Yet another retro photo, as we bring you up to speed on Pookey Bear's progress...Amazingly, Pookey has had nearly three solid weeks of complete and total freedom from pain.
Well, from foot pain, that is. Being 12 years old now, and having done a bit of western pleasure in his youth, I am sure he has a few creaky joints and achy bones.
But his feet?
They are fabulous!
At his checkup last week at La Mesa, his radiographs showed good sole depth and continued de-rotation, as well as improvement in his medio-lateral balance. For those of you who are rusty on your Latin, or have misplaced your Stedman's, that roughly translates to being tilted from 'middle to side.' Now, intead of listing like the Tower of Pisa, he is beginning to stand up straighter on his bony column in the RF, which will help apply more normal mechanical forces to the foot and therefore encourage more normal growth.
It is a good thing that Pookey has a great farrier. I would be very frustrated with the continual adjustments needed on a recovering laminitis case, especially when a tenotomy adds an additional layer of adjustments to the adjustments.
I would also be continually frustrated by the 'chicken and egg' nature of the problem: the worse the horse's original problem, the more out of balance the hoof is. The more out of balance the hoof is, the more abnormal the mechanical forces applied to the hoof during weight-bearing. The more abnormal the forces applied to the hoof during weight-bearing, the more out of balance the hoof grows.
I think I will just stick to herding cats!
WHat a cutie in the pic!
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