Foot Work

For any of you who are interested in my adventures with hoof trimming....you may remember that I have mentioned (click here and here)working on riding Buddy's horses, Hawkeye, Lakota and Izolde.  Poor Hawkey has been having severe hoof problems for several years now, longer than I have known him in fact.  There is no one thing that I can point at and say "this is where things went wrong".  His troubles are the culmination of a lifetime of poor farrier work, most of it prior to Riding Buddy owning this horse.  When his feet really fell apart, they did so pretty spectacularly.

When my horses, who had always had good feet prior to my move to my current location, also started having similar trouble, I began studying, researching and studying some more.  I eventually took over doing all of my own farrier work.  It wasn't something I ever thought I would do (so little ever is!), it was self defense.  More out of desperation then anything else, I started working on Hawkeye as well.  After all, I couldn't possibly do a worse job then the professionals already had.  RB and I were having serious discussions about the possibility of euthanasia being in Hawkeye's near future and that folks, would have been a crying shame.  He is some nice horse and incredibly fun to ride.

I have been working on Hawkeye for about 9 months now and those months have been plagued by self-doubt and uncertainty.  We have seen a lot of improvement in the past few months, but I was starting to wonder if I had really made that much difference.  And here is where I am very glad of the few photos I have taken of his feet.  I was rather lackadaisical and careless about it, but I know I will do better in future.  Because, when I finally went back through those photos this weekend, I can see that we have made more progress than I thought.  

This photo was taken a few months after I started working on Hawkeye.  Believe it not, this foot is actually better then what is was the year before.

This photo of the bottom of his foot shows a bit better what some of the problems were.  Take note of the crevices on the left and right side of the hoof.  Those crevices were more than an inch deep.  Hawkeye had already had a radical hoof-wall resection done, it had grown out and the white-line disease was worse than ever.  It is hard to see because of the camera angle, but the bottom of his foot is actually convex.  There should be about a half inch of concavity in the middle of his foot.  Poor Hawkeye was walking purely on the sole of his foot and the hoof walls, which should be supporting him, did not touch the ground.  He had badly contracted heels and a deep seated infection in the sulcus of the heel (that's the deep crevice in the back of his foot).

Here is some of what the problem is: (please bear with my feeble attempts at computer drawing)

The blue lines show the way the hoof tubules were growing, notice how they all curve forward and the line at the back of the foot is almost as long as the one at the toe and it is crushed forward.  The white lines are a vague approximation of what the foot should look like.

The white line labeled "2" shows the angle that the foot is trying to grow.  The line at "1" shows how long, wide and straight the heel should be.  The white line at "3" shows approximately where the toe would be if the foot were growing properly. 

This next photo is what the foot looks like as of April 13th....

Here is the same photo with more of my white and blue lines.  The blue lines are where the hoof is right now and the white is where it will hopefully be in a couple more months.  Notice especially how much shorter and more upright the blue lines at the heel are and how much less of a gap there is between the blue and white line at the toe.  We have come a long, long way.

From the bottom...all of the crevices are gone.  Gone completely! No amount of treating these feet with resection or soaking in White Lightening, CleanTrax, sugar-dine, you-name-it, helped.  Once we started trimming for healthy growth, the white-line disease went away on its own.  Also, his heels, which were so severely contracted have spread nearly an inch farther apart.....   

and, he now has a 1/4 inch of concavity with solid hoof wall holding him up.

The thing that gets to me the most though, can't be photographed.  When I first met Hawkeye, I thought he was a rather aloof, stand-offish sort.  He did not engage and always seemed rather withdrawn and uninterested.  He was hard to catch and for several months after I started working on his feet, he would actively avoid me.  Now, he is a different horse.  He is friendly, charming and enjoys interaction.  It made me realize that he has never been aloof or stand-offish, he has been in pain and now he isn't.

I will be taking more photographs of feet from now on because I really needed to see these and I needed to write it all out.  It helps give me the courage to keep at this.

If you folks out there are not bored to death yet and are interested in more hoof studies, I will share what I am doing with Lakota.  He is, believe it or not, an even tougher case than Hawkeye.  Let me know.:)

A Foot Update

It feels like progress has slowed a bit with Ramsey's foot.  The hoof wall is still growing fast, but the sole has a long way to go yet.  I think there is still a lot of dead tissue that needs out grow out before we get healthier hoof.  The back of the hoof wall keeps curving in toward the frog more and more as well.  I don't know if that is caused by the internal damage to the foot or the constant bandaging.  Since it has not happened on the other side of the hoof, I suspect the former with the latter possibly being a contributing factor.  I will share these photos with the vet, see what he says.

