I have an 11 hand, 12-year-old pony mule that has more than a few issues. The most noteworthy issue is that someone somewhere totally broke his trust in human beings. This mule is terrified of people and has been known to throw himself on the ground thrashing rather than be touched. We are in the Pacific Northwest so moisture is a constant problem.

After a year of working with him, I can halter him and touch most of him. He is absolutely terrified of having his feet handled.

He has been showing subtle signs of lameness for about three months now. In July he came up lame for about two weeks. Last week was the first time we managed to pick up and clean out all four feet. Before that, even reaching for his feet would lead to him throwing himself on the ground and thrashing about. What I found made me sick. Although his feet look fine from the outside, the hoof walls have separated from the sole up to an inch deep on all four hooves. There is a sickening smell of rotting flesh from the areas when the dirt is removed. He shows a pain reaction when the areas around the separation are messed with.

Let me see if I can give you a more in-depth description of his feet. It has been at least two years that I know of since he has had a trim. He has been nice enough to keep his feet basically self trimmed. He is only about 11 hands and his feet are about ¼ inch too long. He has a couple small chips out of the sides. His angles are almost where they should be, but he really could use a good rasp job to even them out. They are hard black feet and look better than most horses' hooves on an 8 week schedule (including my Saddlebred).

Now, when he can be lulled into holding his ground and he lets me pick up his foot, most of it looks pretty good. His soles could use a bit of leveling. He has about ¼ inch of hoof wall that should go. His frogs are a bit smaller than I like, but I am used to horse frogs, not mule frogs. His heals could use to be opened up a bit, but nothing that a couple swipes with a rasp would not solve. His toes look good, other then the ¼ inch of wall that needs to go.

All of the trouble is on the quarters. What at first looks just like a bit of separation as he needs a trim, with the width of about ¼ inch, and length of about an inch or so, the depth of the separation is a good inch or a bit more. Once the dirt is out of the area, the reek of rotting flesh is quite pungent. The mule will jerk away in a pain response at all attempts to clean out these areas. He has also resorted to kicking - which is the ONLY time that has been offered the whole time I have had him. When all the dirt is out, most of the length of the hoof pick can disappear into the separation. Each of his four hooves have at least one of these separations. The right front has a second one developing.

Way back when, and before a fractured spine, I used to barefoot trim my own horses. What I would do and what all my research so far on the internet has shown me, is that the separated wall needs to be removed so the dying laminae can be derived. This will leave him with maybe 2/3rds of each hoof. Assuming we can get it done at all – well, we could if we have him sedated first.

As being able to pick up his hind feet is a coin toss at this point, I have not found a farrier who is even willing to look at him, let alone tackle what looks to be a nasty case of White Line disease and/or laminitis. It is not so much that his hooves are untreatable, but that the mule is not handleable. Although I think it might be possible to sedate him once for a serious trim, getting a needle in him a second time may not be an option.

Much to everyone's horror, I am starting to think that humane euthenasia is my best option. As of two days ago he is head bobbing lame on the right front and is sore on all four.

I am interested in any thoughts...

Alix the healing (from a fractured spine)

We run into a lot of uncooperative animals with running a shoeing school. There is always a way. Drugs are an option, but here lately, we have been using an iron halter called a Noavel, which is made by a man named Rick Wheat. The use of this thing in nothing short of miraculous from a farrier's standpoint.

What you describe does indeed sound like White Line Disease, and yes, you do need to do a resection on the feet. However, there will be quite a bit of treatment to be done after the initial job, so the mule needs some training or you need a way to get chemicals into him. We have one account with several donkeys that we have to catch by running them through a cattle squeeze chute. If you have on of these, you will at least have a way of administering the dormosodan.

Hi,
I am a farrier out of LaCenter, Washington. I have had a lot of success with the Noavel Halter from Rick Wheat. If I am near you and you want to chat write at