acrylic hoof repair

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  • April 23, 2010 at 12:49 am #41593
    blue80
    Participant

    I was advised to use some acrylic epoxy for a large crack I’d like to help grow out; one of our mares had an abcessed foot 3 yrs ago and has had a quarter crack ever since, which hasn’t affected performance. Any suggestions for a particular product before I pick one?

    Thanks, Kevin

    April 23, 2010 at 1:26 am #59569
    Scott G
    Participant

    Kevin,

    My farrier and I just use standard two-part epoxy for blown out areas on the hoof. Whatever you use you want to make sure you have cleaned the crack well down to fresh hoof and get good adhesion. Otherwise whatever you put in there will just seperate from the crack surface and act like a wedge.

    Quarter cracks can especially be a chronic nuisance. Often the long term ones are generated by a past injury/defect in the coronary band, where the hoof wall grows from.

    Things that I have found that work the best are nipping out the sole surface of the hoof on both sides of the crack (if they are going to be shod). This takes direct pressure off the crack in that area. For thin quarter cracks superglue works great. Start with a clean dry hoof and apply the superglue liberally along the entire length of the crack. If the corral isn’t a mud pit reapply on a daily basis and often you can grow it out if the problem isn’t in the coronet. There were a couple of horses in my past that I worked with long ago that we had to drill and secure with cerclage wire, then epoxy. One turned out OK, the other not so well.

    Draft feet in general have the notorious reputation of often being trashed and cracked. A lot of that can be attributed to the hoof care & shoeing job in general (although genetics come into play as well). They develop way too shallow of an angle over time and are held together by yet just another larger size bar shoe (I am surprised that we don’t see more navicular issues then we do in drafts from those low angles). The vast majority seem to get by like that, however.

    When I first look at a horse, after an initial general observation of conformation and attitude, my eyes immediately go to his feet.

    The old saying is all too true…

    “no foot, no horse’

    April 25, 2010 at 2:48 pm #59568
    ngcmcn
    Participant

    I have worked with two different farriers in the past that would use auto body filler, with fiberglass hair, and not. If the hoof was prepared correctly it stayed on for months and seemed to work well as well as being cheap for large cracks. One farrier would actually pack the sole of a foundered horse with it then wrap with duct tape, for support. I suppose you could get out the gray primer and blue tarps to do a finish covering. Just joKing!

    Neal

    April 29, 2010 at 2:03 am #59574
    PhilG
    Participant

    Can a crack make them limp when they walk?

    April 29, 2010 at 4:49 am #59570
    Scott G
    Participant

    @PhilG 17854 wrote:

    Can a crack make them limp when they walk?

    Yes, if it is new or severe down to the laminae. To avoid a red herring look for other possible causes as well such as a gravel/stone bruise, etc.

    April 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm #59573
    jac
    Participant

    Dont know what its like over with you guys but over here the show boys like the Clyde feet with square toes and massive flares on the quarters. If a shoe gets thrown the foot is broken almost stright away and some of the cracks are pretty bad..
    John

    April 30, 2010 at 2:17 am #59571
    tsigmon
    Participant

    Cracks from an abcess and quarter cracks are two differnt types of cracks. A crack from an abcess that has blown out at the cornary band will be horizontial and a quarter crack is vertical. A crack from an abcess can cause some minor problems with nail placement if you are shoeing but ,generally , you can punch a new nail hole to avoid the crack or leave a nail out if it interferes with the crack. When the hoof grows out and the crack gets near the groung it may break off and leave a gap on the ground surface of the foot. If this happens on the inside of the foot some type of patch may be used to keep the opposite foot from catching the exposed shoe where the crack broke off . If it is on the outside of the foot I rarely worry about it

    A quater crack is a a whole different type of crack. Quater cracks come from improper weight bearing … some part of the foot being too long. A lot of farrieres use the term “out of ballance ” . There are a lot of quick type fixes for quater cracks but no quick fix will last until the foot is trimmed to bear weight properly. No cream , ointment or anything else you can put on the out side of the foot will solve a crack, nor will any type of patch. Only a proper weight bearing will solve the problem and even that will take a long time to remedy the situation. And yes, a quater crack can be very painful.

    May 10, 2010 at 3:23 am #59572
    blue80
    Participant

    thanks for the replies

    We ended up using Supermend epoxy paste. Can be found at http://www.goopit.com I was at our local tractor/hardware supply chain and mustered up the courage to ask the equine guy what their recommendation was. He led me to the hardware aisle. $7 instead of over $50 for the stuff with the horse picture on the front.

    Its been applied a week in plenty of bad weather and seems bulletproof so far.

    Kevin

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