Intermittent Lameness

[mintano]

My vet will be looking at her tomorrow but I’m curious if anyone here would have any ideas what the issue is.

I brought my mare in from the field today to ride an she was perfectly sound. Groomed and tacked her up and I notice as I’m turning her around to bring her to the mounting block she’s taking bad steps on her right front. She has very sensitive feet so I checked them again though I’d picked them out only minutes before and the only thing she could have in there was sand and her feet were clean. The very slightest digital pulse to her right front, no blemishes to be seen.

For curiosity’s sake I got on and she walked off lame, I walked her out of the indoor and within 5 steps on the pavement she was perfectly sound. I took her out on the grass and did a quick w/t/c, perfect. Cools out fine, walk back into the indoor and within a few steps she isn’t right again. I cleaned her up and took her back out to the field and when she got back to the pavement she was perfectly sound again.

When I turned her out I did notice her taking funny steps again. The area around the gate where I turn her out has a lot of loose rocks (it’s like a breeding ground of rocks, I go out with a bucket when I feed her out in the field and just walk around picking up rocks, and then more appear!).

The usual culprit with her is foot related but I don’t really see how it could be so intermittent. I guess maybe she could have a bruise or something brewing in the foot that the pressure of the sand in her foot is enough to make her sore?

Anybody have any ideas?

[dbliron1]

I went through something similar last winter with my gelding. He was very lame in deep snow, lame intermittently in the arena, very lame in his stall, and totally sound on concrete and pavement. After exams by both my vet and farrier, and lots of frustration on my part, he eventually (it took a month) popped a tiny little abscess in the medial heel of his right fore. I poulticed that for two weeks, it drained tiny little amounts every day, and when it stopped draining he was sound, and has been ever since. We were all sidetracked by the fact that he was completely sound on hard ground, but any surface which allowed for sole pressure of any kind made him lame. On top of that, he was utterly nonchalant about the hoof testers…

[sabinomare]

To me, it sounds like the beginning of an abscess since you mentioned the pulse. It could also be a bruise, like you suggested.

[merrygoround]

Sounds as though she is sound with no contact to the sole. Hope for bruise, or not as kind, an abscess.

[TWH_Girl]

How old is your horse? My old guy had similar issues and due to his Cushings and IR, we determined it was low level laminitis. Hope thats not the case for you. I would rule out navicular too. Let us know what you find out.

[mintano]

Thanks for the ideas guys. She is a 15yo, thoroughbred. It is the general consensus that it is a bruise. She had pulled a shoe about 8 weeks ago and developed a slight bruise on the sole. Vet thinks it’s not quite healed and is aggravated by pressure.

I’ve been treating it as a foot issue from the get go and she’s not had an issue since that day, though I haven’t tried riding in the sand indoor. We’ll be keeping an eye on it regardless and next shoeing (in 2-3 weeks) I’m putting rim pads back on, she’s always had them because she is incredibly thin soled but she’s gone with plain steel for awhile now because she was just sitting in a field.

Ah, gotta love her…crappy feet and all!