Michelle
Wisky at home and post trim pictures of her two front feet.
Hi Michelle,
These are the most recent pictures of Wisky at home. Ann, her new trimmer, is working on her now and is diligent about keeping me posted on her progress.
Honestly, she isn't moving very well right now as she's in a great deal of pain in one front. But we're hoping she working on festering out another abscess and this pain will pass.
As for the Hawthorne Sole Pack: yes, when she was here, I pressed it in all around her frogs. I will cover the entire bottom of their foot with it sometimes under pads and casts, or boots. In boots, you may want to wrap the foot first with vet wrap as feed that that I'm hearing is that it can get slippery and cause the boots to shift.
Also, it will turn the hoof, boots pads or whatever it comes in contact with black. Not a problem for the hoof, it just doesn't look good for a little while.
Whenever I see any separation in the hoofwall, I always pack the crevices with the packing material, so the wall is packed with that, rather than dirt and small rocks.
I've seen HSP work wonders on hooves in a very short time!
I used it on a pretty severely foundered gelding a over a month ago, a T-walker that foundered 2 years ago and attempts to help him with shoes and pads failed. I was called in, but his owner couldn't give me much time to get him back before considering euthanasia, as she'd been through so much with him already.
I trimmed him and packed his feet with HSP and booted him. The sole pack wasn't left in his foot long though because it was slippery and caused the boots to shift around so the owner removed it.
Even so, he's moving really well now and it's only been 3 trims spaced about 5 weeks apart. That's longer than I normally like to go when I'm first transitioning a horse, but many owners are accustomed to farrier schedules and we get what we get. His owner can see the obvious progress so he gets a new lease on life. He's even trotting around his pasture now. I'm thrilled!
I'm also working on a mare who has been abscessing severely for a couple years and again, the work to rehab her was done with shoes and pads and same story. After a few trims, she is improving. Her owner let her go to a new home as she couldn't afford to feed a horse that was not sound, but I think the horse's new situation will turn out to be a win-win-win for all involved.
So, to be sure, we can't save them all, but we can sure save most of them if we can just get them out of the dang shoes. And we have even better luck if foundered or abscessing horse never go into shoes in the first place. But we can't change that until we change traditional therapies for horse hooves.
I may be going to see Wisky soon. So I'll be able to better update.
Thank you for your interest and if there is any else I can do to help in your situation. Please feel free to let me know.
Pat
