Mostly Good News

Cupid saw the vet this morning, and thankfully it was mostly good news.  After listening to me relay the backstory (recent tight back and time off, occasional short stride seeming from the LF, recurring abscesses including presently in LF, bucking at the show) the vet started by watching Cupid jog on hard ground, then we did a flexion test, and then trotted and cantered on the lunge good footing.  The vet felt it was all coming from the LF hoof.  He said he could administer a block, but was pretty confident in the diagnosis.  So we pulled the shoe and took some x-rays of the LF hoof.  The good news is there are no changes from the last x-rays 2.5 years ago, no inflamation or rotation, and overall the vet thought the minor trimming changes did yield some improvement in the overall shape.  He also said it wasn't a problem with bacteria entering through the white line. 

4 weeks into the shoeing cycle

Part of the problem is his LF hoof is a bit smaller/more narrow then the RF.  His soles are on the thinner side, but not dangerously so.  The area Cupid was sensitive to hoof testers is on the inside hoof wall by where the clip is.  I had been carefully watching the larger chip in the front but didn't realize the area under the clip was a bit eroded.  I don't recall how long we've been doing clips, we added it a while back since he is prone to pull shoes, but the vet said that the downside of the clips is they don't allow the hoof to expand.  He explained it as a balloon on a stick, and when you push the stick down the balloon expands over the ground if that makes sense.  I didn't really realize the hoof does that!  So the clip creates a bit of a pressure point where the hoof can't expand.

The vet's recommendation is to do some corrective shoeing, and he is going to discuss options with our farrier.  The aim is to increase the load bearing surface.  The vet said we will probably try something temporarily, perhaps a frog support pad, see how that goes, then (hopefully before the winter mud) depending on how things look see where to go.

Others options we discussed: glue-on shoes (very expensive, doesn't stay on, except when you need to get it off they're difficult, but they do give the foot more flexibility); copper nails (they look cool; probably wouldn't help but they couldn't hurt and may have some small benefit); bar shoes (not ideal in turnout); feed through supplements (he's currently on Farrier's Formula, vet said he hasn't seen definitive proof it does anything but again doesn't hurt). 

Once the feet are sorted out we will also re-evaluate and see if there is anything else we need to address.  But for now the vet thought his back and hind end all looked fine.  Teeth were fine too, I forgot they had actually gotten done fairly recently.  Now if only there was a simple fix for my riding!