Horse lame on two legs *facepalm* UPDATED WITH DX

[grandprixer]

Hi all. This is a new low for us.

I’ve said it before and I stand by the fact that my horse is cursed. I did something dumb - bought a new saddle and scheduled a lesson for the first time in months, so of course he was lame today.

Not only is he lame, he’s lame RF and RH. Not worsened by direction but significantly worse on gravel and after standing still. He’s not fantastically sore on either but with both I can’t even get him to trot. I gave him 2 grams Bute, we’ll see if that helps.

This horse is not known for being sound. He’s had some significant soft tissue injuries LF (all healed) and bursitis/navicular changes RF ( healed/under control with shoes - not given him issues in months). Abscessed a month ago RH, it was popped and cleaned by vet and he got SMZs for 2 weeks. Abscess was declared healed two weeks ago by farrier upon reshoeing.

Other important context: lives outside 24/7 in a mudhole with 5 other horses. Hasn’t stopped raining for months, footing is horrible and slick. Pasture has rocks but isn’t “rocky”. I haven’t ridden in about a week, and he only gets ridden biweekly on the flat until things dry up. One of the horses recently left, and there’s been some arguing over hay privileges (despite numerous piles :rolleyes:) My horse has been bullying more than bullied.

How likely is a double abscess? Or double bruise? Or one of each? It’s tick season, possibly lyme? I’ve seen a lot in my years but this is new for me. Any advice welcome.

TIA!

Edit: vet just came out. Abscess FR and rapidly advancing EPM. Send jingles.

[Fin01]

Fairly unlikely he’s abscessed both, but not entirely impossible.
Do you have a friendly farrier that can come and hoof test him? Save you the expense of a vet doing blocks until you’re sure it’s necessary.

I was always taught if lame on hard surfaces, then it’s hoof or bone.
If lame on soft footing, then it’s tendon or ligaments.

Most vets I know are limiting visits to emergency only. But if you can pull blood yourself, ask them to leave some purple tops outside for you and you go pick up 4 tubes and fill them, then return them. They’ll send the serum off to be tested for Lyme.

Personally, I’d back off the Bute. 2g is a lot. Instead, try 250 lb paste dose banamine and support wraps and pack feet. IF you can find a stall to put him in over night. I would not turn a horse out in standing bandages.

Is there any heat in his legs/ feet? Does he pick up opposing legs willingly?

[grandprixer]

@Fin01

Fairly unlikely he’s abscessed both, but not entirely impossible.
Do you have a friendly farrier that can come and hoof test him? Save you the expense of a vet doing blocks until you’re sure it’s necessary.

I was always taught if lame on hard surfaces, then it’s hoof or bone.
If lame on soft footing, then it’s tendon or ligaments.

Most vets I know are limiting visits to emergency only. But if you can pull blood yourself, ask them to leave some purple tops outside for you and you go pick up 4 tubes and fill them, then return them. They’ll send the serum off to be tested for Lyme.

Personally, I’d back off the Bute. 2g is a lot. Instead, try 250 lb paste dose banamine and support wraps and pack feet. IF you can find a stall to put him in over night. I would not turn a horse out in standing bandages.

Is there any heat in his legs/ feet? Does he pick up opposing legs willingly?

Thanks for your response.

No farriers or vets willing to come out for nonemergency. The farrier will be out an the 13th for normal trims, but won’t come earlier and I don’t feel like waiting that long. I agree it’s hard tissue and not soft.

It seems like a good idea to see if they’ll let me draw the blood, I’ll call tomorrow. Is the lyme titer usually expensive? I’m currently unemployed.

Even if the Bute helps, I’ll be backing off. I usually do 1g but he looked pretty pitiful and I just wanted to see if it would help.

There might be heat, might not. I’ll use the laser tomorrow but I didn’t feel the blazing heat I’m used to with abscesses. No digital pulses either. Definitely no swelling. I’m going to get a video tomorrow just in case he’s neurological and not lame. (I’m pretty sure he’s just lame but I’m no vet)

[Fin01]

Perhaps you can buy a set of hoof testers, go to Youtube and figure out how to test feet for sore spots?

