# Rings on hooves?



## Lakotababii (Nov 28, 2010)

IMO your diet is working :wink:

Those "rings" you see are the new growth of the hoof that meets the old growth (the stuff that was there when you bought her). The new growth looks thicker and healthier, whereas the old growth is thinner, although not bad. The girl may just be getting better vitamins and minerals, and therefore her feet are growing in better. I wouldn't worry about the rings unless they crack. Most of the time these are normal with a diet change or supplement. They will most likely go away when her old growth grows out and is clipped off. 

Once again, just my opinion, but I think it means that her feet are on the right track


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## bubba13 (Jan 6, 2007)

Has she been sound throughout all of this?


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## Kymbadina (Oct 29, 2010)

Good diet and environment change My farrier just dismissed my geldings rings and explained that they change with environment and diet.  the rings on my gelding were aged to be just before we got him.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

Lakotababii said:


> IMO your diet is working :wink:
> 
> Those "rings" you see are the new growth of the hoof that meets the old growth (the stuff that was there when you bought her). The new growth looks thicker and healthier, whereas the old growth is thinner, although not bad. The girl may just be getting better vitamins and minerals, and therefore her feet are growing in better. I wouldn't worry about the rings unless they crack. Most of the time these are normal with a diet change or supplement. They will most likely go away when her old growth grows out and is clipped off.
> 
> Once again, just my opinion, but I think it means that her feet are on the right track


Ok, I was thinking that what you said could be a possibility, I just wasn't sure. She's due for a trim soon so I'll still get the farrier to check it out.



bubba13 said:


> Has she been sound throughout all of this?


She has only been "ouchy" right after we trimmed her the first time (she hadn't been trimmed in around 6 months and even so, I don't know if an actual farrier did it). Also, for the past couple of days she's seemed a little stiff but it's been rainy lately and it is very slippery. When I was working Monday morning all of the horses were running and jumping around and I personally witnessed two horses who slipped and fell hard. 




Kymbadina said:


> Good diet and environment change My farrier just dismissed my geldings rings and explained that they change with environment and diet.  the rings on my gelding were aged to be just before we got him.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Ok thanks!


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Hi, 

Those rings may signify a laminitic event or may signify the end of an ongoing lami period, which based on the little info you've given, sounds like that is likely. Depending on how quickly her feet are growing, the change/rings happened around 2-6 months ago. Ensuring she's not overfed, correctly supplemented and kept on a low-carb, high fibre diet is so important for hooves.

She's got quite overgrown feet, so I'd be inclined to keep her well trimmed more frequently. She's quite flared all round, but it appears the top growth is a lot tighter connected, showing better diet is working. Backing up/rolling those flares so the walls aren't loaded should allow the well connected growth to come down unhindered.

hoofrehab.com & barehoofcare.com are 2 great sites to learn a lot more about hoof care & the factors that effect this. Good Hoof Photos - How to take Good Hoof Photos is somewhere to learn about taking good pics for critique.


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

loosie said:


> Hi,
> 
> Those rings may signify a laminitic event or may signify the end of an ongoing lami period, which based on the little info you've given, sounds like that is likely. Depending on how quickly her feet are growing, the change/rings happened around 2-6 months ago. Ensuring she's not overfed, correctly supplemented and kept on a low-carb, high fibre diet is so important for hooves.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your imput. My comments are bold.


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

I'll post the new pictures tomorrow when I have access to my laptop. We have scheduled a farrier to come out tomorrow and give her a trim and his imput. I'll post pictures of her feet after the trim ASAP. Also, we schedualed our vet to come out either this Thursday or next Thursday (I can't remember) to come out and take an X-ray on the worst hoof. 

I have a question, why would there be rings on all four hooves that resemble founder / laminitis symptoms but she has shown no signs of lameness, tenderness and there is no detectable heat in them?


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Arksly said:


> I have a question, why would there be rings on all four hooves that resemble founder / laminitis symptoms but she has shown no signs of lameness, tenderness and there is no detectable heat in them?


Because 'sub clinical' laminitis may be very mild or short lived, so you may have missed the day(s) when it was actually happening or caused discomfort. It's possible, if her feet are slow growing(from previous ill health/diet) that the actual lami 'event' happened prior to you getting her too. Lameness often only tends to happen in acute or chronic lami, as does bounding pulse, stance, etc.


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## bntnail (Feb 3, 2011)

loosie said:


> Because 'sub clinical' laminitis may be very mild or short lived, so you may have missed the day(s) when it was actually happening or caused discomfort.


"Subclinical" means there are no clinical signs/symptoms detectable, therefore one would most certainly "miss" it.:wink:


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

The farrier came out yesterday and said that there isn't anything wrong with her hooves apart from the fact of their length. We are still going to get the right fore X-rayed just to be sure. I was too sick to go to the barn yesterday so I'm going out tonight.