Right after I took these photos, I massaged some of my ointment into the foot and all of that scaly stuff on the side finally came off.

To me, it looks like the coronet band has become oddly stretched and elongated.  I have not ever seen anything like this before.  I really think it is the result of 3 months of constant bandaging and I have been trying to think of different ways to wrap the foot that would allow more air circulation, but I haven't come up with anything yet.  It has to be foolproof so I haven't dared experiment much.

In spite of how odd everything looks, Ramsey seems very sound on the foot.  He moves easily and freely with no limp and no sign of pain so I am not terribly worried.  I have been trimming the foot just a little bit each week, hoping to maintain it in tiny steps rather than trim it all at once weeks from now.  I think we will see much healthier growth once he can go without a bandage.

Speaking of bandages, I had been trying to stretch out the bandage changes to every 3-4 days, but I think I am going to have to go back to doing it every other day.  The back of his heels get so dry that the bandage rubs and chafes, making it sore.  I am still using my beeswax salve on it, which has really helped, but it needs to be reapplied more often.  I don't want him to get sore and I certainly don't want it to get infected again.  His heels were looking really good, but we seem to be losing ground so, back to every other day.  Not only is this time consuming, but between bandage materials and medicine, it costs about $10 every time I change it.  Oh well.  I have been trying to make the bandage lighter, but....

When I did this bandage change, I noticed that Ramsey now has a tiny white spot.  I don't think it is genetic though, it certainly wasn't there before.  It looks to me like a tiny scar, which often grow back in white.  It makes me wonder if this could have been the original injury that caused all of this.  I always assumed that it was a stone bruise that started everything, but it is possible that a puncture wound in the leg could have been the route in for bacteria. 

Both of the donkeys love to scrounge and nibble in whatever brush they can find, Ramsey could easily have punctured his leg on a twig or thorn.  Given how tiny this spot is and how thick and dark Ramsey's fur is, I doubt I would ever have seen it.  The actual scar under that white fur is about the size of a sesame seed.  

Ah well, now Ramsey can boast of a light point after all.

The Foot Today

I got a few pictures of Ramsey's foot this afternoon during the bandage change. 

The farrier at Cornell took off a lot of excess hoof.  The constant bandaging has made the coronet band flatten and creep upwards giving the foot a stretched and overly long look.  The foot is still overly long, but it couldn't be cut back any further, it will have to wear back over time once the bandage is no longer needed.

As you can see from the position of the surgical hole, the foot has grown over an inch since he had surgery.  Hopefully, once it grows out enough that the it no longer needs bandaging, it will start growing and wearing more normally.  I have never seen a foot that has had to remain bandaged for so long and the results are interesting.  It definitely shows how too much constricture can cause problems.  I often see horses with hoof problems that I believe are caused by wearing too-small shoes.  Ramsey's foot certainly demonstrates how those problems begin. 

I think that with careful trimming, I will be able to correct the issues in Ramsey's foot over time once we can get back to normal.  The foot is too tall and the heels are very contracted.  Both are very common problems for young donkeys and they have been exacerbated by 10 weeks of bandaging. 

The bottom of the foot shows that will still have quite a ways to go.  Sorry for the odd camera angle, the foot isn't really that off-center, it's just darned hard to get pictures.  Another case of needing more than two hands.

The spot just in front of my finger is where the sensitive, internal structures of the foot are still exposed.  If you follow the curve of the foot upwards, you can see light and dark patches in the sole.  The light color on the right is healthey sole, the grey and black on the left is where the abscess traveled under the sole, undermining the whole hoof.  All of that black and grey is going to die off and be repleced over time.  You can really see just how extensive the infection was as there isn't much healthy sole left.  The foot will have to stay clean, dry and bandaged until good hoof grows over the internal strucures and he has a bit more healthy sole to support him. 

He is going to loose a lot more of the frog as well (that's the dark, triangular bit at the back of the foot), but it will regenerate with time.  I think he will have to regrow the whole foot before it is normal again, which may take as much as a year, but I think we will get there.  Someday.