About the bute vs. banamine: don’t stack them, of course.

I can’t recall the pricing of Lyme titers. But I’m sure your vet can advise you. Best of luck.

[S1969]

It’s spring grass season…so add that to spring rains…could be laminitis. A little grass can really affect many horses.

Can you pull him off pasture for a couple of days and dry lot and/or stall and handwalk?

It doesn’t really sound like Lyme to me, although of course it could be.

[Angela_Freda]

To me, lame in two legs of unknown origin is an emergency.

[tipzythegreat]

Can you move him from the mud pit?

The mud is no doubt aggravating old injuries if not creating new ones. When I was re-habbing my suspensory injury, the vet said anything more than halfway up the hoof wall is too deep…

My horse’s suspensory also cropped up during the spring. Mud was past the fetlock for weeks. It was swollen for about a week but my horse was sound, so my trainer said to ride him. Hindsight – pretty sure that was when his suspensories got rocked.

I know it’s hard to move facilities, and that there is a lot of mud in the spring. But think how you’d feel sloshing around in a mud pit all the time. It sucks and pulls on your legs.

[grandprixer]

@tipzythegreat

Can you move him from the mud pit?

The mud is no doubt aggravating old injuries if not creating new ones. When I was re-habbing my suspensory injury, the vet said anything more than halfway up the hoof wall is too deep…

My horse’s suspensory also cropped up during the spring. Mud was past the fetlock for weeks. It was swollen for about a week but my horse was sound, so my trainer said to ride him. Hindsight – pretty sure that was when his suspensories got rocked.

I know it’s hard to move facilities, and that there is a lot of mud in the spring. But think how you’d feel sloshing around in a mud pit all the time. It sucks and pulls on your legs.

Thank you for your response!

Moving is not an option. Barns are very limited around here, and the only other one doesn’t even have turnout. It’s also been years since the tears, so I felt safe about that.

Laminitis I didn’t even consider 😬. I’ll give him a good check over today, but I thought laminitis was usually 2 fronts out 2 hind?

[S1969]

@grandprixer

Thank you for your response!

Moving is not an option. Barns are very limited around here, and the only other one doesn’t even have turnout. It’s also been years since the tears, so I felt safe about that.

Laminitis I didn’t even consider 😬. I’ll give him a good check over today, but I thought laminitis was usually 2 fronts out 2 hind?

Yes, but since horses bear more weight on their front legs than their hinds, they tend to be more noticeably sore especially in somewhat mild cases (e.g. horse is not always in true founder stance.)

[wildlifer]

It is hard to say. It is definitely possible to have multiple bruises, I had one bruise all 4 feet at once from fly stomping (at least he was even?). Since you mentioned slick footing, if I had two legs on the same side lame, my first guess in those conditions would be slip/fall. Especially if there is rough-housing. I have one right now that somehow managed to tear his tricep in one shoulder, that’s a new one for me. Slipped, kicked, or both, who knows. It wasn’t particularly muddy, but he’s an obnoxious young turd who constantly harasses his older pasture mate, so I’m sure he deserved whatever was dished out to him. I am very practiced at the facepalm so you have my empathy.

[IPEsq]

A vet exam probably with blocks would be the way to go since he’s so lame. But given the circumstances, keeping him comfortable and quiet in the meantime is not the end of the world. For a full size horse, 2g of Bute once a day is not crazy. But I would not want to have to give that for a lot of days without having a vet look at him. Keep a look out for anything that is a clear emergency like signs of laminitis, non-weight bearing, excessive lying down, going off feed etc due to feeling miserable, ataxia, and the like.

I think I would also talk to your vet to see if they deem it worth a call with their current restrictions. If it was something like a fall, you could be looking at possible very serious injury. Probably none of it will be cheap unless a few days rest and Bute happen to take care of it. I don’t know that I’d spend the money on blood tests without some kind of overall exam first–maybe there will be something obvious to them that points a different direction.