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

The vet came out yesterday and did a hoof test. She said that her feet were a little weird but she wasn't sure if it was founder or laminitis (On a side note she said that she has incredibly soft souls). She suggested that we did an x-ray on her right front (the worst one). It turns out that she had foundered in November/December of 2010. She said that there was a slight rotation and that she was what they called a "sinker". So she x-rayed to left fore and it was the same. She said that it wasn't too bad but she needed to loose 50-100lbs and keep it off. Also, she isn't allowed to be on grass, a round bale, or any grain. She also said that there was a suprising amount of founders in the 

We moved Kitty into the 'diet' feild where she will only be getting hay and a tiny bit of grass and she will be going on a serious work-out schedual to shred those extra pounds.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

So glad you had the vet out and have her on a plan to get her going well again.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

bntnail said:


> "Subclinical" means there are no clinical signs/symptoms detectable, therefore one would most certainly "miss" it.:wink:


I agree that *should* be the definition. Unfortunately it seems common that what people(inc some vets) refer to as 'subclinical' does indeed have quite obvious signs/symptoms.... it's just that many times they're missed because not recognised. Sounds like Arskly's farrier is one of those who didn't understand what he was seeing. Commonly people appear to refer to anything that doesn't cause severe lameness and 'the stance' as 'subclinical'.

Arksly, if your horse has thin, soft soles, it will be important to give them enough protection/support to enable her to exercise *comfortably* & therefore use her feet properly & not do any further damage. Boots with pads are generally suitable for this. Katy Watts | Safergrass.org is one source of info on diet as it relates to hooves/laminitis, that you might want to study. To cut down on hay consumption but still ensure she can eat little & often, a 'slow feeder', such as a doubled hay net, some heavy mesh over a feed bin or such may be in order. Pretty sure safergrass has some ideas there, if you need to learn more about that.


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

loosie said:


> I agree that *should* be the definition. Unfortunately it seems common that what people(inc some vets) refer to as 'subclinical' does indeed have quite obvious signs/symptoms.... it's just that many times they're missed because not recognised. Sounds like Arskly's farrier is one of those who didn't understand what he was seeing. Commonly people appear to refer to anything that doesn't cause severe lameness and 'the stance' as 'subclinical'.
> 
> Arksly, if your horse has thin, soft soles, it will be important to give them enough protection/support to enable her to exercise *comfortably* & therefore use her feet properly & not do any further damage. Boots with pads are generally suitable for this. Katy Watts | Safergrass.org is one source of info on diet as it relates to hooves/laminitis, that you might want to study. To cut down on hay consumption but still ensure she can eat little & often, a 'slow feeder', such as a doubled hay net, some heavy mesh over a feed bin or such may be in order. Pretty sure safergrass has some ideas there, if you need to learn more about that.


Thank you for the link I will definitely look into that. The vet said that her soles are suprisingly thick and that the farrier didn't take enough off. So, we are having another farrier out on the 11th to trim them and we'll see what she has to say (she was recomended by another trusted farrier who we've known for a while but just can't find the time to drive all the way out to where we are). 

As for her feeding the barn we are at now is definitely not ideal but it's the best we can find at the current time. Of course we are keeping our eyes open for a better place. We were going to move to a different barn but that would mean that she'd be on green pasture 24/7 which would definitely not be good. So, we are staying where we are so she will get little to no grass. 

We can't really control the amount of hay she will get. But she won't have any access to grain.

Do you have any recommendations on any supplements, if any, we should feed her? Or any thing to improve the quality of her hooves? Thank you so much in advanced.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Arksly said:


> The vet said that her soles are suprisingly thick and that the farrier didn't take enough off.


Be interested to see pics(not that pics can give real accuracy tho), and the radiographs? Thick soles are generally the opposite of 'sinkers'. Also if her soles are soft - yield under strong thumb/light hoof tester pressure, this also indicates they are thin. Perhaps I misunderstand, and I haven't even seen pics, but *as a rule*, taking ANY sole from a horse like that is not a good move. Of course, you'll have to make up your own mind, but worth considering avoiding paring sole.



> Do you have any recommendations on any supplements, if any, we should feed her? Or any thing to improve the quality of her hooves? Thank you so much in advanced.


Not a nutritional expert in the least, and it also depends what she's getting out of the particular grass/hay as to what extras she'll need. I use a great service/program called feedxl.com which you might want to look into, where you can analyse diet & different supps to come up with the right balance for your horse in her current situation. Failing that, a good quality, sugar/grain free complete supp/ration balancer would likely be helpful.


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

Thank you very much. The vet was actually very suprised that her soles were as thick as they were with them being soft and her being a sinker. The farrier who did her feet has a reputation for not trimming away enough sole so it's there's a lot built up.

We don't have the radiographs so I can't show them. I do have pictures of her hooves but they are on my laptop at home. When the vet was doing the hoof test she said that it almost could be that she just has weird hooves but we should do x-rays just to check. Well it turns out that she has metobolic lines which aren't related to the founder, she has thicker-than-normal white lines which are related to the founder and she does have "funky" coffin bone in her left fore.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Arksly said:


> The farrier who did her feet has a reputation for not trimming away enough sole so it's there's a lot built up.


Considering that as a rule, trimming sole is not generally a good idea, that may be a very good thing.:wink:


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

loosie said:


> Considering that as a rule, trimming sole is not generally a good idea, that may be a very good thing.:wink:


 
I've always seen farriers use a certain hook-like tool to even out the sole so that's what I was referring to.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Called a hoof knife! There are exceptions, but generally I will only remove bits of sole that are already wanting to exfoliate - crumbly or flakey - and flappy, thrushy bits of frog. Sometimes, depending on the terrain & work the horse does, etc, I may not even remove that. Routinely the only part of the bottom of the foot I touch is to pare excess bar height with a knife.


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