I was wondering if anyone has any experience with horses who are sore through the chest. I have a mare that I took to the lameness vet back in September and we decided to inject her si due to some hind end lameness. After that she began moving super quickly, as if she’s out of balance. She almost feels like a racking horse when she first starts trotting (she’s a tb.) I noticed recently that she’s extremely sore in her chest and girth area. She does not seem sore through the back. I gave her a couple weeks off but it has not helped at all with the soreness. So now I’m trying to decide if I want to do chiro, message, both, or just take her back for another lameness eval. Any advice is appreciated:)
Is there any way she could have cracked (or broken) a rib? It’s pretty unusual but I can’t think of another reason for chest soreness.
tore pectoral muscle? Massage therapist found it, vet thought it was arthritis at C6-C7 because of some the symptoms displayed.
I don’t think she could have a broken rib but who knows what they do in the pasture! The massage therapist said she was tight up front but that’s it. It’s almost like her chest muscles feel enlarged if that makes any sense?
Do you live in an area where the turnout might be slippery? My horse seriously pulled a deep pectoral muscle and it took many months to fully heal and rehab. My chiropractor/vet worked on it at each visit for probably a year. Because of the circumstances when it started, we think that he did the splits in the pasture.
He recovered completely but it took a long time and I really think the releases that the vet could achieve helped move things along. After a while, I also did a lot of slow lateral work (such as turn on haunches and leg yield and the like) with him to gently rehab the area. It was always true that he warmed up out of it during our rides.
I had a horse who got his SI injected, and also had soreness in his chest/shoulder area. Chiro and Vet said it was what came first, the chicken or the egg? The SI compensating for the shoulder or the shoulder compensating for the SI? Either way we did time off, long and low riding, and robaxin 2x a day for a month. We also did Surpass on the shoulder.
My horse got sore in the front of his chest when he had front heel pain. From compensating.
I would check her temperature for a few days, Pigeon Fever often starts in the pectoral muscles.
I would also investigate whether she is now pulling herself forward with her front end, instead of using her hind end to propel her forward.
That’s kind of what I’ve been thinking, clearing up one problem shows us another. She still isn’t right on the back end either though, she swaps leads behind in her right lead canter. She definitely drags herself along, she doesn’t want to push from behind at all. But I gave her a couple weeks off to see if it helped with the soreness and it didn’t. The vet will be out on the 22 so hopefully I can get something figured out. I just hate her being so uncomfortable.
