You may notice that sometimes your horse is a little foot sore. Could it be a minor bruise, a tiny abscess, or something bigger like laminitis? By looking at the big picture of your horse's health, diet, and lifestyle, you and your vet can figure out the cause of the problem. Being hoof sore is not normal! Discovering hoof soreness is never a "wait and see" situation, especially during high laminitis risk times like spring and fall.
Lush spring and fall grass pasture can trigger sore hooves and laminitis.
Why Do Horses Get Foot Sore?
A horse's hoof is tiny compared to the weight they carry. They stand most of the day and night and may play and exercise on hard, unforgiving ground. Horse shenanigans often end in injury, and their diet can directly impact their health and hooves. Then there are the endless bacteria and fungus that can infect a hoof, random things they step on, and those mystery ailments without explanation.
There are many reasons why horses have sore feet, some of them include:
- An abscess
- White line disease
- Separation of the hoof wall
- Thrush
- Stone bruises
- Laminitis
- A hot nail in the hoof wall
- Foreign body
- Puncture wound
- Rocky ground
- Trimmed too short
- Hard footing
- Coffin bone fractures
- Contracted heels
- Coronary band injury
- Dietary imbalances
- Navicular bone disease
- Grazing on sugary and starchy pasture
- Overloading on grains
Your vet and farrier can help you uncover why your horse is hoof sore. Then, you can take appropriate measures to treat this and prevent further problems.
Hoof x-rays tell your vet and farrier how best to treat your horse.
Spotting a Hoof Sore Horse
Many horses rarely show foot soreness until it's debilitating pain. Others give you subtle hints that indicate mild signs of discomfort. Because so many hoof problems look the same, it's a fantastic idea for your vet to visit at the first sign of trouble. Early intervention can prevent mild soreness from becoming founder or help an abscess clear quickly.
Here are some signs of sore feet:
- Difficulty turning
- Reluctance to turn or move forward
- Hesitance when stepping from soft to hard ground
- Lethargy or depression
- Slight limping or hopping
- Shifting weight frequently or not shifting weight at all
- Hot hooves, especially if they have not been in the sun
- Acting colicky
- Taking shorter strides or walking stiffly
- Increased heart rate, respiration, or digital pulses at rest
- Strange odors coming from the hoof
- Swelling of the coronary band or frog
- Thin soles
This freshly trimmed hoof shows the sole, wall, grooves, heels, and white line.
Things to notice and tell your vet
As you call your vet, give them as much information as possible about what you notice. Pay particular attention to:
- What has your horse been eating, for how long, and in what volume? When the sugars and starches in pasture grass increase in spring and fall, the risk of laminitis, founder, and gas colic also increases.
- Which feet are affected? Does your horse appear lame in one leg, or is there all-over discomfort? Do you see your horse tender-footed on the front or hind legs as a pair? Is there severe lameness, or just a little?
- Take the digital pulses in all four legs. Take your horse's digital pulses on all legs. This measure helps identify hooves with inflammation.
- What are your horse's vital signs, like pulse, respiration, and temperature? These can signal pain.
- When was your farrier's last visit? Are any horseshoes twisted or tweaked?
The Risk of Laminitis and Founder
Laminitis is the inflammation of the soft tissues inside the hoof. As the swelling compromises the integrity of the hoof, the coffin bone inside the hoof can rotate, drop, or twist out of place. When this shift occurs, it is equine founder.
Laminitis and founder are painful and can become chronic. The first signs of trouble look like general hoof soreness, and by the time your horse has debilitating pain, there is much damage to the hooves.
Early care from your vet can help stop laminitis from turning into founder. You and your vet can also uncover the cause of soreness and work to prevent it from happening again.
Concentrated feeds can trigger sore hooves, too.
Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS)
The most common cause of laminitis is a metabolic disorder. Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, formerly Cushing's disease) and equine metabolic syndrome affect how insulin and blood sugar relate, among other things.
Metabolic disorders increase the risk of laminitis and founder, especially in spring and fall. Simple blood tests can detect these disorders. The associated risks of laminitis and founder diminish with appropriate diet and management.
Hoof soreness often signals a metabolic disorder, so don't delay working with your vet. Many lifestyle changes can help manage your horse's weight and insulin regulation.
Read more about the signs of laminitis here.
The First Steps for Helping Sore Feet - Immediate Actions
Taking quick action is very important when a horse has hoof pain. First, limit their movement so they don't get hurt more. Call your veterinarian immediately to explain what's happening and get advice on what to do next.
While you wait for the veterinarian to arrive, there are some helpful things you can do.
Cold therapy
Icing hooves or cold hosing lower legs can ease pain and help reduce inflammation in the hoof, especially in the first few days of laminitis and other hoof soreness.
Monitor your horse's vital signs
Keep a log of your horse's digital pulses, temperature, heart rate, and respirations to track their pain levels. Any spikes at rest will alert you to more discomfort. You may notice these values wax and wane as you deliver pain medications.
