New shoes - July 23

We had to up the ante on getting Buttercup comfortable. Forty-eight hours after getting her plain steel shoes, her comfort level dramatically decreased. So Russ came out and the new strategy is four-point shoes (also known as natural balance shoes) paired with a fake gel sole.

Her heels have been her main base of support with her soles so thin and her P3s on the ground (the breakover really hurt her). The four-point really takes advantage of her happy heels, moves the breakover back so that she isn't spending more time on the part that hurts.

The gel is copper infused so it should keep any thrush down. Normally the gel is paired with a styrofoam pad that is level with the ground. Russ filled in with the gel, but kept is just below level of the shoe with the ground, so that it acts more like a sole and minimizes impact to her tender hooves.

She is drastically more comfortable, but still not sound. Hopefully we'll see her continue to improve.

Lameness Update - July 19, 2011

So we had the vet out yesterday to try and determine underlying causes through new radiographs. I also had an ATC insulin test to test for Cushings. While Buttercup does not have the clinical appearance of a Cushings horse, she also doesn't have the clinical appearance of an IR horse either. Plus, we could support her with better medicine with Cushings and it's the cheaper of the metabolic tests.

What the X-rays revealed:

• No arthritic changes, so that's a good thing!

• Dramatic decrease in sole depth over the last year and half since the last X-rays

• Building up her heel then created downward pressure on her rotated P3, causing it more pain.

The vet recommended we go back into shoes to give her immediate comfort and my old farrier Russ was right down the road. He came over and shod her. While the vet recommended eggbar shoes with padding, Russ wanted to go with a plain steel shoe and then work from there. If she needs more than this, we will go to it in stages.

X-rays: (they got flipped)

Above view of the P3 looking for arthritic changes:

Vet shoeing Rx:

Freshly shod pics, left:

Right:

And while she's not completely sound, she's the most comfortable she's been in three months and that's good enough for me. Hopefully she will continue to improve.

We're still stumped as to why we lost all the sole depth. Maybe it was a triggered by a laminitic episode due to the rabies shot? Maybe it is a seasonal thing for her? All I know is that she lost it and we're doing what we can to make her comfortable.

That brings me to another point: Buttercup is officially retired. All this time I've been working on getting her back to the ring, back into showing, back into jumping, back into something. But I've known for a while now that's a pipe dream. I'll be happy to have her comfortable enough for the occasional trail ride. She may just be a pasture ornament for the rest of her days, but she may also come around to the point where she can go out and enjoy herself on trail. We'll see what she's up to. But she's retired — officially — at the ripe old age of 9.

Instead of a gold watch, she got steel shoes.

And recent video of her, still not sound, but at least comfortable:

Wound looks great ... but lameness mystery

Buttercup's leg wound looks fabulous! I don't even think the scar will be as apparent as it continues to heal. I'm so pleased!

What I'm not pleased about is her soundness. In all honesty, this has been going on about 12 weeks now. At first, we blamed it on the rabies shot and some re-balancing work on her hooves. Then it was the Triple Crown senior we briefly tried. Then it was bran mash to get her to eat her medecine. Then it was the stall rest and lack of circulation.

She's been out of the stall nearly two weeks and her soundness has not improved. She's sounder on harder surfaces and really ouchie on soft surfaces. Scott said that's because of the pressure around the hoof.

It looks to be ouchie near the toe on the outside of the hoof. She's weighting the inside of her front left and landing heel first.

I called up my old farrier today and he agreed to come look at her tomorrow. I'm pretty upset about the lameness and I'm just not certain what the root cause is. I just want her to be comfortable.

Scott said this may happen every summer with her laminitic condition. Her being uncomfortable for months at a time just doesn't fly with me. So if we have to shoe her or take other measures to get her comfortable during these tough months, I want to explore that option.

Here are her hooves from about four weeks ago while on stall rest:

They look even better now, in my opinion. The hooves structurally look like they should be healthy. There is no bounding pulse in that front left either. She has been booted in the meantime just give her a level of comfort.