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A talk with a vet in Boise about glue-on shoes for laminitis cases
I was at a clinic in Idaho last month, and a vet there, Dr. Ellis, told me she's seen a real shift. She said some farriers now use glue-on shoes for almost every bad laminitis case, even when the horse can still take a nail. Her point was that it takes all the pressure off the white line and lets the hoof wall just be a wall again. But I've always been taught that a well-fit nail-on shoe, with the right pad and maybe some pour-in, gives better support for a long term fix. She showed me x-rays of a pony we both knew, and the difference after six weeks in glue-ons was hard to argue with. It made me wonder if I'm being too stuck in my ways about using nails when the hoof is already in crisis. What's the group's take on when to switch from traditional nailing to a full glue-on system for these tough founder cases?
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hill.jade1mo ago
Hold on now, let's not act like glue-ons are some miracle cure just because one vet showed you pretty x-rays. I've been around long enough to see plenty of new tricks come and go, and what works on paper doesn't always hold up when that horse is out in a muddy paddock for six months. The real question is how those glue-ons hold up over the long haul, not just six weeks when everything is fresh and clean. I'm not saying nails are always the answer, but a well-fit nail-on shoe has decades of proof behind it, and that's worth something. How many of those glue-on fans have seen the horror of a shoe popping off at the worst possible moment? Just because it looked good in a clinic doesn't mean it's time to throw the hammer away for good, you know?
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