ALMOST AN ARTIFICIAL HOOF

Courtney was here a couple of nights ago to rebuild these nasty feet.  The bottom 1/3 of his hoofs were crumbly the first time Courtney used the the casting material a few months ago.  She has been using an epoxy type 2 stage material for quite some time to build him a sole.  His coffin bone is demineralized, so there is less than half of the bone there.  To say there isn't much stability in his feet is an understatement.  The "fake" sole really made a difference in his ability to move around comfortably

When she came out during the monsoon, the wet weather had probably caused the bottom 1/3 of the hoof to basically fall apart.  With no strong coffin bone, he had nothing to walk on.  So she said let's try using cast material to build him a foot.  

With one thing and another, she didn't get back out for almost 3 months.  She was surprised it was still on his feet, she said it only stays on horses about 3-4 weeks.  She wanted us to take it off the night before, so his feet would have a chance to dry out.  John tried every type of cutting tool he had and nothing would cut thru that material, that was wet, and flexible when she put it on.  Once it hardened it wasn't going anywhere.  Courtney came out the next day and she even had a hard time getting them off.  His feet were damp and smelly, not to mention he had about a 1/4in gap on one foot where the white line should be.  

We decided to leave him barefooted and see how he did.  John has been cleaning his feet a couple of times a day.  That gap was filling up with rocks and whatever else would fit in there.  

He'd actually been walking pretty good, but a week or so ago, he started hanging out in his pen or by the dog pen in the soft sand.  He was still walking decently, but obviously wasn't quite as comfortable as he had been.  

When Courtney came out to evaluate and decide what to do this week, she was absolutely thrilled with his feet.  She said he has more sole than he has ever had and the new hoof coming in from the coronet is tight, not crumbly.  She also told me when she was out the last time, that she was afraid we were coming down to the end.

So she decided to put another epoxy sole and strengthen the hoof with the cast material to hopefully continue to grow out good hoof.  It takes about a year to grow a hoof, so we'll see what happens.