[grandprixer]

https://youtu.be/_dDpIH8xJ-4

Here’s how he looks today. He was sound in the pasture until he tried to run away, at which point he got mildly lame. 2/5 at the most. Looked horrible on gravel, definitely still lame RF but I’m not sure about the hind anymore - something’s off, just not sure what. Calling vet just in case.

[grandprixer]

Also of note, no discernable heat. Barely stronger pulse. Lifts both back legs easily, reluctant to lift LF. I called the vet and they weren’t to concerned about laminitis, but it’s still possible.

[Dutchmare433]

@grandprixer

https://youtu.be/_dDpIH8xJ-4

Here’s how he looks today. He was sound in the pasture until he tried to run away, at which point he got mildly lame. 2/5 at the most. Looked horrible on gravel, definitely still lame RF but I’m not sure about the hind anymore - something’s off, just not sure what. Calling vet just in case.

Did the vet see this video? When was the last time he had bute before this video? I would be keeping this horse on stall rest until he can be seen.

[grandprixer]

@Dutchmare433

Did the vet see this video? When was the last time he had bute before this video? I would be keeping this horse on stall rest until he can be seen.

The vet hasn’t seen the video but will hopefully be out tomorrow. This was about 24 hours after the bute. He’s mostly comfortable on pasture, barely limping, and he paces so much when stalled I decided to leave him outside.

[IPEsq]

Hard for me to say about the hind. He’s so lame up front the awkwardness behind might just be reluctance to take any other foot off the ground. Hoping it’s just an abscess in the front. I think you’d have to block him sound on RF before you could really see if there’s anything else.

[equinelibrium]

@grandprixer

https://youtu.be/_dDpIH8xJ-4

Here’s how he looks today. He was sound in the pasture until he tried to run away, at which point he got mildly lame. 2/5 at the most. Looked horrible on gravel, definitely still lame RF but I’m not sure about the hind anymore - something’s off, just not sure what. Calling vet just in case.

I’m no vet, but based on that video I would consider him worse than a 2/5, more like a 3 or 3.5/5 according to the AAEP guidelines
https://aaep.org/horsehealth/lameness-exams-evaluating-lame-horse

I would definitely consider a horse this lame to be enough of an “emergency” to constitute having a vet out, but things may be different where you are. Not a “call the vet and get them to come right now” emergency, but I would hate to wait more than a day or two to have him looked at. Kinda like when you can’t wait till a normal doctors appointment but you’re not bad enough for the ER, you go to urgent care.

It’s entirely possible that the issue you’re seeing with the RH is a compensatory lameness, meaning it’s caused by the issues with the RF. Normally compensatory lamenesses go away after the initial problem is fixed (unless it’s gone on for a considerable time and the horse has over-compensated so much that it causes another injury).

[grandprixer]

@equinelibrium

I’m no vet, but based on that video I would consider him worse than a 2/5, more like a 3 or 3.5/5 according to the AAEP guidelines
https://aaep.org/horsehealth/lameness-exams-evaluating-lame-horse

I would definitely consider a horse this lame to be enough of an “emergency” to constitute having a vet out, but things may be different where you are. Not a “call the vet and get them to come right now” emergency, but I would hate to wait more than a day or two to have him looked at. Kinda like when you can’t wait till a normal doctors appointment but you’re not bad enough for the ER, you go to urgent care.

It’s entirely possible that the issue you’re seeing with the RH is a compensatory lameness, meaning it’s caused by the issues with the RF. Normally compensatory lamenesses go away after the initial problem is fixed (unless it’s gone on for a considerable time and the horse has over-compensated so much that it causes another injury).

I was able to get a vet out tonight. I agree he’s above a 2/5 on the video, but he’s 2/5 on grass.

Send jingles! I’ll update after the appt.

[Denali6298]

I’m glad you called the vet. Holy cow. Horses won’t appear as lame on softer ground. Jingles is just an abcess or bruise.

[ASB_Stars]

I realize that you have the Vet coming out, but for the future, check digital pulses for anything from a bruise to an abcess.

Best of luck!