Transient severe lameness

[Belowthesalt]

I’m just wondering if anyone has had an instance of this and what the outcome was. My horse is rehabbing a hind suspensory strain. I’m riding him, but only at the walk. During the week, when I am pretty much the only person at the barn in the evening, we just do our 30-40 minutes of walk under saddle. On the weekends, when things get busy, I sometimes - but not always - give him a very little ACE, since the last thing I want him to do is get upset and/or dump me and runaround on that leg. Okay, that’s the background. Our next vet check is early May, probably for a ultrasound.

About 5-6 weeks ago, I went to ride him on a Friday night. All was quiet, so no drugs. Led him out of the stall and he was 3-legged lame, right fore. General consensus was that something that came on that quickly and that severely was most likely an abscess. I gave him 2 gr. bute, and put him away. Next morning, he was apparently 100% recovered. Considering the timeline, I wasn’t sure how effective the drug might still be, so I called the vet. After a discussion, he - not my regular vet, but affiliated - opined that yes, it most likely was an abscess, and that if he was 100% 15 hours after being medicated, it probably wasn’t anything more severe than an abscess. My regular vet was going to be at the barn on Thursday, so he recommended not giving any more bute to act as a diagnostic, and if the horse remained comfortable, have my regular vet see him Thursday. In the meantime, poultice as if it is an abscess. On Monday, vet hoof tested, pulled the shoe, pared away a bit and found …nothing. Farrier tacked shoe back on the next day and we were back to our walk exercise routine. No further issues.

So, I rode this Saturday, everything fine, and Sunday morning, I go to ride and…three legged lame on the LEFT fore. Wha…? This time, some visible filling on the inside of the leg. I gave him some bute at about 11 AM and wrapped the leg., then returned at 4PM and he was still quite lame. Called the vet. Took an hour of back and forth calls to get an emergency weekend visit set up. Go back to check horse, and he is…98% sound, whereas 60 minutes earlier he was not… I rushed to cancel vet call, and was advised to give no more bute, check horse in the morning, and we’d work from there. My regular vet not available this Monday, and I’d have to use the on-call vet if necessary. I got up at the crack of dawn this morning, got to barn, had to make him get up from his sleep and walked him around. No limp. So, obviously I will check this evening after work and see where I go from there.

If he’d been slightly off, either time, I would have shrugged, attributed it to a bruise, clipped heel, etc. But this was really severe, I don’t want to move, lurching lameness. Then sound 24 hours later with minimal drugs. Has anyone had anything like this occur and resolve in such a time frame, and if so, what turned out to be the issue?

[halt]

When was the last time he was shod?

Is it possible it is a hot nail?

If not a hot nail… He might be compensating because of the suspensory. The other thing to consider is he might just be sore from all the stall-time (I’m assuming, from what you said about him) - it takes as little as 8 hrs of stall time to negatively impact the coffin bone… maybe it is a compensation thing, he might have been going along fine with the not-so-ideal angles, but now that there is so much compensation it might snowball.

My two cents is hind suspensories really make horses overall sore. If it continues and it is not a hot-nail, I might be pulling up an x-ray to look at what’s going on in the front hooves, and also might consider ultrasounding the collateral ligaments as sometimes they really can get aggravated and tend to be secondary to major ligament failures.

[Belowthesalt]

Not recently shod. Has stall with 25 x 40 foot paddock, allowed to go in and out as he pleases, not on strict stall rest. I AM concerned about whatever stress he may be putting on forelegs, though he appears (in general) sound at the walk. Thanks for bringing that more to my attention. It was sort of in the back of my mind, but since he’s been walking sound, I guess I’ve not questioned vet about it.

[theresak]

Could he be pawing or banging his front legs on anything, like banging his stall door or the paddock gate?

[Belowthesalt]

@theresak

Could he be pawing or banging his front legs on anything, like banging his stall door or the paddock gate?

Pawing, etc. is nothing he’s ever done in the past, and I think the boarders who are out there in the day time during week - especially my friend who unblankets him - or the barn trainer would have mentioned if he did anything like that.

[kashmere]

In the fall, we diagnosed my mare’s stickiness/ behaviour issues as hock pain. Gave injections and she was good - but then came up alternately lame in front. With X-rays and other diagnostics, found minor changes in navicular - not super severe, and based on her history of no issues in those feet, might never have been sore with them.

