# Hoof Wall Injury



## Shoupie (Mar 21, 2009)

While lunging today my gelding out of nowhere chips his hoof and tears a good chunk off. I don't think it got all the way down to the white line but I can't really tell. I've washed, sterilized, packed it with sugardine, put him in a boot and called the farrier so he can come out and put a protective shoe on him. Is there anything else I should do or do differently. I went out and raked the round pen and I can't find a single rock or debris I have no idea how he injured his foot this severely. Very frustrating it gets nice enough to work with him and get him into spring conditioning and he injures his foot.


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

If it's not past the white line it shouldn't be any big deal.. unless I'm picture it wrong. I would say the hoof was a bit long in order to chip. Keeping the walls short and beveled will prevent chipping and cracking.


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

If he's not lame, it's probably not going to be an issue.


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## Shoupie (Mar 21, 2009)

He wasn't very long at all, in fact it hasn't even been six weeks since his last trim. I wouldn't be concerned at all save for the fact that it was bleeding. I'll post pics of the hoof tomorrow when I change his bandage. It's a chunk about two inches long and one inch high. It tore off a good half an inch of hoof past his sole, it wasn't bleeding profusely but the bleeding was coming from his hoof and not from his sole.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

The sole is inside of the white line, from the hoofwall perspective. Your farrier should know what needs to be done. Post pics!


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

Will probably just need to keep it clean, sounds like he gave himself a resection. Is it on a quarter?


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## Shoupie (Mar 21, 2009)

This camera stinks but here's what it looks like. Malinda the chip is 1/2 an inch above the sole level not into it. The sole is intact just the hoof wall is missing









terrible up close shot


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

If it's bleeding, it's into sensative tissue. Seems to me you did the right thing in cleaning and treating asap.
It could be an old injury like a rock bruise that finally got close enough to the bottom to be pried loose and simply took some extra hoof wall with it when it was torn off. 
Looking at it I wonder if the shoer will be able to nail securely to the wall but he certainly can trim up the toe to relieve stress on the breakover to keep more from tearing loose near the part the came off. And clean it up so you can see if something else needs to be checked like an old infection or something (although I would think he would be lame if that were true.)
But time is really all that can help. Even if you built up that area with plastic, it would not make it able to support the nails for a shoe.

I hope he does well.

Oh- I just saw you're in no ca- me too. If you have lots of wet like I do, that can weaken a foot so that it just is too soft to hold together. Every year I fight the battle of hoof rot even though the girls are in raised paddocks all winter. This has been an unusually bad winter for wet.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

You handled the situation reasonably and I'm sure our farriers will have some great suggestions.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

You handled the situation reasonably and I'm sure our farriers will have some great suggestions. If I needed to use the horse, I'd probably consider a boot. 

where I want to, I'm thinking that you're refering to thrush when you mention hoof rot. Once upon a time, long ago, I had the profound problems with thrush and my vet gave my two great suggestions. One is a home remedy and the other is coppersept (coppertox works better but is no longer sold in Alberta), simply cover the affected area a couple times a day till the problem is solved. I use it on horses and cattle with great results. 

The only real drawback to the coppersept is that I can't seem to apply without everybod ending up looking like a Smurf - me included.


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## Jay27 (Jan 11, 2010)

Is it possible that he blew out an abcess? Was it bleeding or was fluid/blood leaking from a pocket?


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

wr- I only wish thrush. Around here the main baddie is an invasion of the white line with bacteria and/or fungus from the outside of the heel, not the frog or cleft. It is not normal white line disease, thank goodness, but a blackening of the whiteline from the part where the frog melds into the hoofwall at the heel on the outside.
I didn't even realize that the faint line there could get infected until I moved here. In fact I didn't realize there even was a line there at all. 
But,despite providing raised areas and covers, every year I end up treating for it. If not treated it makes a little rotten area just in front of the place where the bar and hoofwall meet then travels forward under the wall til suddenly a chunk of wall falls off about here the picture shows. Shudder.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

It doesn't look too bad. Your farrier should easily be able to nail around and/or through the missing hoof wall.

If this were a horse I were working on, I would probably make a bar shoe to support the missing heel portion. The horse can go back to work as soon as the shoe is on and as long as he isn't sore from the initial injury. It should grow out in 1-2 shoeing cycles, and he can then return to being barefoot.


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## Shoupie (Mar 21, 2009)

Where I want to, I'll trade you for a month. I have the opposite problem here the ground gets so dry and hard that its like concrete and the horses chip their hooves like crazy and I have to soak their feet. I don't think it was an abscess there was no foul smell and the blood was bright and fresh. Well the farrier's coming out this weekend to check him over hopefully he's got enough hoof to hold a shoe on.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Ha- I found a market for Humboldt Co mud. Now to find a cheap shipper..............


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## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

Shoupie, Sid did that EXACT same thing about 2 years ago. Freaked me out, I thought he tore his whole hoof off at first!!! Anyhow, I actually didn't do anything really different, and sure enough it grew back just fine after a couple of farrier cycles, so you should be fine! Your farrier will be able to fix him up right as rain, as Malinda said. Pretty sure it was the same scenario...stomping at flies or whatever. I found nothing he could have injured himself on, and he gets trimmed every 6-8 weeks like clockwork.


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

Hey wait a minute there Where I want to..I will raise you Georgia Clay mud (excellent for packing in hooves, and can also be used as brick material and in a pinch, as a facial) along with lots of manure. Both free!!!!


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## Shoupie (Mar 21, 2009)

I'll trade pound for pound with genuine central valley hard pan. Baked under the sun for no less than 1000 years, can be substituted for concrete or rocks when needed great for breaking shovels, t-posts, and hooves on, guaranteed not to soften no matter how long you soak it.


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