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FROM THE HOOFCARE & LAMENESS ARCHIVES Second Bluegrass Laminitis
Symposium Quarter Crack Do's and Don'ts Dr. William Moyer of the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania surveyed current quarter crack techniques at the Bluegrass Laminitis Sym-posium. Here's some of the things he says not to do: 1) Don't burn the hoof over an old crack. It won't help.Cracks are there for a reason. 2) Don't cut off the affected heel. Some do this to take weight off so the horse can race. The crack will soon drop right back down to the shoe. 3) Don't expect to cure the crack in every case. Some horses can't be repaired and have to learn to live with their cracks. 4) Don't even try to stabilize a quarter crack that is in front of the widest part of the hoof. The horse is foundered and the wall has separated. The toe area is not getting nutrition from the blood system and that must be counteracted first. 5) Don't expect a screw patch to work without risks. There is always the danger that the screws will go too deep and hurt the horse. On fast horses, this may create a horizontal crack. Thoroughbreds don't have enough wall to hold screws. 6) Don't depend on Fiberglas. It is stronger than the foot and can be trouble when they are patched right down to the shoe. It's a tough job to remove a Fiberglas patch. 7) Don't expect to patch a crack in a hurry. If a fresh crack pops and the horse has to get through the day, wrap the hoof with electrical tape to hold it together. 8) Don't use a three-quarter shoe combined with lifting the heel. It creates imbalance and makes it hard for the horse to breakover and land properly. 9) Don't even try to fix old coronary band injury cracks. Use a bar shoe instead. 10) Don't depend on a nerve block when you're drilling out the crack. If you don't nerve the horse, you'll have a better indication of where the sensitive tissue is. 11) Don't start work on a quarter crack repair job unless you have an up-to-date tetanus shot. 12) Don't expect to find Tennex on the market anymore. It's not available. 13) Don't bother trying to put a drain in if the crack is infected. The horse isn't going anywhere with an infected crack. Use 2 percent iodine instead. 14) Don't forget to consider the type of horse and the work it has to do. Wrap the Drill Bit Before Quarter Crack Repair Dr. William Moyer of the University of Pennsylvania recommends wrapping the drill bit before beginning quarter crack repair. He feels that it gives him more confidence when drilling out the crack if he knows exactly how deep he is going. He uses the edge of the tape as a "too deep" margin. Detailed information on this and many other hoofcare topics can be found in Hoofcare & Lameness publisher Fran Jurga's award-winning guide to hoofcare, "Understanding the Equine Foot". For more information, or to order, click here Back to the articles table of contents
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