Around mid-August 2021 and needing a well-earned 3-day break to the South African bush, the phone rings. On the other end of the line is Dr. Andrew Gray, director and chief veterinary surgeon at VetScape Referrals just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. He’s calling me because there’s a hoof-related emergency at the hospital.

After a couple more phone calls, farrier Alan Theron, CPF, arrives, and a shoeing plan is formulated over the phone for a well-bred Thoroughbred mare that is heavily pregnant to a top stallion. Her near fore is a total septic mess with a massive sub-solar abscess and already evident necrotic tissue (Figure 1).

Gray surgically removes a large necrotic sequestrum from P3 due to a highly resistant osteomyelitis and Theron fits a heart-bar shoe with side clips and therapeutic impression material. The mare’s prognosis is extremely guarded to poor, given the circumstances. At the very least, we must keep her alive until she foals down (Figures 2-3).

Special Delivery & Hope

On Sept. 23, we decided to change our approach and opted to apply a 3rd Millennium aluminum heart-bar attached to an Imprint shoe (Figures 4-6). The rationale…