white line. It is very common to end up picking out bits of grit all the way round the white line. Once a bit of gravel starts to work it’s way up the white line a cavity forms. He ended up with a big part of the front of his foot not actually functioning so I removed the bulk of it to let the fresh good horn grow down.
Treatment.
I continued to see Dougal every 6 weeks and every time trimmed any necrotic horn away, and then covered the foot in Venice Turpentine. Within 4 months it had completely grown out. I have shown on the other side what his foot looked like before and then an after shot which I took at the beginning of September 05. It looked quite bad but he was never in any discomfort, and showed no signs of lameness.
Questions & Answers
Q. My pony, Polly, has got a small crack on the toe of her foot at the bottom, you said she had a little bit of seedy toe. I read on a website that with seedy toe you get Laminitis. Is this true? I’m worrying now that she’s got Laminitis.
Liz Cook
A. There is so much
misleading information on the Internet and in books try not to read too much into it all. If a horse gets Laminitis there tends to be an area of dead laminae at the toe which is easy for grit to work it’s way into and can result in seedy toe. But a small crack where just a touch of bacteria has got into is not at all related to Laminitis. So please try not to worry. It most cases it’s simply solved by removing some of the horn away from the area to let the air get to it. As with thrush the bacteria only breeds where there is no oxygen. I would then put some disinfectant on it just to kill some of the bacteria. Then it’s just a matter of being patient, as the foot grows it should grow out.
Q. Are White feet weaker than Black feet?
George Howells
A. No, this is a myth that is written in most books. They are both equally as strong, if you get a bruise or injury on a white foot it is more visible so people think they get more problems but this isn’t true.
Feedback
“I have a 4 year old Dressage horse Blue, that Beckie has been doing for the past two years. He is shod with Natural Balance shoes all round and really floats when he moves. Just recently he pulled of one off his front shoes in the field. When watching him move the foot without a shoe seemed to move just slightly better. When it came to Blue’s next shoeing I thought we should maybe try him without any shoes just to see if it improves his action. He has good solid feet so Beckie couldn’t see he’d have a problem. Later that evening when my daughter Harriet schooled him, we could see straight away that he was not happy. Strangely he was fine on the hard concrete but as soon as he was in the soft school he was lame. I called Beckie and she came out the following day to check him over. There was no obvious pain in his feet when tested. But he obviously prefers the breakover being set further back with a shoe. Thinking that it was maybe the weight of the shoe affecting his movement originally, we tried aluminium Natural Balance shoes which weigh next to nothing. He liked them straight away. Blue’s stride has definitely lengthened but time will tell as to whether his overall performance improves it’s to early to say at the moment.”
Gill Mercer
Handouts that went with this Newsletter