Tracking the digital pulses also alerts you to inflammation in otherwise normal hooves, and helps you track healing.
Soft footing will help the foot sore horse.
Keep your horse on soft footing
Hopefully, your horse with sore hooves won't need to travel far to rest and recover. Using deeply padded hoof boots can help relieve pain and aid in moving your horse if necessary.
Use extra shavings for a soft place to stand and rest.
Remove grains and sugary commercial feeds
Any feeds beyond hay and dried forage are unnecessary during a hoof crisis. The additional sugars from bagged horse feeds and pasture grass can exacerbate hoof soreness.
If your horse does indeed have metabolic issues, the diet will need to change permanently.
Your vet and farrier make a fantastic hoof care team.
Short-Term Solutions for a Horse With Sore Feet
Short-term care for hoof pain in horses focuses on reducing swelling and making your horse more comfortable while they heal. There are many standard treatments, including:
Medications
Bute, Banamine®, and Equioxx® are three non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that can lessen hoof pain. Follow your vet's instructions about dosing to avoid overloading your horse's kidneys and liver.
Farrier work
Your farrier may need to address hoof pain immediately with new angles, pads, pour-in treatments, or corrective horseshoes. In doing so, having your vet perform hoof X-rays to plan trimming and shoeing to suit your horse best is advantageous. Radiographs also give your vet a baseline from which to monitor the hooves in the future.
There are many things farriers can do to support the sole of the foot, navicular disease, and foot pain in general. Your farrier can also help you with topical treatments like drawing salves and packing, cleaning a thrush-infected area, and more.
Rest
Stall rest is an essential part of managing a horse with sore feet. You can then ensure deep footing and a peaceful environment and monitor vital signs easily. Less movement can also give the hooves time to recover without further trauma, especially in extreme cases.
The primary goal of rest is to reduce hoof concussion, treat the source of pain, and shorten the healing period.
Stall rest may be necessary to heal any hoof soreness.
Long-Term Strategies for Chronic Conditions
Uncover the source of hoof pain
The goal is to manage your horse, so sore feet are a thing of the past. Many factors contribute to mild and severe pain and are easy to implement.
Metabolic issues
Once you have discovered your horse's metabolic health, adjust their diet and lifestyle to match their needs. Horses with PPID often lose weight, and need more calories in their diet. Adding appropriate movement and frequent body clipping can keep them comfortable.
Horses with EMS are usually overweight and benefit from reduced-calorie diets and more movement. In both cases, using slow feeders and grazing muzzles helps reduce the risk of laminitis.
Regular bloodwork can alert you to any metabolic changes, for better or worse, and you can adjust accordingly.
Dry lots are great turnout options for horses that can't tolerate the sugars in grass.
Equine nutrition and diet
The most important part of a healthy, balanced diet for horses is a lower non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) value diet. NSC measures the sugars and starches. Ideally, horses receive less than 10-12% in forages, feeds, and supplements.
The low NSC value diet reduces the change of the hindgut microbes from overeating, eating too fast, and triggering gas colic or laminitis.
As researchers learn more about equine health, we discover that this lower-sugar diet benefits all horses, not just the metabolically challenged ones. This goes for old and young horses.
Weight control
Overweight horses have trouble with thermoregulation, and have more strain and stress on ligaments, tendons, joints, and hooves. Obesity in horses is also a key component of EMS, but it can be reversed with weight management.
The best thing you can do as a horse owner is to use a weight tape every few weeks to track your horse's estimated weight. In the fall, a horse's natural hormone cycle tells them to gain weight to stay warm in winter.
Slow feeding
Just as NSC diets are healthier, slow feeders like grazing muzzles and HayPlay bags are healthier. A primary underlying cause of ulcers in horses is lack of food in the stomach, and slow feeders are a way to address this.
As a bonus, hay bags and grazing muzzles deliver less sugary food to the hindgut, making eating safer. It's a win-win when your horse can graze constantly, and slow feeders help.
HayPlay bags are interactive slow feeders.
Management changes
You may also need to change your horse's exercise routine to help with weight control.
Or, use dry lots with HayPlay bags instead of turnouts.
Your farrier's visits may need to change in frequency, and corrective hoof trimming and shoeing may change. Standard shoes may need pads or a specialty design, like heart bars, to support your horse's feet.
You may need supplements that address hoof health and reduce hoof cracks, or metabolic support supplements to stave off weight gain.
Daily hoof care helps to prevent hoof soreness. Pick the hooves more, start fighting seedy toe and thrush early with appropriate topical treatments. You could shorten the time between farrier visits to slowly improve previous improper shoeing.
Grazing muzzles are wearable slow feeders.
Remember that hoof soreness isn't normal. It's a sign that something is wrong with the hoof, and you must investigate.
