by Larkin Greene
Recently, I spent time at Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School. Students in their third week of instruction were able to observe and participate in valuable lessons regarding work with therapeutic cases. I was privileged to help provide training and guidance for the treatment of the horse presented in the following photos.
Upon first glance at the foot shown below, it would be easy to look at the length and believe a proper course of action would be an aggressive trim, to find the better foot within. However, this horse was older and had very limited mobility, underrun heels and an atrophied frog. In addition, there was a significant white line resection and treatment done two months ago that was showing improvement. The students performed a conservative trim to align the pastern and dorsal wall and shod the foot for protection.
The question of whether or not to repair was discussed. There are many factors to be considered in this decision: (1) how much wall has been removed, and will it destabilize the capsule and P3?; (2) is there still wall separation, and/or pathology present?; (3) will the shoe stay on if it’s left open?; (4) is the horse’s environment going to contribute to further intrusion by bacteria and fungus?
The decision was made to do a partial repair to stabilize the hoof and protect it from a dirty environment. Because there was a soft spot in the upper portion of the defect that got a negative reaction to applied pressure, the conservative approach dictated leaving it open to allow monitoring and further treatment if needed.
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- 1. Preparation is critical to any adhesive repair. Note the resection stops where there is solid hoof wall attachment.
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- 2. The prepared area is dried with a heat gun to maximize the bond. Drying is monitored with a FootPro™ Moisture Meter to get the surface moisture level below 10%. Ideally, zero percent moisture is desirable, and was achieved this time.
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- 3. To control the heat generated by the adhesives used in the equine industry, it’s important to apply it in layers rather than all at once. Vettec Adhere will set in 60 seconds, and this first application will provide an insulating layer to prevent additional layers from transferring heat to the foot.
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- 4. Vettec Adhere is a fast setting, high strength urethane that bonds well, and can be nailed and clinched. It is similar to hoof wall, and can be nipped and rasped off as the foot grows out.
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- 5. Adhesive repairs don’t always look great until dressed with a rasp.
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- 6. When putting a rasp to a fresh repair, it’s important that the initial strokes are done in line with the longest span of the repair, in this case, horizontally. This avoids pulling at the repair and possibly weakening the bond.
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- 7. Dressing for function is far more important than aesthetics, leaving the repair on the thicker side is fine for this situation.
