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  Discussion on Club foot in foals
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Member:
Slytwink

Posted on Saturday, Jul 12, 2003 - 12:40 pm:

can a club foot be on the back foot as well as the front? everything i read talks about front foot but we have a 16 month old filly that our vet says has a back club foot which is making her slightly gimpy. we have her on MSM and Select II right now to help her. her diet before we got her two months ago was not good and the vet thinks the select II will help with her calcium/phosporus ratio. any other suggestions. thanks, jeri
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jul 14, 2003 - 9:51 am:

Hello Jeri,
Yes a club foot can occur on the backlegs.
DrO
Member:
Toad

Posted on Friday, Oct 10, 2003 - 12:49 am:

Does anyone know if the club foot is hereditary? I have a 7 month old race bred paint that has a right front club foot. I have been told that she needs surgery to release the tendon. This will mean that she will never race but I was told that she could still barrel race. I'm not sure I like this idea and would just like her to go to a home that wants a nice riding horse. Does anyone have any suggestions.?
Member:
Canyon28

Posted on Friday, Oct 10, 2003 - 1:12 pm:

In my opinion, the club foot your filly has was a result of too fast of growth and improper mineral, vitamin, maybe protein, also lack of exercise may have caused it. I have had some problems with one mares foals developing extremely fast , and these have sometimes started to get club feet, usually when they get to be about 1 year old. I have reg trimming by a farrier, and he has worked to keep the club foot from coming. This last yearling I had trimmed for a while by another farrier and when she was almost a year old, I realized that both of her front feet were going club! I immediately put her out to pasture and also got my other farrier working on her, and in the space of three or four months, there is now no trace of a club foot in either foot, although my farrier says she will need to always be trimmed like she has one. the oldest filly out of this mare was in a paddock all the time and I believe that contibuted to her club foot development. natural grazing seems to help them keep their legs stretched out. I was also told not to feed from an elevated feeder any foals that you think may go club. another contributing factor to club feet is hard ground. when ever there is DrOught, more clubfeet are found, and this also contibutes to splints in young horses, from running on hard paddock ground. So this year, my mare was put out to pasture with her foal as soon as it was a week old, and the foal has been trimmed several times to make sure her heels are down. So far she shows no trace of a club foot. I am weaning her right now, and in a few weeks she will be put back out to pasture with her sister. My mare does not have club feet, my vet and farrier believe that the problem is that my mare is an extremely heavy milker and her foals grow very quickly, and they believe that sometimes the bones can outgrow the ligiments, causing the ligiments to get too tight. I did have the check ligiment surgery done on her first foal, because she was raised differnetly and the club foot went out of control when she was about 14 months old. I dont see why your filly cannot still race if you get the surgery done and there is no or very little rotation of her coffin bone. The surgery will release the coffin bone so that it goes back to a normal position. It was well worth the espense, as this oldest filly is going to be a reined cowhorse. I think I have figured out what was causing my foals to get the clubfoot, as I said they never develop them until they are about 1 year old, so mine is a feeding problem. I have many other foals s born, and never had a problem with any but this one mares foals, they just grow too fast. This mares foals are always the tallest and the stoutest foals.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Oct 11, 2003 - 4:02 am:

Hello Barbara and Christine,
The article on club foot explains the various causes associated with this and some of the differentating features. Also treatment and prognosis are addressed.
DrO
Member:
Toad

Posted on Saturday, Oct 11, 2003 - 7:57 pm:

Thank you very much for your inputDr. O and cristine. I will talk to the farrier on Monday. I have also spoken to the Dr. at Alamo Pintado where the surgery is done and they recommended it within the month.

Thanks, Barbara
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