The Great Coffin Bone Debate of '13

I talked to my farrier and he confirms that Walker is lame in the front feet.  Sure, his back feet are breaking away, but he's not concerned about that.  He thinks they will harden up, and while I hate to see his feet look that bad, I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Not that Walker is turned out anyway.  We are still waiting on our second (and third vet opinions).

The farrier explained to me his concern.  It's not so much the rotation of the coffin bone that worries him, but the dropped heels part.  He thinks that the coffin bone is much too low in the heel area, and if he had known that when he shod him, he would have added a little elevation and a different shoe.  He was surprised that the vet never mentioned that, but in her defense, maybe she figured that he would come to that conclusion on her own.  She was probably more blatantly concerned with the abnormal toe length and sole thickness, which were glaring problems at the time.

For your viewing pleasure and education, I have included Walker's x-rays below, as well as a handy dandy little diagram showing what all the bones and parts of the hoof look like.

Handy Dandy Diagram

left front

right front

As you may or may not know, the angle of concern with laminitis is the angle parallel to the front of the hoof wall.  According to my report, both of those are sufficient in Walker's case.  For reference, I have included an x-ray I found on the internet showing the hoof of a horse with severe laminitis.  As you can tell, the situation is quite different:

hoof with severe laminitis

Walker's issue is more of a "flat feet" kind of problem.  If you check out the other angle - the one that should not be parallel to the sole of the hoof, Walker's is much too flat compared to what it should be.  Or at least this is the concern of the farrier.  

 

He has shown the x-rays to a vet friend of his, and I emailed my old vet to see what he thinks.  Hopefully one of them will be able to give us some direction - either quiet our concerns or else simply tell us how to solve the problem.

A horse with lameness is a hard thing to watch.  If I were the hulk, I would simply throw Walker over my shoulder and carry him everywhere he wanted to go.  I hate to watch him walk!