Common Foot Injuries of the Equine Athlete

When confronted with lameness your veterinarian will take a thorough history and perform a careful examination utilizing their eyes and hands their experience and most importantly a lameness exam to make a diagnosis. Most cases will be quickly diagnosed while others will require more intensive tests requiring diagnostic blocking use of local anesthetic or numbing agents to localize the lameness to a specific region. The veterinarian may suggest further imaging with radiography xrays ultrasound bone scan andor magnetic resonance imaging MRI to diagnose the problem.

definitive diagnosis allows the veterinarian to treat your horse effectively with the best chance at a complete return to preinjury level. Here are the most common sources of foot lameness we see at our clinic which may differ from other clinics depending on equine disciplines served
Subsolar abscess
White line Disease
Laminitis
Joint inflammation coffin joint synovitisarthritis
Foot bruise including bone bruise
Soft tissue injury examples Deep digital flexor tendonitis Collateral ligament injury
Navicular disease and navicular bursitis
Fracture
Hoof abscesses are common after periods of wet weather followed by dry weather causing small microcracks in the hoof wall.  These cracks subsequently allow bacteria to enter the hoof only to create an abscess. There is usually moderate to severe lameness significant increase in digital pulses heat compared with the opposite foot and sensitivity to hoof testers. A hot poultice worn for multiple days followed by careful paring of the sole by your vet or farrier will allow the abscess to drain.  Occasionally the abscess may burst from the coronary band in which case antibiotics may be required.
White line disease WLD is caused by abnormal stresses on the hoof wall that cause the hoof wall to separate from the underlying laminae. This leads to a hollow weak and destabilized hoof wall. A secondary bacterial or fungal infection can then take hold in the abnormal hoof wall. We usually diagnose WLD based on a careful examination of the hoof wall then aggressively but carefully remove the damaged wall and utilize hoof acrylics with antibiotics and corrective shoeing to reshape the foot.
Laminitis is a frustrating and crippling disease that can affect any horse. Laminitis is inflammation and eventual failure of the sensitive laminae of the feet that attach the hoof wall to the pedal bone. This results in rotation or sinking of the pedal bone within the hoof capsule. Laminitis can be caused by several different mechanisms including metabolic mechanical or it can be secondary to endotoxemia. Metabolic