A common thread in equine lameness practices is that the marriage of podiatric lameness therapies and medical/surgical treatments is an uneasy one and that in many instances both fail because of improper application or use. Our practice is a broad based one with a diverse clientele, ranging from ponies in the suburbs to Olympic hopefuls in many disciplines. As such, the addition of a farrier to our staff has never been an option. We deal with farriers from a broad range of disciplines and geography and client preference. And often, lameness that should respond to corrective or correct shoeing fails in the hands of farriers limited by experience, training or availability. We have found that an expert based training/consultation program is helping bring up our cadre of locally available qualified farriers. We can now count on a certain baseline level of ability from farriers who attend our “Podiatry Days” and work under the guidance of outside experts who can help them provide directed therapies to specific clients of ours with specific problems.
We have been doing this for many years, but it has increased as the needs of our patients change. We have developed a stronger relationship with local farriers and have been able to provide a strong CE opportunity for our own staff as well.
The logistics are often complex, as a case that needs more immediate attention may not be able to afford the services of the expert as a one day trip. Once we have identified several cases, stabilized them with our own treatments and farrier services, we then try to develop a days worth of work. This is usually 4 to 6 cases. We then contact a list of farriers, always including the patients primary provider, and make arrangements for them to meet at our clinic on a specified day. We have already arranged with the consultant to fly in, the patient to meet and the staff schedules to accommodate the work. We usually try to make all of our staff vets available for the day, or most of it, so that we can all benefit from the training and the interaction. The farriers are asked to do the same, as well as to provide tools, forges etc for the consultant. He is sent all radiographs and histories in advance and brings specialty shoes or epoxies as needed. He then arranges travel, we provide lodging and on some occasions we schedule an evening seminar for all local farriers and vets in the area. These have been well attended and are always lively occasions.
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