Where I used to work, we have an Appaloosa who was a former jumper. He was donated because the girl who competed with him was never certain when he would turn up lame. In the time I was there he was diagnosed with a whole host of hoof/leg issues (ring bone, laminitis, navicular, abscesses, you name it, they theorized he had it) that we treated symptomologically with varying degrees of success, until finally one day I went into the pasture to get him and he refused to get up. I finally got him back to the barn, and called out our secondary vet to finally do xrays (non-profit organization; I hadn’t been allowed to have him xrayed before this).
When the vet pulled up the xray, we all gasped (me, the vet tech, and the vet). The navicular bones in both front feet looked like small blocks (it should look like a chef hat), were porous, and had fractures running through them. In essence, both the front feet of this 1300lb horse were broken, and had been for at least several years. :eek:
We discussed euthanising him, but I had to check with his former owner first. Her dad happened to work for a vet supply company, and asked if we’d agree to his farrier ‘trying something out,’ on his dime. I did, and our farrier joined us one afternoon for the experimental shoeing so- on the off chance it worked- he could replicate it later. It took about 4 hours- the guy took a regular eggbar shoe and welded half of a steel ball on the bottom of it, so the horse could ‘rock’ his feet and take pressure off of wherever hurt him most. The horse that I could barely walk out to the crossties prior to the shoeing jumped over the fence and ran off into the pasture within minutes of the shoes being put on. :eek::eek::eek:
That was about 3 years ago; we made a few modifications (replaced the steel ball with a wooden one, then eventually went to a different shoe altogether that still needs to be hand-made) but he’s going strong. You could definitely tell when it was coming up time for a trim, as he’d slow down a little, but he’s light years away from the horse I thought I was going to bury (though he’s a pasture ornament now, no riding!).
The truly bizarre thing, we had NO CLUE AT ALL that his situation was so severe. Just a month or so before I found him in the pasture, we’d used him for basic riding with a host of our clients and staff- the heaviest of whom was pushing 300 pounds- and he never, ever showed signs of anything other than mild lameness that was treated with bute and poltices. I felt terrible.
Best of luck to your four-legged!