I have a 4yo ISH gelding that has a swinging RH lameness. Looks uncomfortable somewhere above the stifle. No swelling or heat below the hock.
I’m curious, what diagnostic tools does a vet need to identify a fractured pelvis or SI injury?
When you say swinging, do you mean that the leg is swinging out to the side when it moves in the forward phase? My horse presented like this when his SI was sore again (had previously rehabbed from a soft tissue SI injury).
To diagnose the original SI injury, we did blocks from hoof to stifle first (to eliminate anything lower). There’s a flexion the vet can do for above the stifle but it can’t isolate specifically whether it’s SI/hip/pelvis, but it can at least help to let the vet see if it’s worse after the flexion. We ended up x-raying the stifle (clean), and then sent mine for a bone scan.
At the time (2015), there didn’t seem to be any imaging options like ultrasound etc available to me that could diagnose the SI, so bone scan it was. Maybe someone else here will chime in, as I’ve seen others discussing ultrasound imaging of the SI for diagnostics (not injections).
My horse with a bone chip in his hock swung that leg out to the side on the forward step when he was in pain.
Flexions and/or nerve blocks will eliminate everything from the stifle down. If you localize it to the SI or pelvis, the vet will use a combination of x-ray, ultrasound, and rectal ultrasound to find the problem, or send you to the clinic for a bone scan/CT/MRI.
