Monday, October 17, 2011

Millwater's Farriery: "Rotation"...


   Well, Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare is pretty much wrapped-up and should be going to the printer for proofs this week!

   So the promotional push will be kicking into gear.  Please feel welcome to pop-in and say "hi" and maybe even "friend", "follow", "like", "circle" or whatever applies at the various places in cyberspace where you can keep-up with the project!

and, of course
and 
This Very Blog!

And maybe tell a friend or two!

   Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

   One of my pet peeves with founder cases is folks talking about "x-rays" and how many "degrees of rotation" the vet says a horse has...  As though this really meant something.

   For one thing, they don't usually know which kind of rotation they're talking about.



  For another, their "measurements" are a often total guesses.  To measure capsular rotation, you'd need to properly mark the dorsal wall to make it clearly visible in the rads.  It only tales some duct tape and a little soft wire, but it's often neglected.  To measure true PIII rotation, you need a pre-laminitis rad to establish the horse's "normal" alignment.  Some horses never were at textbook normal to begin-with!

   Of course, any horse with a substantial toe flare is going to show capsular rotation on rads.  Many a serviceably sound horse with mild club feet might be judged to have PIII rotation based on rads.

   Then there are sinkers...  The worst of the founder cases.  They may show no rotation at all. 

   This is why I'm not all that enthusiastic about racing to get radiographs on horses in acute laminitis.  Truth is, they don't really tell you much that's going to change how you manage the horse anyway.


- 30 -

.


No comments:

Post a Comment