FOUNDERED HORSES

QUESTION: 

Dr. Teskey,

I have been a farrier in southern Illinois since 97'. I'm pleased to
announce that I have recently been researching your work and that of Dr.
Strasser and Martha Olivo. I also printed several copies of your "Breaking
Traditions" essay and handed them out to several of my clients who are
adamant about keeping shoes on. Thank you so much- it is perhaps some of the
most valuable information I've ever read.

I have several foundered horses that need to be worked on now, and I don't
even want to wait for the books and the clinic if I should be doing
something immediately. My question for you is about recently foundered
horses. While most of the horses I work on were foundered long before I even
came into the picture, I have a client who's horse foundered 3 days ago. I
was wondering how long I need to wait before trimming the feet. He was
wearing shoes and I pulled them with the vet there but didn't do any
trimming. Is there an approximate rule of thumb as far as how long I should
wait for the horse to "stabilize" or can I begin work as soon as the horse
can stand long enough?
Thanks again for everything you are doing for the horse world. I hope to
hang up my hammer very soon.

Sincerely,

K. A., Certified Journeyman Farrier

DR. TOM'S ANSWER:

Hi K,

Thanks for emailing! It's great to continually hear from farriers all over
the world that have read some of the stuff out there.

About these foundering horses: I feel like they should be trimmed
immediately, at least to remove the upward pressure on long toes and to
bring heels down at least some. With a "loose" hoof capsule or one that is
losing its attachment, lowering the heels and bringing back the toe area to
the white line will often stop further tearing immediately. It is a really
simple and fairly straightforward thing to do. We know that the *weight of
the horse from above coming down in to the coffin joint is what determines
where the coffin bone will go*, not tension on the deep digital flexor
tendon. With high heels, the more forward areas of the joint are overloaded
and the dorsal laminae are stressed and will separate...reducing the heel
height will immediately shift the loading in the coffin joint more evenly
from front to back, relieving the relatively more inflamed and/or separating
dorsal lamina. I've seen founder in the heels in horses with suspensory
breakdown and crushed, low heels, so the model works in this scenario as
well...it's just that we most often see the high heel situation...it's
epidemic, in fact. Then, if the tip of the toe is still in danger of getting
upward force from the ground, I think it really helps to roll it back to the
white line...from toe quarter to toe quarter. The analogy is lifting up on
your fingernail and ripping it off. If we remove the tip that would receive
such force from the ground, it's less likely to be torn off. Without
reducing heel height, however, it doesn't help.

I hope that helps...feel free to ask any other questions you've got...and
keep in touch if you like.

Dr. TT