Could you elaborate? I’m following this w great interest. Thx!
Did you end up getting his back and neck xrayed? Are you sure he doesn’t have impinging processes (kissing spine) or arthritis in his neck? When the spinal cord is compressed by remodelling/arthritis, the hind end is usually the first thing affected as those nerves are on the outside apparently
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Well the Lyme test came back negative. We ended up just sticking with X-rays of the RH leg (particularly the stifle and hock). My vet felt that since the lameness was fairly one sided the issue would be more likely to be somewhere in the leg versus the neck/spine. He also palpated the neck and spine (he does a lot of chiropractic work and such) and found no indications of soreness. He said we could try to do x-rays of all the limbs plus the back and neck, but that at that point if we didn’t find anything the next step would still be a bone scan and he felt that it would save money in the long run to just go straight to the bone scan. The vet feels strongly that the issue is somewhere higher up in the RH, hence extensive ultrasounds of that area. That being said, whatever might be wrong up there is not being imaged well on the portable x-rays and ultrasound machines.
Having had a not great experience with bone scan, it may or may not save you any money. When (if) something lights up, you typically then go to xray or ultrasound of that area to try to pinpoint the issue. Bone scans also don’t pick up soft tissue problems unless they are causing bone changes, like at ligament attachments, possibly. And horses with neck or back or pelvis problems may or may not palpate significantly sore (even to one trained in chiropractic). If you blocked the stifle and got no improvement, I’d be inclined to say it wasn’t the stifle.
Update for anyone who might be curious. I took him to Cornell for a bone scan. On the initial lameness evaluation they did, they found that he was lame on the RH, flexed slightly lame on the LH, and was lame on the LF. He was also extremely sore to palpation in the gluteal area. On the bone scan, the only thing that really lit up was his back and x-rays showed osteoarthritic changes to some of the spinal processes in his mid to lower back. I’m going to consult with my vet to see what the best choice moving forward is but we’ll likely start out with a muscle relaxant and bute while working him to build those back muscles back up (since he’s been out of work since mid-March).
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I hate to resurrect an old thread, but I felt I should share that despite treatment with injections in the spine and Equioxx, Hawk is still lame. The sports med vet told me he felt the back wasn’t the root cause of the lameness, but that he had no further suggestions and wished me luck. Since then, Hawk has become more pronounced with his LF lameness (which we also worked up extensively with blocks and x-rays to no avail) and is still out in the RH. He has days where he looks pretty good and days where he is just clearly not comfortable at all. Equioxx makes no difference. I did finally talk his regular vet into doing some of the testing I want done, including vitamin E/selenium and PSSM. While we’re still waiting on the PSSM results, he came back as vitamin E deficient and is now on 5000 IUs per day. So far I’ve noticed no difference, but we’re still in the early stages of getting him on a supplement he’ll actually eat (picky guy!). The regular vet has also exhausted her diagnostics for him, short of injecting his hock in the hopes it’ll do something. Hopefully if anyone is reading this thread for ideas for their horse’s hind end issues they’ll at least get some ideas of what to test for (thanks everyone who made recommendations!), even if I have no concrete answers to give.
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Sorry to hear this but glad you updated us. Are you testing for PSSM 1 and 2? Only asking because I’ve been down the road myself of NQR, diagnostics, no answers, and vets giving up. None of them suggested testing for PSSM, which is what it was. Good luck and keep pushing for answers!
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I recommend KER’s nano-e. It’s a liquid, with a syringe to draw it off the bottle. Easy to slip into regular feed, and it rather quickly brought up the levels in my deficient guy. (Confirmed via repeat testing,)
Good luck!
greys
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You can test for PSSM1 with a standard blood test at UC Davis. The PSSM2 is a muscle biopsy or an experimental DNA check at EquiSeq.