Vet believes she compensated for hock pain by overloading her front end, and exacerbated any latent/underlying issues in the navicular region. We put her in custom shoes, to relieve pressure on the heel and gave her a short course of previcox and she was good as new. I keep a hawk eye out for any signs of hocks needing to be done, and she has been sound as a dollar since.

She also initially presented as 3-legged/abscess-seeming lame in her RF. I poulticed, poulticed, waiting for it to blow and… nada. The lameness subsided and then switched sides. I don’t bute for abscesses (tends to keep them from blowing, I like to poultice and get it outta there), but I suspect if I had, I would have seen the same thing as you.

All this to say - if it doesn’t clear up, I would x-ray those front feet.

[Belowthesalt]

@kashmere

She also initially presented as 3-legged/abscess-seeming lame in her RF. I poulticed, poulticed, waiting for it to blow and… nada. The lameness subsided and then switched sides. I don’t bute for abscesses (tends to keep them from blowing, I like to poultice and get it outta there), but I suspect if I had, I would have seen the same thing as you.

How long was it in appearing on one side, then the other? This has been 5-6 weeks without incident, then it appeared on the left. There is some filling on the left. When it occurred on the right, there was no filling or heat at all.

Now I’m angst-ing over whether I should move up appointment re suspensory to cover this issue, or just blow a hole in my savings and take him to the clinic for a full workup. AAARGGH!!!

[kashmere]

@Belowthesalt

How long was it in appearing on one side, then the other?

If I recall correctly, She was 3-legged on the RF for a day or so (when I thought it was an abscess). Then it went away gradually over a few days and I thought the abscess might have just leaked without a big blowout as they sometimes do. Had a week or so of just off-at-the-trot and on tighter turns on the RF. Then she was fine for… I’d say 2-3 weeks, and then lame on the LF. Not as severe as the RF - never 3 legged - but off at the trot and on turns. I only let it go for one or two days on the LF before calling the vet.

We were having major farrier issues around that time, and I likely would have called the vet out after the “abscess” didn’t go as planned had that not been the case, but her feet weren’t in amazing shape due to some very suspect farrier work, so I was kind of half chalking it up to that.

[Belowthesalt]

Hmmmm…well your scenario is still a possibility, but in my horse’s case, he was 100% better in 24 hours and stayed sound (on that leg, anyway!!) for what is, I believe, almost 6 weeks or more. Then suddenly the other foot, with added filling. I, too, assumed it might be a teeny abscess and that, perhaps, he was a big wimp to be so severely lame, though that hasn’t generally been the case with him. He went barefoot until he was 9.

Unless he’s regressed by this evening, it looks like he’ll be okay, again, within 24 hours. If he IS back to normal, I don’t know that I’ll have the vet out, but I think I need to seriously talk to her about the possibility that this is from front end stress and whether, however costly it may be (oh my achin’ savings), maybe that full workup should be done. The thing is, we’ve been a long time with the hind suspensory. He was almost back to 100% at 11 months, and then slightly, but not completely, reinjured, and we’ve been walking for quite a while now. I would have thought stress issues would have shown up before now.

[findeight]

@Belowthesalt

Pawing, etc. is nothing he’s ever done in the past, and I think the boarders who are out there in the day time during week - especially my friend who unblankets him - or the barn trainer would have mentioned if he did anything like that.

Dont be so sure. Often they do it only at feeding time where the racket is uniform or when nobody is there. Both times you noticed it were shortly after feeding…lots of them paw, bang or yell at feeding, who would notice? And he’s bored so might be overdoing it. Also, nobody else was there on Fri night and you were probably one of the first ones there on Sun morning so he was alone shortly before. The fact it’s alternating could point to pawing or otherwise trying to amuse himself with something self destructive. I’ve seen them put a foot through the bucket handle then extract it on a closed circuit camera in the middle of the night. They couldn’t figure out how he was dumping so much water on the floor every night.

And don’t apologize for Ace with a Suspensory rehab horse, It is very appropriate. Fact you might want to look into Reserpine or similar long acting tranq to take the guesswork out of whether he’s going to be quiet for your ride or not and to minimize any “hobbies” he’s picked up to amuse himself. Even if they don’t hit hard many kinds of repetitive action tapping, pawing, gently kicking, rubbing out of boredom can create inflammation in the area and get them sore.

