Hi all! Sorry this is long.
6yr old OTTB mare, came off the track in spring 2022. I adopted her from an aftercare program in August 2022. She is missing her left eye (removed Dec 2023).
In July, she started sitting back on crossties when she was getting done by the farrier. This ONLY happens with her front legs. It seemed like behavior at the time–she was in general anxious in that part of the barn and a little herd bound. Got dorm gel and that worked like a charm so we kept doing that. (Hindsight is 20/20 as you’ll see.)
She sustained a mild suspensory strain in September and was off from September to December, handwalking and tack walking though it was mostly like flying a kite even with drugs.
Her suspensory healed quickly and in November she was cleared for tack walking and medium turnout, but when I tacked her up, she was pretty angry, which wasn’t like her. She also was a little off her feed. We scoped and she had Gr 3-4 ulcers. Treated for 30 days with Gastrogard and Sucralfate. Rescoped clean, no ulcers at all, at 30 days. Her suspensory also scanned great at the same appointment and she was cleared to slowly return to work.
In January, I switched to a new barn and a new farrier. Even through dorm gel, she sat back repeatedly on crossties, attempted to rear, hopped, and had a very hard time holding up her foot long enough for the glue-on shoe to set. Again, only with front feet. I’d never seen this happen through dorm before, so I asked for a vet exam and xrays.
Her exam was not remarkable, except that she really does not like her front feet held up for any period of time. Long enough to pick them but not much more. She was sound (slight positive both hind legs on flexion, but her hind feet are quite NPA right now). She did fine with the tail pull.
On tight circles, the vet noted that she walked a little wide. Going up and down the hill with her head held up, she floated her front feet a little bit. Vet graded her a 1 for neuro.
Xrayed her back and her neck. Her back has one very small and minor spot of KS. It’s not touching in the xray but it’s very narrow and there’s some remodeling there.
Her neck was not catastrophic, but it does have some enlargement of C4-C6 facets, a weird bone cyst on a facet of C5, and some “abnormalities of tranverse processes.” We didn’t see anything super alarming on field xrays of C6-C7, fwiw.
She has a history of explosive energy (especially if she gets insufficient turnout) and being a bit hot/cold under saddle. She also has a history of balking, though that really has gotten better and better when we’ve slowly fixed her feet. She has terrible angles in her feet.
I feel certain that there’s a pain component to her behavior, and maybe also pain memory. The question is whether I just inject at this point, or if I take her in for a CT and neuro exam at a clinic, or if that’s a waste of my money and I should just inject and see how she does. I can’t afford a myelogram at this point in time.
Is there a possibility this isn’t her neck, and she’s just so used to her feet being in pain that she has learned not to hold her feet up? I’ve never done bute before a farrier appointment.
We’re going to do a bute trial next week (with gastrogard and sucralfate on board) to see if we see any difference under saddle and on the ground when I’m testing this.
We did pull a Lyme test and it was negative. This is an endemic area.
Open to all thoughts, though if you only want to share a horror story, please scroll past. I’ve heard plenty from well meaning people over the last week and I can only handle so much panicking at once. <3 Thank you.
