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  Discussion on Corrective trimming & shoeing
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Member:
lindac

Posted on Friday, Jul 13, 2007 - 6:37 am:

DrO
Spoke to a farrier who is familiar with the "rocker" shoe but has not used them personally. He has instead (using radiographs)followed what he says is the same principle. He shoes the horse using wedge pads which he stacks and customizes to the proper height and placement on the hoof. This props up the horse's heels to relieve the pull of the deep flexor on the bottom of the coffin bone. He then trims and shaves off the front of the toe area as it grows out to help the foot establish a new angle. He also rolls the toe of the shoe and fills in any gaps with a special compound. He has found the foot will naturally grow out over time repairing itself and establishing a new angle which eliminates the re-section work that is done in some cases. He also applies some sort of sole support, but I'm not sure if it's the "silastic" product mentioned in the "Derotation Procedure" article or a pad with frog support. At any rate the badly rotated horse is left standing with his toes down and heels up like the pictures in your article.

Now, here's my question. Either way, how does the foot tolerate this? Does this not put added stress on the laminae that are still okay? As the new angles are established and the heels slowly brought down does new laminae grow and re-attach itself to the coffin bone? How exactly does all this work?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jul 14, 2007 - 10:06 am:

Other than the general physical principles, how derotation healing at the cellular level occurs is poorly studied but I can attest to dozens of cases where I have seen rotation, chronic lameness, acute exacerbations of founder and abscess formation remarkably improve over a 9 month period by using it.

The stress on the laminae at the front of the foot, where founder chiefly effects the hoof (severe DrOpping is the exception where all laminae are effected) comes from the pull of the DDF. By elevating the heel this force is lessened chiefly by transferring weight bearing back to the bony column. Yes it which eventually comes back to the laminae in the foot but this procedure shifts the weight bearing to the laminae on the side of the foot which are healthier.

The healing process is best understood remembering that the horn of the wall and its associated laminae is still attached but the insensitive part of the laminae is stretched and the stretching worsens the farther down the hoof wall you go. The laminae when first formed at the top of the foot is much more normal. As the new growth occurs the dynamics of the rotated foot continue to stress the laminae with abducting forces that it cannot resist, stretching the lamina further as it grows down the foot. Decreasing those abducting forces, allows the laminae to grow unstretched. As the laminae becomes stronger the DDF and the laminae at the toe can be reloaded.
DrO
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