Might want to investigate that. The fact this is acute, short term and in different legs doesn’t sound like compensatory lameness. There’s also a chance he’s getting cast in the stall and banging himself up getting back in his feet. They don’t ever seem to get cast when anybody is there. Take a very careful look around the lower part of the stall walls and all the fencing in his pen and the ground around it, kick the shavings back and look all the way to the hard ground or mat. See if anything is loose or looks like it’s been disturbed or played with by a large animal. Check the mats under the bedding all the way around too. Might be a corner buckled or turned up he’s finding to trip over. If there’s no mats, check the base for uneven places or holes shavings might be hiding. Use a broom to move the shavings from side to side so you can really see the whole floor he’s standing on.

[Belowthesalt]

I’m usually there at feeding time on weekends (breakfast and/or lunch) and he usually just stands and waits - moving to his stall door in anticipation, but just standing. I always feed him his supplements (generously garnished with carrots and apples) and again, he stands in anticipation, whuffs a little, but doesn’t paw or bang. However…you may have hit on something. I’ve been meaning to ask the BOs to strip his stall and reset the mats (they’re too heavy for me to move by myself). First time around with this sudden lameness, finding nothing else, vet suggested he might have clipped himself hard enough to bruise. The mats could be a contributing factor to that.

[Belowthesalt]

ETA: Tried Reserpine back when he was originally injured. Had little or no effect. As far as amusing himself…well, not relevant to this instance, but we had to put a stall guard up over the top of his stall door because he found out he could reach the arena light switch and was turning it on and off randomly at night, waking the barn owners. THEY were NOT amused. ROFLOL A big part of my problem is he’s an 16.2 h.h. Araloosa - too smart for his own good.

[Crash_Helmet]

I agree that what you describe doesn’t sound like compensatory lameness from the original injury. More likely, he got a little too sporty in his stall or paddock and banged himself up. Good luck with his continued rehab!

[Belowthesalt]

…and just back from the barn. Put on his halter, and out he came, in a big hurry to go somewhere/graze/whatever. “Who me, lame?” I did ask the BOs to have his stall stripped and the mats reset. Going to ask vet just to give me a call to discuss situation.

[halt]

@Belowthesalt

…and just back from the barn. Put on his halter, and out he came, in a big hurry to go somewhere/graze/whatever. “Who me, lame?” I did ask the BOs to have his stall stripped and the mats reset. Going to ask vet just to give me a call to discuss situation.

all told, my horse’s rads for his front feet were cheap in the horse sense – IIRC, about $200 including visit and sedation.

it might be worth it.

[kashmere]

@halt

all told, my horse’s rads for his front feet were cheap in the horse sense – IIRC, about $200 including visit and sedation.

it might be worth it.

That’s about what mine ran, too.

[Against_All_Odds1]

@kashmere

In the fall, we diagnosed my mare’s stickiness/ behaviour issues as hock pain. Gave injections and she was good - but then came up alternately lame in front. With X-rays and other diagnostics, found minor changes in navicular - not super severe, and based on her history of no issues in those feet, might never have been sore with them.

Vet believes she compensated for hock pain by overloading her front end, and exacerbated any latent/underlying issues in the navicular region. We put her in custom shoes, to relieve pressure on the heel and gave her a short course of previcox and she was good as new. I keep a hawk eye out for any signs of hocks needing to be done, and she has been sound as a dollar since.

She also initially presented as 3-legged/abscess-seeming lame in her RF. I poulticed, poulticed, waiting for it to blow and… nada. The lameness subsided and then switched sides. I don’t bute for abscesses (tends to keep them from blowing, I like to poultice and get it outta there), but I suspect if I had, I would have seen the same thing as you.

All this to say - if it doesn’t clear up, I would x-ray those front feet.

This was mine to a T but ended with a DDFT injury (no tear) as well.

[Belowthesalt]

Yes, in “horse terms,” $200 is very little, isn’t it? LOL My insurance covered most of my horse’s first shockwave treatment. When he slightly reinjured, I didn’t hesitate at the $1,500+ for another series of treatment (of course, insurance no longer covering that leg), and believe me, I have to budget very carefully just to keep a horse. I’m still working full time, despite being well past retirement age.LOL

[AnotherRound]

I’m sure its not, but it couldn’t be something like spider bites? In his stall?

[Belowthesalt]

@AnotherRound

I’m sure its not, but it couldn’t be something like spider bites? In his stall?

I don’t think that’s likely. In each instance there was little or no (1st time) filling in the leg. I would think a spider bite severe enough to make him 3-legged lame would leave some evidence on the leg in the form of swelling/edema.