My 9 year old mare has had off & on lameness in her left front foot for about a year. Long story short, we’ve had her checked and treated for everything from thrush to tick borne diseases (which she had 3 of them last fall). Also kept shoes on her during the summer which helped some.

Well this spring she is still lame. Not 3-legged by any means but it’s there. Farrier  put the hoof testers to her in March with no results. So...I took her back to my vet yesterday and he performed Xrays which showed us she is loosing her coffin bone. It’s deteriorating and he has no clue as to why this happening to her. It’s happening in both her front feet but worse on her left. He is baffled by this as she is healthy and has no history of trauma or malnutrition. 

So... my question is...have any of you dealt with this? What did you do? Is there anything we can do? I’ve done a little research but would love to hear your experiences. I feel this is the end of the road for her but if possible, find a way to slow or stop this.

  Vet here. Pedal osteitis, likely due from repetitive trauma type forces (usually from a thin sole). Essentially this means inflammation and secondary degeneration of the coffin bone. Were other views taken? I would be interested to know what her sole depth looks like and also what the coffin bone looks like in other views. In this view, the contrast has been turned way up which can sometimes make thin bone not visible- I can tell this because you cant see much of the hoof wall at the toe. It also drastically makes it look like a large portion of the coffin bone is missing, and I cant say for certain but I would bet part of that is due to technique of the radiograph. No doubt there is coffin bone degeneration going on, but to what extent it is hard to say with this technique.

     What type of shoes have been tried? Shoe mechanics is absolutely where I would start with this horse. This would be a horse I would probably place in support pads until we grow a healthier foot. You'll want to be sure you are working with a farrier that is comfortable in corrective type work.

     Another drug that would be worth speaking to your veterinarian about is Osphos.

    I am not a huge fan of feed through supplements but I do recommended OE Hoof Evolution on cases where they need to grow a healthier foot- there is an ingredient that increases blood flow to the foot which I think really helps out in these cases.

Thank you for responding. Other views taken were from directly behind and from the bottom of the foot. I don’t have images of those angles. He suspected navicular at first. Do you think more xrays are needed? 

Last year she had just a plain shoe on...nothing special. I have yet to consult with me farrier since I found this out yesterday. I’m interested in the OE supplement if she would benefit from it. She has good strong hooves. Before the xrays the vet was complementing on her feet and soles. 

Do you feel corrective shoeing  would keep her sound enough to ride? What is the long term prognosis with something like this?

Have never used it, but I have heard positive things about equibone. 

Hoping for a good outcome for your girl

    I myself would need other views to determine severity as well as best course of action as far as mechanic changes. When I am assessing a foot, I usually take 4 views. The view directly from the side (lateral) will give us the most info about sole depth as well as balance of the coffin bone within the hoof capsule. Was this view taken? 

     Hard to say without seeing the horse, how lame she is, conformation of feet as well as other views of xrays. However, I think there is likely some things you can try before calling it quits. Prognosis would just depend on all of those other things listed above. 

I had a horse diagnosed with the same thing about 6 years ago.  He has half of his right coffin bone "gone".  We immediately padded both feet (with plastic pads) and shod using aluminum shoes.  He gets his feet injected every 3-4 months depending on how much we are going.  He still runs in the 1D and we head on him.  He is now 19 years old and moves amazing.   

Thank you! ??

Thank you so much for your replies. Vet didn’t do a side shot of the foot. I just talked with my farrier and he sounds optimistic. He will be out next week. He also mentioned injections. 

That’s great to hear and encouraging! Thank you!