Feet Crumbling.... Help

[bhebert19]

Hey guys, my horses feet are crumbling from at the nail holes... I don't know if I should have the farrier reset her with nails or glue ons... Its been so dry and HARD here... they were crumbling the last time she was reset too... Unfortunately my farrier was out of town then and he is out of town now so I had his intern do her last time and I was not SUPER impressed she did ok but I don't know she is 20 less then my very experienced farrier and at 140 less the tip for a full reset and to me thats a lot for a intern... Anyways I need to try to get someone out her in the next week to do her and I don't know if I should just ask them to put glue ons, on so her foot has time to heal or what.... So frustrating... Her feet have never been this bad... She is on a hoof supplement Smart Hoof and she get TC senior for her grain... and before that she was on Ultium which are both very low in NSC %... So I really thinks its because of the environment but I don't know what to do... Please help!?!? :cry: Thank you everyone in advance... :)

[fivehorses]

does she need shoes?

Not sure what is in your hoof supp, but I use master's hoof blend...it was what I was told to use after my horse had basically sliced half his hoof off thru the coronary band.
I also used it on a horse with shelley feet, in 6 months, you could see the huge difference.
Just make sure your supp is of good quality and has the right ingredients to make a hoof strong. It takes a year for a hoof to grow out entirely.

Also, you could use topical products too. Sorry, I don't know a lot about this, so will let others chime in to give suggestions.

[Kiwayu]

I'm a huge fan of Farrier's Formula. I've noticed a HUGE difference in my horrible hooved OTTB. At one point I tried taking him off of it, and his feed went to sh*t.

[caballus]

Do you have photos you could post?

[twofatponies]

You tip your farrier???

[LLDM]

Formaldehyde. You can get it from your vet. Only use on the wall where it is cracking. You can use some on the sole, but nowhere near the frog, coronet band or any other soft or living tissue.

It's great for nail holes, chops, cracks and any other place bacteria and fungi can get a foothold in the hoof. Be really careful with it. Don't get it on yourself! It kills all sorts of things - including skin tissue.

SCFarm

[matryoshka]

Out of curiosity, how long are you going between resets? Nail holes degrade over time, especially when the walls get long, the shoe loosens, or if the nails were set low. I'm not a farrier, though. I stick to trimming.

You could also ask your question on www.horseshoes.com (http://www.horseshoes.com), but I'd avoid criticising the intern (do you mean apprentice?).

[Carol O]

My horse has potentially bad hoofs, that have never been allowed to get bad. One of the tricks with him is lettting plenty of time between resets. I can let him go 10-12 weeks in the cooler months, 8-10 in the hot fly stomping months. For the first couple of years I had him I never went longer than 7, but I had constant weak points when the nail holes were too close together.

I don't endorse doing this for every horse... It took me a while to learn that my white footed, slow growing boy needed.

Good luck!

[bhebert19]

Out of curiosity, how long are you going between resets? Nail holes degrade over time, especially when the walls get long, the shoe loosens, or if the nails were set low. I'm not a farrier, though. I stick to trimming.

You could also ask your question on www.horseshoes.com (http://www.horseshoes.com), but I'd avoid criticising the intern (do you mean apprentice?).

I am sorry if you took it as me criticizing the intern/apprentice... I was stating that I was not super impressed and that I thought she was a little pricey considering she is still a apprentice... But what do I know... I just want to do whats best for her feet... :)

She is done every six weeks...Maybe I will post on the other site... Thank you.

[matryoshka]

I am sorry if you took it as me criticizing the intern/apprentice... I was stating that I was not super impressed and that I thought she was a little pricey considering she is still a apprentice... But what do I know... I just want to do whats best for her feet... :)

She is done every six weeks...Maybe I will post on the other site... Thank you.I didn't take it as a criticism, but wanted you to avoid getting flamed over on horseshoes. They are quite touchy when they think somebody is dissing one of their own. If you want to get good information, you have to avoid appearing to criticize your farrier. ;)

[bhebert19]

You tip your farrier???

Yeah... I think they are doing me a service and I think you should tip for a service if they do a good job.... Just my feeling... I like people to know I appreciate what they do because you will not see me under horses for 8 hours a day... ;)

[bhebert19]

[QUOTE=matryoshka;4339297]I didn't take it as a criticism, but wanted you to avoid getting flamed over on horseshoes. They are quite touchy when they think somebody is dissing one of their own. If you want to get good information, you have to avoid appearing to criticize your farrier. ;)[/QUOTE

Thank you for the heads up!! :)

[bhebert19]

Do you have photos you could post?

I will try to get some tomorrow... I just don't want it to become some big thing about shoeing vs barefoot or this ways right and this ways wrong type of thing... I guess that is why I was a little hesitant...

[matryoshka]

I will try to get some tomorrow... I just don't want it to become some big thing about shoeing vs barefoot or this ways right and this ways wrong type of thing... I guess that is why I was a little hesitant...And also why it might be more productive to ask over on horseshoes. There are plenty of arguments over there, but not so much about shoes vs. barefoot. Also, avoid talking about the price. That tends to set them off as well.