“The horse’s foot is so integral to most of what we do in equine practice,” said moderator Gayle Trotter, DVM, MS, professor in clinical sciences at Colorado State University, in the Podiatry forum on Dec. 12 at the American Association of Equine Practitioners convention in Orlando, Fla. Topics discussed included the role of imaging in equine podiatry, working relationships with farriers, standardization of podiatry nomenclature, and club feet.

Many veterinarians discussed the manners in which they handle communication about X rays, with some using digital cameras to photograph X rays. They then print out and/or e-mail the X rays to the owners and farriers involved to other veterinarians for consults. Others mentioned the importance of marking measurements on these digital files (or on faxes) before sending them, so that digitally scaled images don’t mislead the recipient as to absolute measurements.

This logically led into a discussion of hoof measurement procedures and nomenclature in which some veterinarians used different terms for the same measurements, and others were not familiar with certain measurements and their significance at all. Everyone agreed that standard nomenclature was important, and Steve O’Grady, BVSc, noted that he was working on a glossary of terms with other podiatry specialists and intended to submit it to Equine Veterinary Education for publication. Renowned equine podiatry specialists including Ric Redden, DVM; Tennessee farrier Danny Dunson; and Trotter spent time explaining to other attendees their measurement systems and the significance of certain ranges of some parameters.

For example, Redden discussed his quantification of the horn-laminar zone (H-L zone) as two measurements of the space between the coffin bone (P3) and the outer hoof wall, one just below the extensor process of the coffin bone (where the extensor tendon attaches) and one at the distal (closer to the ground) end of the bone. He then expresses the H-L zone as the upper measurement over the lower, such as 15 mm/15 mm. The value of this is that if the lower measurement is greater than the upper one (where it wasn’t before), then rotation is occurring and the horse’s foot needs help to stop it