| Hi Maureen, a mare at the barn I board at foundered last spring.
There are so many different degrees of founder and ways of treating
them.. I think the questions you should be asking first is when did
this horse founder, what kind of treatment/care has he received from
the beginning of it and what are you willing to put into him? The
mare at our barn went thru a toe resection at tufts. Her coffin bones
have reversed and are fairly normal, but she is still lame on and off.
She has her good days and bad. Her hooves are not totally regrown,
hopefully within a few more months they will be. Once a horse founders
they are succeptible to it much easier in the future. I think one of
the most important things is to find a Vet that you feel confident
they have enough experience with founder cases! In our case I don't
think we had that and it complicated the matter.
Good luck with your decision!
Marianne
|
| I've got more experience with a foundered horse than I certainly
ever wanted! (not than anyone ever wants that kind of experience)
My mare foundered as a result of severe liver damage from poisoning.
She foundered in all 4 feet. I put the money into x-rays, which
by the way is the only true way to see if/how much the bone has
rotated, put heart-bar shoes on her, did a hoof resection on her,
and then finally put her down. However, that doesn't mean your
horse is this bad. Missy never had a chance to recover because
the liver damage was what was causing the founder, and the liver
damage didn't get any better - I equate it to leaving a horse that
has foundered in the pasture that makes them founder. At least
if you can remove the cause they have a chance.
You need to consider many things. I have a friend whose mare founders
very easy and we didn't think she'd pull out of the last episode.
However she did and is even ridden again.
Has he been x-rayed? This will tell you the true amount of rotation.
Is he currently on bute or anything else? If he is not, and is
starting to walk better, I'd take that as a good sign.
How long has it been? The quicker founder is treated, the better.
Has there been much improvement? Do you know what caused the founder
in the first place? I would recommend not putting him out into
a field of green grass, nor giving him anymore grain than you have
to until he pulls out of it. I strongly recommend
x-rays and heart-bar shoes if you plan to save him. If you opt
for this route, please get referrals on the farrier you have put
the heart-bar shoes on - heartbar shoes incorrectly applied do more
damage than no shoes at all! (I'm speaking from experience)
One of my horses kept going lame, yet showed no signs of founder
upon exam. The farrier was convinced his coffin bone had rotated
quite a bit, but x-rays showed no rotation at all. My mare, on
the other hand definately foundered, the coffin bone rotated quite
a bit in 3 feet, yet her soles never dropped. So you really need
the x-rays.
good luck!!
Kathy
|
| Another experience, only we won! The vet is the place to start.
Get X rays to see what has happened, make sure the vet will let
you keep them for the farrier to see. Then find a farrier that will
trim the feet to the new angle of the coffin bone. The horse we
saved had over 5 % rotation. We left her barefoot to save money
plus you can't ride a foundered horse for about 6 months and they
should be trimmed every 3 to 4 weeks. Nailing shoes on sore feet
just didn't seem right. We gave her bute on really bad days but
did not keep her completely pain free because she would run around
and do herself more damage. As to diet: since he is skinny someone
may have tried to fatten him to fast which started the foot problems
in the first place. I would give him as much of the best hay you
can find as he will eat. The grain he gets should be a low protein
type say 10 to 12 % with as little corn in it as you can find.
I would also get a fecal count done for worms and get the vets advice
for worming in light of his other problems. If you've got a year
to spend for time and are a patient sort this horse may be saved.
My 2 cents,
Sandy
|
| Well we got the Xrays done - 7 degree rotation in the left front
and almost 10 degrees in the right. And he's on enough bute that
I'm uncomfortable giving it to him. Between the bute, the weight
loss and the amount of time he stood out in the field, liver damage
is a very real concern.
I'm not sure when this horse foundered. The people he came from
noticed he was sore but just left him out to pasture (figuring
that was best for him). After a while they figured that his whole
problem was that he needed shoes and pads! These are the same people
who didn't see he was a "little" thin or notice he'd gone blind
in the left eye.
I wonder why people have animals if they can't care for them?
-maureen
|
| Have you decided what you are going to do? There is another drug,
which is actually a human drug, isoxsuprine (sp?) which does something
to the blood vessels (not a pain killer) to increase circulation to
the feet. I did see improvement in my mare with this. I also put
them all on Bio-Meth, a biotin-D L Methionine supplement which helps
repair the laminae in the feet.
You can do a blood profile to detect liver damage - it ran me about
$40 for the actual blood work. That will also tell you if anything
is going on with his kidneys - which I believe can also be effected
from bute over a real extended period.
Kathy
|