Callie
Callie was rescued from entering the slaughter pipeline in July 2025. She’s a bay mare with damage to a front hoof and very lame on it, and likely has compensating lameness or other issues elsewhere.
Veterinary exam indicated that Callie is 4/5 lame on left thoracic limb. “There is a clear deformation of the entire hoof wall capsule, as the conical growth continuously deviates medially as it courses distaly, with the lateral hoof wall diving beneath the foot and bearing weight over the curvature.
The hoof is roughly hewn in a squared off toe, either from an old sawzaw cut or from breaking off. There is a large, chronic scar over the lateral heel bulb up to the level of the pastern joint, which is a part of the contorted deformation of the hoof deformity, possibly with either congenital abnormality or secondary to trauma.”
Xrays revealed the following:
Scarring of the lateral heel bulb is evident as soft tissue opacity on both films. There is an underlying bone opacity lesion within the proximal lateral heel bulb, deep to the superficial scarring. There is a small bony projection from the caudo-medial aspect of the coffin bone. The bony column is in proper dorsal alignment, with small changes to the coffin joint hoof capsule origin on the dorsal aspect.
The lateral heel bulb trauma and scarring may have induced a foci of mineralization, or could have disturbed a pre-existing side bone spicule. The medial coffin bone has a small side bone projection. Side bone issues can be common in draft breeds as well as Arabians. Further diagnostics would be needed to determine if the lesion has a role in her lameness.
It is unclear why the hoof wall deviates so abruptly and completely, as the entire conical structure of the outgrowth of hoof wall all veers medially and under the bony column that bears weight.
This is clearly an example of prolonged neglect, as trimming or basic shoeing could have mitigated the deviation of hoof wall growth if done by a competent veterinarian or layman podiatrist.
Sadly, it was too late for this sweet mare to have a pain-free quality of life as there was no pain management or other strategies to improve upon her condition. Callie was humanely euthanized to end her long-time neglect and pain-filled days.
More About Callie
- In Assessment
- Bay
- Mare
- 2005
- Arabian
- Colorado