Saga's back feet are really, really flat.
Flat like a pancake. No concavity here.
Well, maybe a teensy bit. This is his RH - the concavity is on the inside, which is sort of interesting.
You can really see the wear patterns here. Nice fat frog that is clearly making contact with the ground, along with the heel - but the sole is as well, especially in the quarters. Is that normal? My trimmer comes out this week, so I'll ask her.
And another thing that worries me - the new hoof growth is so... flaky. What's going on here? At first I thought it was just normal coronet band, but now it's extending past that. Anybody got any ideas as to what's going on?
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Flat like a pancake. No concavity here.
Well, maybe a teensy bit. This is his RH - the concavity is on the inside, which is sort of interesting.
You can really see the wear patterns here. Nice fat frog that is clearly making contact with the ground, along with the heel - but the sole is as well, especially in the quarters. Is that normal? My trimmer comes out this week, so I'll ask her.
And another thing that worries me - the new hoof growth is so... flaky. What's going on here? At first I thought it was just normal coronet band, but now it's extending past that. Anybody got any ideas as to what's going on?
Just found your blog from reading comments on Behind the Bit. I would ask your farrier about the flaky new growth. That doesn't look right to me (don't panic!). My guess is it's probably diet related, however I'm no expert so it's strictly a guess. What are you feeding him?
ReplyDeleteachieve1dream, yes, I agree it's likely diet-related. Looking back at my calendar, it could be either the Triple Crown Lite, the Strongid 2x, or the flax seed. All were added about the same time and in the right time frame (I'm guessing 2 months?) based on growth.
ReplyDeleteRed has the same issue, but it's not as noticeable. It's unlikely that it's the TC Lite, since it's a similar feed to what Red was on before (Nutrena Lite Balance). Since Red's feet are affected too, I'm guessing it's either the flax or the Strongid. Since flax is supposed to develop less flaky hooves, that points to the Strongid. I stopped feeding Strongid yesterday after doing that bit of logic, but there was nothing I could find to indicate that Strongid might cause any side effects on the feet. And of course I won't know if Strongid is the problem for probably two months.
My trimmer wasn't sure what to make of it, so no help there. But if anyone else has got any ideas, I sure would appreciate it!
I know that paste dewormer caused event lines in Chrome's hooves so I wouldn't put it past a dewormer to affect the hooves, even a daily dewormer. It doesn't look like anything that's going to be problematic so the wait and see approach shouldn't hurt anything. I also doubt it's the flaxseed because that's the opposite of what it's supposed to do lol. :) It could also be something like dew on the grass or changes in what's growing. Weird stuff like that. Good luck figuring it out! It looks like you're narrowing it down. I'm interested to see what other people might suggest too.
ReplyDeleteI've seen flaking along the coronet band, especially this time of year. I believe it's moisture related. My trimmer cleans it up and it's never caused problems, but it may be a good thing to ask about anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are NOT kidding about flat feet. Whoa!