Wearing toe of one shoe? VIDEO ADDED AND PHOTOS

Has anyone ever had a horse that substantially wears the toe of one front shoe more than the other, yet appears to be sound? Has been looked at by more than one vet, I think he looks and feels sound on it, and so does trainer. I'm talking, the left front is worn down to almost nothing at the front two weeks after getting shod! I can barely get him to six weeks in a set of shoes. Four weeks is even kind of pushing it.

If anyone has ever had this problem, please let me know what it turned out to be. I'm going to have some x-rays done on it in the next few days, starting with the left carpus (knee) area because there is some occasional popping there. Other thoughts? Neck? That's another place that I have been wondering about with this horse for a while. Feet?

I should add that he does not paw, so he is not wearing it out by pawing on pavement or anything. Additionally, he does graze with that left front foot forward ALWAYS and is a bit high/low, with the left front being his "low" foot. It is flatter, and with a more contracted heel.

He does have some hind end trouble, mostly right hind. I will see if I can find some video of him trotting recently...

Need to see the horse in motion . . . need to see lateral view of the foot when freshly shod . . .

I think I can provide both. Bear with me here!

Okay, this is going to be more complicated than I thought with the video because I'm going to have to remember how to rotate videos...

I do already have this short video up of him, but it is from last year and mostly shows canter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyHbNFa9A4Y

Sorry, these are small and kind of grainy. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymWyMSQvS1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqRGDcelKg4

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/.../Frontview.jpg
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...ontlateral.jpg
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...Frontfront.jpg
http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/...rontmedial.jpg

And photos. I believe this was the day after his last shoeing.

PS - He is in natural balance type shoes. He was in keg shoes for a short time, but they had a similar wear problem and he did not seem as comfortable in them, so we switched him back to the shoes he seems to prefer.

I would think knee too or maybe shoulder? Maybe he is toe dragging because it hurts to pick the hoof up for a normal stride. Do you see drag marks in your footing?

My horse has a sticky stifle and when its bad, she will wear the toe completely off her right hind, requiring shoes on her normally bare hoof. You can see the lines in the arena where she drags her hind and doesnt pick it up all the way.

Well, he is obviously dragging the toe a little off the ground because there is wear on it. But he drags both hinds a bit as well...so...would be hard to say what any drag marks in the arena are from (plus we share the arena with many other people).

He actually strides out slightly longer with the left front than the right. He has always stepped very slightly shorter with the right front (and also had a right front suspensory injury several years ago).

His knee seems to have normal range of motion (I can pick his leg up and touch his fetlock to his forearm without any objection from him). When jumping, he actually tucks the left front more and bends the left front knee more than the right, which I would not think he would do if he were trying to protect it. He does sometimes seem to kind of pop that left front out to the side a little when first starting to walk from a halt, which I would think might point to the knee. Whatever is going on, I think it is some kind of discomfort pushing off of the ground on either the left front or the right hind.

My other working theory if the x-rays don't show anything in the left front is that he needs his hocks done and that he is unloading the right hind (and left front) a bit quicker than normal, causing him to abbreviate the pushing off phase of the left front and drag the toe across the ground/push off from the toe differently than he does on his right front.

He prefers to land on the left lead, almost exclusively, but offers a clean lead change to the right without fuss. Has a clean lead change both ways. Is not resistant to jumping at all, and in fact seems eager to do it, which I would not expect from a horse experiencing front end discomfort. He's not particularly stoic, usually...

Blush did this. She would actually wear THROUGH the toe of her shoe:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/28091...48290005VlCFwN

(IIRC, that was about 4-5 weeks)

Her issue was arthritis in her neck causing a mild neuro deficit. We injected her neck, she did beautifully for 6 months, then regressed. We did the neck again and I got two good weeks, so I retired her. She is still not normal but has not progressed further and my farrier notes that she never seems to have toe to trim but has plenty of heel, so I assume she is still wearing her toes down.

There is a very long thread about Blush's neck issues in this forum.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simkie

Blush did this. She would actually wear THROUGH the toe of her shoe:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/28091...48290005VlCFwN

(IIRC, that was about 4-5 weeks)

Her issue was arthritis in her neck causing a mild neuro deficit. We injected her neck, she did beautifully for 6 months, then regressed. We did the neck again and I got two good weeks, so I retired her. She is still not normal but has not progressed further and my farrier notes that she never seems to have toe to trim but has plenty of heel, so I assume she is still wearing her toes down.

There is a very long thread about Blush's neck issues in this forum.

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Thank you for sharing this! You and I have previously gone back and forth on c-spine questions on this forum, and I always find your posts helpful. I've wondered about his neck for a while, actually. It does crack pretty often, but vets/chiro don't seem worried about it. His neck is almost always out when he gets chiro, I think at C-5? He did fall in his stall in March, and the shoe wear problem was only noticed after that. However, we also switched farriers and barns at that same time...so I don't have much of a "control." I did have him adjusted by my vet/chiro after the fall and she said he was not very out.

I think we will add neck x-rays to the knee x-rays.

I just double checked and it is, indeed C5 where he is habitually "out" when chiropracted.

Really? No one has comments on the hoof photos and video clips? That might be a first! I lunged this horse tonight and he is definitely uncomfortable going to the left. Hard to say where. He was just generally sullen and sucked back. He has an especially hard time going from walk to trot when tracking left. I'm really sort of thinking this might be that he needs his hocks done. He works out of most of his discomfort pretty quickly, which I would not really expect if it was his neck...right? Anyway, he is getting knee x-rays tomorrow. If those are good, I will probably inject his hocks, and if that does not improve things, haul to the clinic for neck x-rays, I guess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simkie

Blush did this. She would actually wear THROUGH the toe of her shoe:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/28091...48290005VlCFwN

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Looks like a signature TR2 shoeing job.

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Originally Posted by FineAlready

Really? No one has comments on the hoof photos and video clips?

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Have not looked at the videos yet, but I do not like the feet -- they look underrun and short shod, especially for a fresh set. Not to mention that flare on the left front. Ugh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarkspurCO

Looks like a signature TR2 shoeing job.

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Uh, what? What does that even mean?


Good luck with your guy, FA. Neck stuff sucks and I hope you have a simpler answer :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarkspurCO

Have not looked at the videos yet, but I do not like the feet -- they look underrun and short shod, especially for a fresh set. Not to mention that flare on the left front. Ugh.

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If you think these feet look underrun (which I agree that they are), you would not believe what they used to look like with a prior farrier. This is an improvement, though I agree they could be better. Some of it is also conformation. Those long, sloping pasterns don't do him any favors.

As for the "flare" - I think what you might be seeing is actually the edge of an "event ring." Long story, but he went from a place where he was rarely turned out to a place where he is out a lot. He has a lot of event rings from that. He gets them any time we move barns, but this time was really profound. I also took the one picture at an odd angle. If you look at the photo from the front of both feet, it doesn't look so flarey. To the extent there is some flare, I wonder if it is because he is loading that hoof funny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FineAlready

Really? No one has comments on the hoof photos and video clips?

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The video clips do not let me see how the foot is coming to the ground. Way too far away, so useless for gait analysis.

Shoeing looks short in the heels.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simkie

Uh, what? What does that even mean?

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Means that it resembles the work of Thom Rosen, aka "TR2" (TR squared). It's his favorite package.