MRI can be incredibly helpful, but I can tell you that until you get some heel support nothing’s going to change much. These feet are short shod, so the wedges make things look better but don’t address the fundamental problem with the shoe size and the lack of heel support.
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The treatment for my horse’s injury found via MRI was no different than it would have been had I not had the MRI done (stall rest, small paddock, hand-walking), however, the MRI did tell me what I was dealing with and without it, we would not have know. In this case, it was a medial collateral ligament strain P3 so there was no heat, no swelling, no outward signs. I would have been wondering why he was lame for so long had I not known what the injury was. The MRI results allowed me to set expectations for healing instead of just guessing and stressing.
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Can you share what your timeline was on the healing process? My vet is also worried about a collateral ligament…my girl has also had no heat/swelling/etc.
Investing in imaging at this point is a tough call because of the feet. They could very well be your entire problem and if not at least the source of it. And the lameness sounds relatively recent.
If anesthesia is the concern, what about a standing MRI or CT? If cost, CT should cost much less. I haven’t personally done a CT so I’m not sure how they compare, but my friend’s horse was diagnosed with a soft tissue injury in the coffin joint area by CT last year and it was less than $1,000. Ultrasound is even cheaper and can get to the upper part of the collateral ligament of the DIP. It can also be repeated easily to check progress.
I’ve done MRIs and it did change the game plan. The time I put it off I ended up doing the MRI in the end after wasting a bunch of time and other money. I like to know what I’m dealing with and whether treatment can be targeted (shockwave, regenerative therapies, etc).
Also, with soft tissue injuries the horse’s soundness can often improve with rest pretty quickly while the fibers remain a work in progress, so if you don’t image you’ll want to rehab extra slowly to be safe. Timeline really depends on the severity of the injury, which will be another question mark without imaging. A mild strain could be maybe 4-6 months whereas a more severe injury may take much longer or never recover.
So bottom line, with known farrier issues and a recent lameness, I don’t think you’re wrong to wait, but if you don’t like uncertainty and want to be able to target therapy while the injury is fresh, I’d look into standing imaging.
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If you have access to a standing CT, the time under sedation is much less. Next would be standing MRI, and then general anesthesia MRI.
I don’t get why you still have lateral flare extending out over the shoe on a freshly shod foot?
Doing imaging will tell you exactly what is injured in there, which might give you some direction on treatment options like biologics as well as an expected timeline for healing. But of course, healing will be difficult if the feet are still so out of whack with the trimming. At least the new farrier took off a ton of that extra toe, which is a good start.
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I just want my old farrier back…ugh. This was done by the vet’s preferred farrier. I am going with another group next shoeing…I spoke with them today. They do a lot of work with another vet (not my vet), but are used to following xrays and doing corrective work. Fingers crossed third farrier is the charm…running out of options. I’m not interested in using their vet, so hopefully they are willing to work with mine.
I usually take my horses to NBC if we need more advanced diagnostics…have a vet up there I really trust for ortho stuff. I actually just emailed her to ask about CT vs MRI. They have a standing CT…but not a standing MRI. There are standing MRIs a few hours away, but not with vets I have any past experience with.
Nothing but sympathy.
I have determined that I simply will pay what he charges and be happy when he pulls out the calendar at the end of the visit. As it happens, I have a farrier who does good work. He is more impatient than I would like. And I am pretty sure he thinks I am an idiot. But, I have an ancient pony with very asymmetric feet that requires a stupid amount of Bute to be almost trimmable, one young draft horse with a sticky stifle (which equals perfect behavior and then utterly without warning a ton of horse exploding), and one older draft who has decided that he hates being trimmed. You can NOT find farriers that work with difficult draft horses. You just can’t.
End result…I pay 100 per horse, per trim. It is worth it. I don’t like it. But, until and even after I have figured out how to trim them myself, it is simply part of the cost of horses in this century.
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FWIW I recently did a standing MRI at VA Tech in Leesburg, but my own vet’s preferred radiologist was the one who reviewed the images, requested additional views, etc. It was a little clunkier communication-wise than when I’ve done imaging there with VA Tech vets directly involved, but it’s an option.
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This was a number of years ago but what I remember was 3 months stall rest followed by another 3 months in a small turnout not to exceed 30’ x 30’. Hand-walking (was really more like flying a kite) throughout. Once back under saddle it was a very slow progression - walking only for a week and then a few minute of trot the next week and a few more the next week ad nauseum.
My horse ended up getting 5 months of stall rest just due to the timing of the diagnosis and weather. He also had a simultaneous bone bruise on the opposite front leg.
As far as standing vs lying MRI, the vets I was working with at the time did not think they could get as clear of a picture via standing and did not want to go that route.
My horse did make a full recovery and was eventually back to eventing at Prelim and above.
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Those feet are horrible. I’d assume any soreness was related to those, possibly some soft tissue pain or minor injury, I’d keep working on those, stick to gentle work and turn her out as long as she stays quiet and hope any soreness went away as you fix the angles.
It’s getting so hard to find a decent farrier that actually knows what a healthy foot is supposed to look like. They are all learning on horses with messed up feet from people who can’t tell and its just getting worse and worse.
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We aren’t doing any work…I am turning her out as she’s quite sensible and I think being out and grazing is way better for her brain and body. The one day I just brought her in to lunge to see how lame she still was. Otherwise, she’s just getting lots of grooming time, as she is the best girl!
Talked to the vet at NBC…they can do a PET with CT, but really MRI would be the best imaging. Talked to my vet and we are going to continue to try and fix the shoeing and give her a bit more time before we jump to doing the MRI.
Ugh…just so frustrating as she was going so well, and she’s my favorite to ride. My other gelding is having an EPM flare. Apparently you need to own 1 more horse than you already have to have one that is sound enough to ride.
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Lol, ain’t that the truth.
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I’m all for the conservative approach. It is my personal approach most of the time.
FWIW I didn’t think the before pictures of the feet were that bad. I’ve seen much worse on still functional horses. I thought the second set after the vets farrier? shod the horse were much better. Worth noting that some horses are never going to have a large shoe size and some horses are always going to go better in pads, usually due to genetics affecting how the foot grows/functions, etc.
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If you’re close enough that NBC is your hospital of choice, contact Equigen. They have standing MRI in Chester Co. so quite close to NBC. I emailed them this winter when mine had to have an MRI (which was super helpful in diagnosing some soft tissue stuff we didn’t realize was going on from xrays), pricing was similar to Leesburg. I ended up going with Leesburg, since they’d seen the horse before and were who my vets usually worked with, but the Equigen folks were responsive and easy to book with if I had gone that route.
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Yes I could…but I won’t go to Equigen because of past very negative and unprofessional interactions with that vet who also missed a diagnosis that they should not have missed. I will leave it at that.
I could drive up to Furlongs…I think they have one. It would probably be a little over an extra hour of travel.
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Furlong has a standing mri in NJ.
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