Got the bad news last week, my baby boy very likely has damage to one of the collateral ligaments in the foot, pending MRI to confirm and see how bad it is.
The whole story is rather long but here goes. At the end of June Pizz came up lame on his right front after a gallop set done on good ground at slower speeds. He blocked to the pastern about 90%, ultrasound we clean higher up where there was a bit of filling below the knee. No digital pulse or heat in the foot. Vet figured it was a generalized strain to the right front, icing and rest for a week and reevaluate.
After a week he was about 99% sound so we returned to light work while continuing to ice. He would start out off in his work but was amazingly light and willing to work. We had the best work he has ever done on the flat and never once did he finish worse than he started. Gradually over the month of July he got better and better and the lingering stiffness in warm up was attributed to a tight muscle in his shoulder. We even jumped, schooled XC, etc without any issues.
Two weeks ago he got 3 days off (the most time off he had since the initial strain) while I was away and when I returned he was much worse. Not necessarily lame but incredibly difficult to the left, unwilling to reach through, esspecially in the left lead canter. Trainer saw him go and could see nothing really wrong, just that he wasn’t going well. We assumed his shoulder had tightened up after the time off.
I flatted two days with a little bit of improvement and then jumped him. Again I couldn’t get him to go the bridle at the canter but he was jumping fairly well and my coach could not really see what I was feeling. After my last jumps I came back to the trot and he was lame on the right front again.
Immediately back to icing. This time there was an elevated digital pulse and he was head bobbing lame at the trot (sound at the walk). Nothing on hoof testers. Vet wasn’t able to get out for a week and his lameness did improve and by then he had no digital pulse. He was no worse with flexions unlike before.
Blocked the coffin joint first, then heel, and then pastern. Each block gave some improvement (coffin joint showed the most improvement), but he was still taking the occasional funny step when being lunged on hard ground. Took X-rays to rule out anything bony. X-rays came back clean so the only thing left is soft tissue in the foot. Vet suspects a collateral ligament based on a slight change on an X-ray where it attaches to the pastern.
MRI is scheduled for Tuesday and we will go from there but the general plan is to do restricted rest on flat ground and then once he is cleared for full turnout, move him to a pasture for the winter and let Dr Green work his magic until the spring when I will have the time to devote to bringing him back into work. Fingers crossed
And sorry for the novel!
Update post MRI: so interestingly, they found a couple of things. Damage to the lateral collateral ligament, small issue with the base of the deep digital flexor tendon, and some stuff on the pastern. The really interesting part is that the soft tissue injuries were older than expected, suggesting they were the cause of the original lameness rather than having been strained and then injuries fully two weeks ago like we had thought. Opted to inject with PRP (holy crap that stuff is expensive!) to reduce scar tissue formation. He is also going to have a special therapeutic shoe made (when I know exactly what it is I’ll let you guys know).
Game plan is 2 weeks of stall rest and wrapped for support then 1-2 months of very limited turnout (aka a stall with a little run out) and then we will increase from there.
