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  Discussion on Two warm hooves and two cool hooves
Author Message
New Member:
Lennon1

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005 - 5:55 pm:

My horse has two different front feet: The left front is large and round and the right front is small and clubby. The left large one has virtually no heel (has plastic heartbar lifter pad with egg bar shoe) and the right rear diagonal mate also has a very low heel. The left large one has had a quarter crack twice in his past life as a reiner (quarter horse is 8 now). The barn temperature was 10 degrees this evening and I noticed that the front left and right rear hooves were warm and the right front and left rear were cool. Horse walked around just fine on the stone floor of the barn. Any ideas?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Dec 15, 2005 - 7:05 am:

This is an incidental finding caused by the local foot mechanisms to try and achieve temperature balance in the feet. Being controlled locally the feet are not always in sink with each other. That is some are the correct temperature so the "furnace" is off while others have grown cool and the "furnace" is on. The furnace is actually different states of vasculature resistance, the warm feet have more blood going through them.
DrO
New Member:
Lennon1

Posted on Thursday, Dec 15, 2005 - 8:34 am:

Thank you so much for helping me, as well as so many others! I love your website. Anyway, I think I hear that this phenomenon of foot temperature could be viewed as "normal" for this individual. I also think I understand that the cool hooves represent the furnace off (less vasculature resistance?) while the warm ones have more blood going through them for some physiological reason. Could it be something like some people get cold feet quickly and persistently, while others have more trouble keeping their hands warm? Additional question: if the "warm feet" have more vasculature resistance, would they be more prone to having difficulty resolving injury or trauma because of constricted blood flow?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - 9:54 am:

No it really does not resemble the subjective feeling of warm and cold some folk experience. The warm feet in this case are the ones with less vasculature resistance (hence more blood flow) and no I don't think this correlates with the ability to heal as this vasculature resistance is controlled by many different factors and variable. Most types of injury would increase the flow of blood to the area.
DrO
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 21, 2005 - 9:46 am:

Hey DrO, hey Nancy
I have read these posts, and have a question for DrO ... Does this "mechanism" change from time to time, meaning that sometimes one foot would be warmer, while trying to warm up, while one might be cool. In other words, each foot could be the cool one or the warm one, depending on whether it is "openning up" or "shutting down" its vasculature to heat or cool, and does not necessarily mean the same one always has constriction or increased blood flow, not counting injury or laminitis, etc. I hope you can follow what I just tried to say! Thanks!
Nancy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Dec 22, 2005 - 8:16 am:

Yes the feet alternatively will feel warmer or cooler on the outside depending on the needs of the foot. Think of 4 houses whose thermostats are all set at 99 degrees. Though the thermostats are all set the same their furnaces will run at different times. If you have your hand over the heat registers, some will have warm air pouring out of them while others are not running and therefore feel cooler. But then as the house warms it will shut off while other houses are turning back on.

In the horse's foot the actual "furnace" is warm blood. The control are the arterio-venous shunts that open and close allowing respectively more or less blood to flow through the foot.
DrO
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Thursday, Dec 22, 2005 - 9:05 am:

Fantastic, DrO
You answered the question I was asking. It is good to know, as I wondered if it meant "trouble" when one hoof was warmer than the other. Have a great Christmas, and remember Jesus was born in a manger!
Nancy
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