Kissing Spines can cause intermittent front end lameness that may develop into something more, SI pain, hock issues as the horse tries to relieve the back pain. It’s hard to know because a horse can have X-rays that don’t look to awful but be in extreme pain or have terrible looking X-rays and not hurt. Even the numbing injections can be unclear if arthritis has set in under the kissing spines. Contact Dr Honnas in Bryan, TX. He can maybe tell you who in your area is a good person to see for this. I wouldn’t go to anyone but him or someone he approved.
Good luck. I hope you find the issue and it’s fixable.
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Santa Cruz-Ultra Cruz makes a vitamin E supplement the pickiest eaters I have will cheerfully eat. Hope this helps. Oh- you can purchase it through Chewy.
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I found Emcelle to be the most palatable and cost efficient. You can buy it with a pump from custom equine nutrition. Good luck!
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Thank you for the update and I’m sorry to hear about your horse. I hope that the PSSM test might come back and give some insight.
I understand how frustrating this type of situation can be (I’ve been there) But you are a great owner for advocating for your horse. All we can do is try our best. I so wish they could talk.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! A fellow boarder lent me a bottle of Puritan’s Pride gel capsules (which the vet said she had good experience with and my BO finds easier to add into his food). So far Hawk is actually eating these but we’ll see how long it takes him to wisen up and start eating around them.
His PSSM 1 test came back negative. I’m glad he doesn’t have it, but it’s frustrating to always wind up back at the starting block.
@hut-ho78 He doesn’t have kissing spines (thank goodness). I asked several times after the back x-rays to make sure and every vet assured me that all they saw was mild arthritic changes.
Thanks again for all the help and support! Mystery lamenesses are the worst. If I ever get a magic wish, it’ll be that all horses stay sound until they’re at least 20 years old!
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I’m not sure if you’re still looking into things to check for, but could it be SI ligament related? I know you said it palpated sore, but wasn’t better after adjustment or injections. I’ve been told an SI injection can make a difference due to the steroids reducing inflammation without solving the root cause.
You could ultrasound the SI? My mare was recently diagnosed with damage/inflammation her dorsal SI ligament on one side, mild atrophy on the other. She cantered a bit crooked under saddle and would try to trot you to death on the departures. Just overall seemed like the canter wasn’t comfortable for her.
PSSM2 may still be a possibility, but the muscle biopsy is invasive.
You could maybe try to feed as if that’s the case and see if helps? A pain, but it seems you’re invested in finding a solution!
OP, just checking in to see how Hawk is doing now? Did you ever find a definite cause of his lameness? Best wishes!
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@Lunabear1988 @candyappy Sorry it took me so long to respond! Hawk has improved in that his front end lameness has resolved and he is sound at a walk, but he is still mildly lame in his RH and occasionally his LH at the trot, especially around turns. We did end up injecting his right hock (tibiotarsal joint if I’m remembering correctly) and that seemed to help with the front end lameness and slightly with the RH, but nothing major. The vet would like to inject the LH in the same joint just to see, but I’m leaning more towards something like Legend instead of continuing to inject random joints. For now, Hawk is happy at a walk and generally happy at a trot so we are following vet’s orders and trying to keep him in low level under saddle work for now. Thanks for checking in on him! I wish I had more of an answer to share.
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A couple things come to mind …his back …has it been xrayed to check for Kissing Spine …that can cause a lot of what you mentioned …also a neuro exam including neck X-rays…cervical arthritis and or/compression as well as Kissing Spine can also show what you’re mentioning as well as creating mild/lameness
You may be on the right track with the SI. Injections don’t work overnight, and you don’t say what meds were injected. Pretty much all hind end issues are best treated with a regular work program. Getting worse after a period of light work is not unexpected. Regular work, hill work if you can, anti inflammatories as needed. And discuss with your vet the results of the last injections and timing and medications for future injections.
Sounds like my guy but make sure you address their stomach with daily previcox. My guy got raging ulcers from daily and we had to pull it.
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