Jack continues to be foot sore and I continue to try and figure out and address why. We are expecting blood work results later this week or next. We plan to get updated x-rays in the next month. I am updating his CH and will post when bloods are in.

I've posted hoof photos from yesterday. I've been working on bringing his toe back in the fronts, but suspect it's still not enough. His hinds are a little long because I didn't have time to touch them up before taking photos. Farrier was here on March 8.

I'm concerned that he doesn't seem to be weighting his heels in his fronts - have they been taken too far down? Vet suggested to farrier about a year ago to take heels down, and I'm always wondering if he is just doing that automatically every trim now and if it's still the right thing to do. 

Farrier trims every 4 or so weeks. I rasp toe and touch up at least every two weeks. 

Thank you!
Hilary
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Hilary and Amika
Prince George, BC, Canada
Joined July 2019
NRC+ proficient grad January 2022

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I've held off trying Jiaogulan because his trim wasn't right yet. I'd really like to know if it's good enough to try Jiaogulan now?

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Hilary and Amika
Prince George, BC, Canada
Joined July 2019
NRC+ proficient grad January 2022

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Hi Hilary,

If you are rasping every 2 weeks then you could try jiaogulan.  I would ask the farrier to stop lowering the heels as it's pretty clear Jack doesn't like that.  The radiographs will tell you if heels need to come down so leave them alone until then.

His hind toes need to come back quite a bit more.  Bring the toe back to where the dark brown ends and the concavity begins in this photo: 
https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/photo/271971/3596564?p=pcreated%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2C0
And take off the same amount for the LH.

His fronts are better.  They have a huge lamellar wedge, but your actual breakover point is pretty good.  Right now since he can't put weight on the heels at the same time as the sole, he's standing on a pretty small surface area, which is probably part of the discomfort.  Let the heels reach the ground before you shorten the front toes any further...you can maintain them where they are until he's standing on the whole bottom of the foot.

We can try to do markups for you now before the rads, or after.  I would suggest after since that's only 1 month away because we can be much more accurate with radiographs to guide the markups.

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Kirsten and Shaku (EMS + PPID) and Snickers (EMS) - 2019
Kitimat, BC, Canada
ECIR Group Moderator
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Thanks for this Kirsten. I appreciate the general feedback on his hooves and will bring his hind toes back. Let's wait and do markups when we have x-rays.

We won't know Jack's insulin status until the blood work comes in. Does it make sense/is it safe/could it help to start Jiaogulan and ALCAR now or should we wait to know insulin? I'm worried his insulin is not being managed by diet, metformin and prascend. Feeling panicked about what else we can try (flozins are unlikely to be an option) and struggling to understand what is safe and worth trying.  

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Hilary and Amika
Prince George, BC, Canada
Joined July 2019
NRC+ proficient grad January 2022

Amika's Case History Folder
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Jack's Case History
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