[B]My horse has been lame, and we are unable to make a diagnosis yet. I was wondering if anyone has seen the same issues in their horse, so that I might have an idea what is going on.
I rode my gelding a couple Fridays ago (Jan. 31), and he was wonderful. Rode him again that Sunday, and he was slightly off on his front right, but it was only when he would be going in smaller circles to the right. He had just had his shoes re-set recently, so I figured he was just a little sore, that maybe he was trimmed a little too short. I am a student at Purdue, so I was going to be going back to campus for the week of classes which is about an hour and a half away. I figured that a few days of rest would solve it and that he would be fine when I returned that Friday. The vet was out on that Thursday to draw blood for his coggins, and told me that he wasn’t putting any weight on that front right. She diagnosed it as a possible hot nail/abscess, and my farrier came out that next day, pulled the shoe and checked each nail hole, didn’t find any sign of pain. He used his hoof testers on him, nothing. He didn’t have any swelling, no digital pulse, nothing. He ended up putting the shoe back on, but didn’t put any nails in the last four spots on his heel.
I started to wrap it with animalintex poultice, hot and wet, to try and draw out the possible abscess. He has a phobia of water that I haven’t been able to work with him on much yet (I just bought him in October, and it has been very cold) so I haven’t been successful in trying to soak it in a rubber feed pan. After 4 days, I called back the vet and she said that if it was an abscess, it should have bursted by then. She told me to put him on stall rest, thinking it could be a pulled muscle. I went to check him last night, and had him trotting circles, and he was 100% going to the left, and seemed fine going to the right at first, but then got worse after a little bit. He has a little bit of heat coming from his coronet band on that front right, but nowhere else. Still no swelling. I called the vet and left a message asking her to come out and do a lameness exam, and haven’t heard back yet. I was going to call again if I didn’t hear back by noon today. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what this could be? [/B]
