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  Discussion on Club Foot at 4 months
Author Message
Member:
Julieh

Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 12:16 pm:

My little filly, who is 4 months old now, has developed a club foot. We weaned her last week when my trainer came to pick her up with her mommy. We are breeding the mare back to the same stallion, so our trainer picked up both of them and separated them once she took the mare to be bred. Our little filly was scheduled to come back home within the next two weeks, but the trainer's vet came out yesterday and noticed that our filly has a club foot. Actually, we had not noticed this at all. She said her left front has a 90 degree angle, she is walking on her toe and needs check ligament surgery right away. After reading all the articles here and discussions posted on this, I am a little confused why the surgery has been chosen before any other treatments. We are supposed to go to the barn when the vet comes back out to see the x-rays and discuss the surgery. I think what makes me a little uneasy is that this isn't our vet anyway and I would probably rather her come home and discuss with our vet. Our trainer wants her to stay there because she thinks she is better off with her vet. I guess my question is to all of you who have had experience with this - is surgery something should be considered before anything else?
Member:
Kthorse

Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 1:47 pm:

If you feel uncomfortable I would definatly say to the trainer you want a second opinion about surgery and see if your vet can go look at your filly. Even if both vets agree your mind will be at rest. If they dont you will at least have maybe more options. There is alot of information on the web just type in foals with clubfoot.The more knowledge will help you decide also.
Katrina
Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 7:06 pm:

Having gone through this just two years ago with a filly of mine, I would definitely opt for the surgery as soon as possible the better if you plan on this horse being a performance horse. This is if the hoof is that steeply angled, as you said 90 degrees, would be a severe club foot and probably cannot be helped by frequent trimming by a good farrier. I would sure get another opinion, then choose your vet if there is more than one in your area that can do the surgery. I have had two club foots over the years and one of them we had under control by good trimming every 5 to 6 weeks, the toe must be left long and the farrier takes heel. On a club foot, the toe gets the wear and the heel is not touching the ground, so the heel grows more rapidly than the toe. so take heel, leave toe. On the one filly we kept trimming, she was doing real good until the spring of her yearling year, then hit a growth spurt and the foot went out of control. I had the surgery done then, but some damage had been already been done to her coffin bone. The other filly I had the surgery done as soon as she was weaned and she came through it like a champ and you would never know she had a club foot now and she has no damage to her coffin bone. So I suggest getting it done asap if you want this filly to remain sound all of her life.Various things can cause club foot, feeding problems with the mare, not enough minerals that may be lacking in your soils and local feeds. The other mare that had the one filly with the club foot, she has had two other foals since then by the same stallion and both are fine, so I think it was a mineral/feed problem.
Member:
Dreamsox

Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 10:29 pm:

I also would suggest surgery with a good surgeon. One of my jumpers had a pretty good club foot, he won quite a bit, but there were balance problems. When I bred a filly who grew a club foot at 2 months,I opted for surgery and was very happy I had. She grew up to be a very successful event horse.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 6:26 am:

There is something odd about a 4 month old that has developed a 90 degree angle in just 2 weeks. I too think you need to get the opinion of your veterinarian if you are concerned about your trainer's vet opinion. However if it is a 90 degree club foot surgery will likely be necessary to return the foot to a more normal angle.
DrO
Member:
Oscarvv

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006 - 6:44 am:

Hi Julie -
I wanted to get an update on your filly. How is she doing?
Thanks,
Barbara
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