Another Foot Update

I took these photos during yesterday afternoon's bandage change.  There has been a great deal of hoof growth recently and the growth is somewhat distorted because of the hole in the foot.  Growth comes from the top down and is stimulated by pressure from below, the hole makes the pressure uneven which makes the growth uneven.  The hoof wall will have to completely grow out before the hoof will even up again. 

I am pleased with the amount of growth though.  I have actually trimmed the foot twice now and it is still far too long.  The hole in the foot is already reaching the ground, which means there has been at least a half inch of growth in the past few weeks. 

I am nervous of trimming more however, because the sole of his foot where the original abscess was is also dying off and a large hole has developed there.  It is connected to the hole in the side of the foot and it is clear that a large section of the hoof, including wall and sole is going to slough off and eventually be replaced.  I don't think any of us were expecting that.  I am just a bit worried that too much hoof will fall off all at once and weaken the entire hoof capsule.

It is amazing how much a hoof can regenerate given a chance, but there has to be enough hoof to support the animal and maintain cohesion while it grows.  Ramsey is sound on it and it is growing at an amazing rate so I think it is OK, I just don't dare trim it more.  If you look closely, you can see a hole in the sole that connects with the hole in the hoof wall.  What doesn't show in the photo, is that quite a bit of the sole around that hole is spongy and dead.  I can peel it off with my fingernail so it clearly is not doing anything.  I removed the really soft portions, but left anything that might help maintain structural integrity.

Ramsey is due (overdue actually because of the holidays) to go back to Cornell for a checkup and a new set of x-rays.  I am going to be making an appointment for him on Monday.  I am hoping to have the farrier there examine and trim the foot and hopefully, he can show me just how much I can trim back without causing harm.  They had talked about putting an acrylic patch on the foot if it is healed enough on the inside and I think it may be time for that.  The patch would replace the dead hoof and support the foot while it grows out. 

The heel bulbs are still tender, but have healed well.  The white-ish stuff you can see here is my beeswax salve which has helped a great deal.  I think it has helped with hoof growth as well.  Every time I change the bandage, I massage the salve into the entire coronet band and I have seen a dramatic increase in growth since I started doing that.  It may not look pretty yet, but it is healing and most importantly, it does not bother Ramsey much at all now.   It's progress anyway

The Foot

A number of people who have donkeys of their own have sent me emails expressing interest in what has happened to Ramsey's foot and how it was treated.  I took these photos yesterday to show you what it looks like and as a way for me to better track his progress.  Since I look at it every day, it can be hard to see progress.

Be warned, these are bit graphic.  If you are not interested in such details, you might want to skip this post.

Ramsey had a lateral hoof-wall resection done so that the surgeon could access the coffin bone, which was infected.  About 1/4 of the coffin bone was removed.  There is a fair amount of granulation tissue, but obviously, it needs a lot more.  I am treating this part of his hoof with a chelated silver solution.  I soak a piece of gauze in the solution, put it directly in the hole and use conforming gauze to wrap over it.

As the hoof grows from the top down, the hole will move farther and farther down toward the ground and eventually grow out.  The resection is causing him surprisingly little pain at this point.  He no longer even flinches when I replace the gauze packing.  Hopefully, when he goes back to Cornell in four weeks, the foot will be healed and grown out enough that they can put an acrylic patch over the hole and eliminate the need for a bandage until it grows out completly.

The most painful part right now is the back of his heel.  You can see, just where my thumb is and at the coronet band above the resection, that the hide is scurfing off where the bandage has rubbed and the abscess broke out. 

I used a small amount of icthammol on that area and I am going to try some of the beeswax salve that I make.  I think it will provide a protective barrier and help keep things soft.  The foot is in need of a trim, but that cannot be done at this time.  

I need Ramsey to stand still and quiet while I change his bandage.  While he does tie fairly well, he is too wiggly without a distraction.  I have found that if I offer him something good to eat, he will stand quietly and allow me to do just about anything while the food holds out.  Since I do not want him overeating and he should not get any grain, I have been giving him a small handful of timothy hay pellets soaked in water (you can get the pellets at TSC).  They are the perfect choice for animals who should not get carbohydrates and I have used them to completely replace the minuscule amount of grain my equines were getting, none of them need grain.  All of them actually like the hay pellets better than sweet feed, which surprised me.  The pellets contain nothing but timothy hay and a small handful keeps Ramsey happily occupied for nearly 30 minutes.   

That 30 minutes gives me ample time to get this done....