Articles by Christy West

Cover

Fighting Founder Through Forage Control

Food management can be just as important as foot management

But nutrition can have a huge impact on those feet and your work on them, especially when it comes to laminitis, and often owners just don’t know when their horse-feeding practices are contributing to the problem. You can win a lot of loyalty, and reduce your chances of working on foundered feet, by helping educate your clients about nutrition as it relates to foot health.


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Grazing muzzles

Dealing With Metabolic Laminitis

How your clients can prevent it or improve quality of life for horses who already have it
The metabolism of a horse is quite complex, but were learning more about it all the time, including what hormones affect metabolism in such a way as to cause laminitis.
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X-Ray
Technology Focus

Diagnostic Imaging For Lameness

Clinicians describe the use of X-rays, venograms, ultrasound, and MRIs for tough foot-pain cases

X-rays, ultrasound, MRIs and other diagnostic imaging methods might not often cross a farrier’s path. But when they do, they offer a tremendous opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the horse’s foot as well as information to help that particular case.


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Bruce Lyle

Step On It!

High-tech pressure mat system gives this Texas veterinarian new information for evaluating and tailoring shoeing
Shoeing horses can be very challenging sometimes, especially with one of those horses that doesn’t go completely sound no matter what you try. You might find yourself studying all aspects of that horse’s mannerisms, his feet, your shoes and anything else to find that clue that will tell you what he really needs.
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Don Walsh

Managing the Laminitic Horse

Practical and medical tips from a Florida laminitis conference
Treating laminitis isn’t just about the feet, says Don Walsh, an equine veterinarian of Homestead Equine Hospital in Missouri and founder of the Animal Health Foundation.
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Ponies

Laminitis Puzzle in the Spotlight

Florida conference tackles laminitis and other foot problems

Laminitis continues to be an all too common, devastating mystery — extremely painful for affected horses, frustrating for those treating them and sometimes ruinous to equine businesses. We don’t yet know how to prevent it 100%, and we can’t always treat it effectively enough to bring affected horses back to work.


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Shoeing for a Living

Cruisin’ With The Patch Man

South Florida farrier does a booming business in quarter-crack repair for elite equine athletes
How often can one ride with a farrier for a workday and never see him put on a single shoe? Not very often! But days like that are not unusual for Tom Curl, the farrier based in Vero Beach, Fla., who spends about half his working time patching quarter cracks instead of putting on shoes. Indeed, he travels to take care of a single foot on many horses, and many others are hauled to him for the same treatment.
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 Ric Redden

Radiographs Not Just for Veterinarians

“We’re not looking for a nice outside, cosmetic appearance of the foot — we’re looking for inside health…”

Is it really important for a farrier to know how to read and interpret a radiograph (X-ray) of a horse’s foot? Absolutely so, especially if he or she is dealing with laminitis or other pathological problems, says Ric Redden, — farrier, member of the International Equine Veterinarians Hall of Fame and founder of the International Equine Podiatry Center in Versailles, Ky.


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