He gets turnout - our paddocks are not that large and he is a very quiet horse, so locking him in a stall alone in the barn while 40 other horses are out didn’t seem fair.
If you jog him four times down and back, he will consistently be sounder on each pass.
I am also thinking DDFT at this point, but I’m heartbroken, as I’ve been told repeatedly that the prognosis is pasture sound at best for anything DDFT related.
I hope you can get some answers soon and the situation is not a serious one. I’ve been in this situation too where I have been told different things, think we are on the right track with treatment, to have it not work out. Good luck!
I love Fairfield, and wouldn’t hesitate to bring a horse there for diagnostics.
Depends on the severity of the injury
I just had a vet tell me that I should not extinguish my dream of showing in a National USHJA Hunter Derby with a horse that is starting rehab from a DDFT injury. Now he’s not jumping, or even trotting, yet but the vet had the horse and MRI in front of her and knows the class specs. I was told to be very aware of feet and shoeing.
Agree. Don’t give up hope just because there’s a DDFT injury. Horses DO come back. In my experience it requires a LOT of rest and a really CONSERVATIVE rehab plan. But it doesn’t have to be a career ender if it’s a mild strain.
OP’s horse sounds JUST like mine in terms of how the lameness came and went. If my horse was any indication it could be just a treatable strain if it is a DDFT injury.
Can you haul him to a good veterinary hospital for a second opinion and further diagnostics?
At least they could rule some issues out and at best they could actually diagnose him.
As with most soft tissue injuries, prognosis depends on the severity, treatment, and an accurate diagnosis. You don’t have a diagnosis, so you have no idea if anything you are doing will help the horse or not.
If the vet you are using is saying wait a week and you are unhappy with that, insist on doing more now or go get a second opinion. As others have said, Fairfield is a well respected practice in your area. There are others that may be a reasonable day trip for you.
I can’t remember if you said…Is the horse insured? They will pay for an MRI and most treatments required after.
I am generally unwilling to use veterinary hospitals as my experience has been they are more interested in educating vet students and spending your money than providing an actionable diagnosis or the simplest thing that might be wrong with the horse.
Fairfield Equine does not have an appointments available for more than three weeks.
He is only insured for mortality. I cut it back this year after having three years of zero issues with the horse.
I can afford whatever. What I don’t have the luxury of is wasting weeks waiting to see what happens when he could have been on his way to being better.
He seems to be slowly improving with new shoes, so the farrier is now coming weekly to keep bringing the toe back and resetting to get things better situated.
Oh, that’s too bad. Here, the local (CSU) vet school is pretty good, and reasonable.
Good luck. I hope it’s something that’s easily taken care of.
That’s a bummer and hasn’t been my experience. The MRI should be pretty informative if it is a DDFT. You could do stall rest in the meantime because that would be the treatment but I think without the MRI stall rest alone isn’t going to give you an empirical diagnosis unfortunately
I got a horse who was retired from racing because of a full suspensory tear with major DFFT involvement - the suspensory blew and the whole kaboodle went with it. He has got some jewelry up front.
He’s doing BN with his 70 y/o rider. He will always have a slightly lesser degree of motion in that front forelimb, but you would only notice it if you were very good at lameness.
I hope you can get an appointment sooner than 3 weeks (if that’s what you wish) and that you get some answers. I know what you mean about some hospitals treating it like a learning experience. I have one local I love, and one I won’t go to for that reason (and the depth of knowledge is much shallower there as well).
I agree the more I hear about it the more it makes me think this is soft tissue related. Either way, rest off isn’t necessarily wasting time although it’s frustrating not having answers in the meantime. I hope you get answers ASAP.
Could you send me a message with which hospital you like? You are not outside my driving radius so I’m curious.
I’m impressed by the depth of knowledge in this thread. I just did a PPE on a horse that passed the flexions and was negative to hoof testers, and as soon as he was on a circle, he came up lame. He does have a NPA on the LF. Is it normal for lameness caused by this to only show up on the lunge line?
NPA is one of those things, it really depends on the horse and the severity.
Some are bilaterally lame and it’s difficult to detect. Some toe drag or land toe first, “stubby” landing steps. Some will be lame on a circle and fine in a straight line. Some just don’t move out well, or lose topline, or performance. Some stand under themselves where their hind hooves are forward of their stifle. Depending on how long it goes on, some have soft tissue complaints along with the NPA – because it isn’t just the shape of the hoof that’s impacted by NPA. NPA “pulls” (for a lack of a better word) all surrounding structures down and out as the toe gets longer and the sole depth shallower – resulting in everything from sore soles to sore DFFT to even suspensory injuries or collateral ligament strains.
The most common physical complaint I see from NPA up front is reactive suspensories on palp or flexions. The most common physical complaint I see from NPA behind is sore SI and back.
Basically what @beowulf said at least im my limited experience. It depends. The area where the DDFT passes near the navicular is small and not very forgiving; a small difference the damage bw in different horses (and the horse’s inherent conformation) might make a profound difference in how it presents.
Lame on a lunge may mean something lateral or medial. Or not.
My horse just spent six months turned out barefoot. Looking at the radiographs now vs. last fall, there is a profound difference, including how the navicular bone aligns (sits?) with the other bones. His is worse LF than RF though the most recent lameness was RF. I now wonder if the damage caused when he stepped on the rock was exacerbated by the NPA and/or if the NPA caused the irritation to continue.
Interesting. This particular horse had been barefoot for four years, and when the current owner got him, she had him shod because she wanted to teach him to jump. She had no idea of his soundness issues until the lameness showed up lungeing on hard ground.
I really liked the horse and have been looking for a long time. I really hope she can get him sound.
I was able to get a cancellation appointment a week from today for the MRI. It’s more expensive than I was expecting it to be but at least we will know.
Big fat jingles!!
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