She used to wipe over socks for varicose veins that do not cover the toes, as if wiping over khuffayn; what is the ruling on her prayer?.

My mother is elderly and has varicose veins in her legs. For quite
some timeshe has been wearing special stockings on her legs from
halfway up thefoot up to the knee; i.e., the end of the foot is
uncovered. She says thatwhen doing wudoo', shedid wudoo' as usual,
then when she reached the feet she wiped over the socks mentioned. She
did that for a while until she stopped using the socks, and that was
because it was too difficult to take them off and put them on again.
She did not ask about the ruling at that time, because she thought
that this was permissibleso long as it was wiped.
Now she is asking about the ruling on her prayersduring this period?.
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
With regard to wiping over the khuffayn or socks, it is stipulated
thatthe sock should cover the place that must be washed, and the place
that must be washed goes from the ends of the toes to the ankles.
Ibn Qudaamah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: It is permissible to
wipe overthe khuffayn and the like if it covers the place that must be
washed. If any part of the place that must be washed is not covered,
then it is not permissible to wipe over it.
End quote from al-Mughni, 1/183
Shaykh 'Abd al-'Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah havemercy on him) said: It
is not allowed to wipe over the socks and so on unless the conditions
stipulated in sharee'ah are met, one of which is that the socks should
cover the place that must be washed.
End quote from Majmoo'Fataawa Ibn Baaz, 10/114
Based on that:
The socks mentioned in the question do not come under the ruling on
wiping over the khuffayn, because they do not cover the place that
must be washed. But if the sick person needs to wear them and it is
difficult for him to take them off every timehe does wudoo', then
hemay do wudoo' before putting them on, and then put over them socks
that cover properly. Then when he needs to do wudoo', he can wipe over
the socks that are covering them, until he takes them off or the
period during which wiping over the socks is permissible ends. This is
something acceptable and there is nothing wrong with it.
If he is not able to do that, and taking off the medical sock is
something that will cause him harm or delay his recovery, then it
comes under the same ruling as plaster casts; hemay wipe over the
entire thing, top and bottom – and this is one of the differences
between wiping over plaster casts and wiping over the khuffayn: the
entire cast should be wiped, whereas only thetop of the khuffayn is
wiped – and the uncovered part of the foot should be washed.
For more information please see the answer toquestion no. 114192
Secondly:
What your mother should have done was ask about what was required in
that situation. The fact that she did not ask indicatesthat she was
careless; weask Allah to forgive her.
With regard to making up the prayers that she offered in that
situation,the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed
concerning that. Some of the scholars say that the prayers must be
made up and some say that it is not obligatory to do that.
If she wants to be on thesafe side and make up the prayers that she
offered with that wudoo', that will be better.
If it is too difficult for her to do that or the days on which she
offered prayers in that state were many, then she may be excused for
not knowing, if she thought that what she was doing was correct and it
did not occur to her to ask about it. In that case she does not have
to repeat them according to the more correct of the two scholarly
opinions.