Hoof Troubles

Besides dealing with all the abscess drama, Gus's hooves are becoming more and more brittle. Now that they are kept under wraps 24/7, the chipping isn't getting any worse, least at the moment, but boy do they look pretty crappy. I'm still questioning the toe length on Gus... it looks awfully long in some of these pictures.

This first group of photos is from September 8th:

 Note the nice chipped outside hoof wall and toe (this is the LF).

 Note the chipped outer hoof wall on the RF.

 This is a view of the inside of the RF. Very chipped.

These next photos were taken today, September 11th:

Again, I'm just amazed at the poor hoof quality that Gus has again this year. This is two years in a row that we've been dealing with crappy feet. I'm not 100% sure that just the weather is to blame (hot/dry, then hot/wet, rinse and repeat) but I don't know what else to blame. It's frustrating to Gus to have to deal with all these hoof issues, but there isn't much that I can do about it. Gus is still on a hoof supplement - currently he's on SmartHoof pellets. I'm looking at switching to Grand Hoof pellets as it is comparable to what he's on already, plus it supplies some MSM as well. We'll see. I need to reorder supps ASAP anyways.

Besides dealing with the crappy front hooves, Gus has also developed a hoof crack in his RH. I had originally posted photos of the hoof crack last week... here's some new ones from last Thursday.

At least it's not progressing... but still frustrating. Unfortunately Gus still has to go another two weeks until he gets trimmed again. Here's hoping that we're over these abscess issues by then and the quarter crack doesn't further develop.