[RC] shoeing in vet school - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
>*Susan....curious to hear what the current (you are
"relatively" current vet) teachings are in vet school regarding
proper hoof function, form and >physiology?. Frankly, I would trust a
vet over a shoer most of the time if I had questions regarding any hoof
abnormalities, or pathologies. I have >seen what I consider very few
good shoe jobs in many, many years of owning horses,and have seen some real
horror cases, with long toes, wedges, >etc......I typically see really high
heels and long feet; or run-under heels and long toes,in my neck of the
woods.....
>
>I wonder how much the current horse-shoeing schools are
teaching hoof physiology, versus just how to file a hoof flat and nail on a
shoe?
>
>Karen
The vet school curriculum teaches a lot of anatomy of the normal
and abnormal hoof, a few hours of lecture on form and function and a pretty
fair amount on lameness diagnosis, disease, pathology and treatment. If
you’re equine track, then you can take quite a few elective rotations on
lameness, but each case you see and review may or may not originate with the
foot (you see whatever comes in the door, and since vet schools are usually a
referral center, the cases tend more towards the exotic than every day
navicular disease, but you see those, too). As for actual coverage of
things like angles for different disciplines, choice of shoes outside of actual
disease, that sort of thing, it’s more limited because of time
constraints, and the student is expected to pursue their own interests with
suitable outside externships (which they help you locate and arrange). So
if you’re really interested in that kind of thing, you can pursue it as
far as you like, but the formal curriculum doesn’t include a whole lot
about management of the ‘normal’ hoof beyond recognizing whether it’s
normal or diseased.
They do show you how to remove a shoe so you don’t rip up
the hoof wall, how to trim the sole enough to get at an abscess or for diagnosis.
They teach you support pads for laminitis, infections, things like that, but
not how to actually shoe a horse. They have a couple of really good corrective
farriers (Olin Balch is one of them) come in to show us different things about
balanced trims and recognizing if a lameness issue might just be bad shoeing or
trimming. There just isn’t time in the curriculum to go beyond
that, so they do what they can to point you in the right direction. There
were two guys in my class that had been shoers before going to vet school, and
they’re now both terrific lameness vets.
When I was doing equine practice full-time, I had some good
relationships with great farriers in my area, and when I found a problem, I’d
meet them at a client’s barn to figure out between us what to do. I
did the diagnosis and treatment part and they told me the right trim/shoe to help
solve the issue. It worked great---I don’t try to be a farrier, and
they don’t try to be vets. Worked out well for everyone, including
the horse.
