I’m not Scribbler, but it sounds like she was describing the Lameness Locator system.
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I can’t remember the name of the device, and my wonderful vet passed away far too young this year (he was younger than me). So I can’t ask him.
The system involved electronic nodes on the horses back connected to a laptop program that generated data and graphs. It clearly took a fair bit of training to use and interpret. It told you which quadrant the problem was on but not where in that limb. After you isolated the quadrant then you could block upwards. Looking at my horse both vet and me thought hocks, but the locator said one front foot and it blocked to the hoof, except even there the block didn’t fix it 100 %. As I said it turned out to be a hoof balance question which we likely would have seen if we’d stepped away from the screen and picked up the hoof LOL. Vet was also a farrier, he could have trimmed her on the spot. The reason the block didn’t fully resolve was it was actual mechanical imbalance.
Anyhow, my question of “are her hocks crap yet?” was answered as no, which was reassuring. She was just short and choppy until she warms up. And we had an interesting hour playing with the program which was new to him.
Anyhow, I don’t think it’s necessarily something of use for DIY ammie use. Most of the time it’s easy enough to see which quadrant is off if there’s anything worth pursuing but the question is where on the limb. I feel like I can see hoof versus shoulder now, and also hoof versus hock or higher. But I am not 100 per cent certain I can distinguish hock versus stifle versus SI because stiffness in one joint leads to the others also being constrained. And I haven’t yet dealt up close with a horse going wrong behind though I certainly have watched other people’s horses with that no articulation “swinging wooden leg” behind that says bilateral hock issues to me. But I’m not privy to the actual diagnosis of these horses.
Anyhow I would describe my late vets tech as a lameness locator but all it could do is pick up super subtle irregularities whether mechanical or pain, and tell you which leg. It didn’t tell you where in the leg.
It could be really interesting in those complex cases where you aren’t sure where the problem is located
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Lameness Locator is sold only to DVMs.
And costs in the vicinity of $15K.
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What @Ghazzu said. Also, the Lameness Locator IME is only truly effective with blocking and a really good eye for sporthorse lameness diagnosis. It just tells you data on which limb, and you have to combine that with visuals and blocking to compile a “best guess”. I found it invaluable for a NQR lameness that was popping up everywhere as a grade 1-2. My vet was able to block and then ultrasound to find a suspensory injury.
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