I am not an expert, but I do have some experience with trimming a friend’s Arab mare that was severely foundered. There was significant rotation, but I don’t know the exact number of degrees. The vet, and the special farrier that the vet uses, both agreed that the mare was ‘doomed’. They predicted that her coffin bone would penetrate her sole in a week or two. They were both ready to put her down, but my friend wasn’t willing to do that. She looked around for other options and opinions. She found the Yahoo Founder Forum that has been mentioned, and got some good contacts from there. The mare is now basically sound, and apparently pain-free.
I know what worked for this mare, and in one way it seems to be the complete opposite of the protocol that your farrier and vet are advocating for Sophie. We were advised to lower the heels as much as possible, and you are being told to use wedges to raise the heels. I’m not saying that your vet and farrier are wrong, but I am suggesting that if you aren’t happy with the results that you are getting, that you might consider other farrier/trimming options before you make a decision to euthanize her.
There is a lot more to the trimming method we used, but one of the main ideas of the protocol was to lower the heels as much as possible. There is a lot of actual science behind the reasons to lower the heels. Of course, it is more than just lowering the heels, but that is one of the absolute cornerstones of the process. You also have to ‘pull’ the toe back to help the foot break-over sooner in the stride. The shape of the bottom of the foot is important too. You want the largest bearing surface that you can get on the bottom of the foot. You want to un-weight the walls. I can’t possibly describe it in detail here though. But, again, they want the heels as low as possible. From a practical standpoint, this physically puts the coffin bone into a more ‘normal’ position. Wedges raise the heels and point the coffin bone at an even steeper angle.
At first, had to trim quite often to maintain the angles on the hoof. Because of the physical changes in the hoof after the coffin bone rotates, the horse’s foot tends to grow heel faster than toe. (this is what give the ‘typical’ look of a foundered foot, and can lead to the ‘elf’ toed feet you sometimes see). The reason the heels to grow faster is that when the coffin rotates, the bones tip forward and push forward toward the top of the hoof capsule. This creates pressure and slows the circulation at the front of the hoof, while the back of the foot has no restriction in the blood supply. The hoof wall grows faster when it has normal blood flow. So, the heels will grow faster than the toe. We trimmed the Arab weekly for quite a while so that we could keep the heels low, otherwise, it was a cycle of heels grow, then trimmed low, then grow tall, then trimmed down again (angle up, angle down, up, down, etc). By trimming weekly at first, we didn’t have a see-saw of changes, and it didn’t let the foot get so out-of-whack at any time.
It is possible for the coffin bone to de-rotate. I have an x-ray of the rotation when it was really bad, and x-rays taken later that show that the rotation is much better. Unfortunately, my computer crashed and I lost the newer x-ray, but I would be happy to post the ‘bad’ photo. However, I can’t upload anything. If someone wouldn’t mind posting it for me, I can email it (
[email protected]). If anyone is interested in comparing the differences, I can see about getting another copy of the ‘later’ x-ray. I know the owner still has copies. (I do have permission to share the photos on the internet.)
The owner also put pads on the horse’s feet to help keep her comfortable. These were foam (more like kneeling pad material, not styrofoam). These gave the foot some padding and helped to distribute the weight across the bottom of the foot. She was also very careful about her diet. She soaked and rinsed the grass hay to wash out as many sugars as possible. There were days when the mare laid down much of the time. We had a couple of abscesses form, and during those times she would be acutely lame again. It was a lot of work and time involved for the owner, but she didn’t feel the horse was ready to give up yet, so she didn’t either. However, even the owner will admit that she might not have been able to pull a different horse though the same thing, this horse seemed to know we were trying to help her. It is an individual thing for every animal, and for each owner. Each horse handles pain differently, and not all owners have the time and resources to spend. I hope you find the best solutions for Sophie and yourself.
