The video isn’t substitute for an in-person lameness exam, but it does show he is quite lame.
10 minutes under saddle isn’t really much work if you are trying to get his stifles fit. It’s hardly long enough to get him warmed up. A good 30 minute marching hand walk with some periodic rein backs would give him some of the benefit of “work” without the added stress of supporting a rider.
[QUOTE=wanderlust;8677567]
The bad news is that one of my horse has major pathology in his neck (OCD fragment, narrowing intervertebral spaces) that also caused major front-end lameness, yet has an excellent range of motion in the neck according to our vet/chiro. Good ROM isn’t proxy for lack of issues.
The dent is a very likely indication that something is going on in the neck, whether it is arthritis, a chip, or something else. Portable X-rays usually aren’t strong enough to get through the muscle to see the spine, although if you have a vet good with ultrasound they may be able to see if something is going on in that area of the neck.[/QUOTE]
He’s always had an idiosyncratic fibrosis in that part of his neck–ever since he was about 5 or 6, and we did ultrasound it–it revealed disorganized muscle fibers–basically a big adhesion. The dent is a result of that adhesion acting back up. Not to say he doesn’t have something more serious going on in his neck, but this has been a long-term issue for him through many massages, adjustments, etc. I do plan to x-ray the withers and the base of the neck if we don’t start with a bone scan. The only thing I’d really be worried about is some sort of fracture or chip, but again, this has been going on for months now and had acute onset with steady improvement, but not resolution. Definitely keeping neck and withers in the running for areas of concern.
To see those lower neck facet joints well enough, you really need to go to a clinic for X-ray.
[QUOTE=Daventry;8677536]
It sounds like you have already spent a considerable amount of money trying to diagnose the problem. On top of that, he started out with past lameness issues and problems that have become chronic and overall poor conformation (your words and description). Sometimes it’s just not possible to pull them out of it if they have had a hard life in the past and retirement is the best and humane solution for the horse…and your wallet![/QUOTE]
The vet has only looked at him, not done any sort of diagnostics, so I’ve spent some money, but not the right kind of money.
I need to figure out why he is uncomfortable and see if I can make him comfortable. Once I know what we are dealing with, then the decision about retirement can be made, but leaving him in discomfort is not an option if there are still other options available to me. I think a proper and thorough exam with accompanying imaging etc, needs to happen before I can confidently make any plans for him. He hasn’t had a hard life at all–he’s been lightly and conservatively used, kept fit and kept comfortable, this is the first problem he’s had in ten years, which makes it even more important to me to figure out, because I don’t think it’s just something he has to live with, I think it’s an acute injury that we have thus far failed to identify. He was 100% sound and then the next day he was dead lame–no gradual onset or increasing discomfort over time. I’m not giving up yet, because I’ve hardly begun to figure it out.
So a different vet will be out on Monday, do the basic diagnostics (nerve block and x-ray, assuming it can be pinpointed well enough to warrant those things) and if we don’t get a convincing answer about where it’s coming from, I will plan to take him to New Bolton in the near future for a full body bone scan (assuming they agree that is necessary). I just want to try to get an answer sooner (and affordably) and then go big. He’s not being ridden in the meantime, I just can’t do it to him.
Update: New vet came out today, watched him jog, noted a 2 degree head bob, blocked his left front foot and… he was 100% sound on the first block. So, it’s something in the foot. Soft tissue–most likely collateral ligament damage from the cumulative issues that led to the tendon bow. Possibly DDF tendon–the only way to know for sure is MRI, which I will not knock him out for since the prognosis and action is the same–he can come back from this with proper rest and time. It may take as long as a year, but we have the means to help him heal to the best of his ability. He will get his shoeing angle changed to something more supportive, probably go in bar shoes or similar for a bit to take the pressure off, and I will laser him whenever I am out and will add magnetic bell boots to my therapeutic arsenal for other days.
I’m glad it is something fairly straightforward, and I’m only sad that I wasted so much time beating around the bush and not insisting on proper diagnostics sooner. I’m also ashamed for having sat on him on bad advice, but thankfully, I didn’t get on him again after the last ride that I took footage of.
Soft tissue also gels with the sudden onset and gradual improvement, because he absolutely has been improving, by very very small degrees, and when considering the year-long timeline, that now makes sense.
I got a huge response from him lasering over the DDF today, so that does seem to support the current course of action.
Rest and re-check in 30 days. If he is not improved then, we will take x-rays–but at this point soft tissue does seem the most likely culprit. I can update here if anyone is curious as to the effect of lasering the proper area more consistently (vs. lasering just about everything but not spending as much time on the foot). Thanks all for being insistent about being insistent! I will definitely not go for the wait and see approach next time, though we are unlikely to find ourselves changing barns during a lameness again any time soon.
Curious - which hoof did he block sound on?
Oh, duh, sorry-- front left. Same leg that had the recent bow. Edited post to include that.
OP, I’m glad your vet was able to localize the lameness. Fingers crossed that he responds well to shoeing changes etc and you get him sound again!
[QUOTE=Risuena;8686364]
OP, I’m glad your vet was able to localize the lameness. Fingers crossed that he responds well to shoeing changes etc and you get him sound again![/QUOTE]
Thank you! I’m hopeful, having already seen some improvement, and glad that he was essentially stall rested for unrelated reasons at the onset.
I saw excellent results lasering the foot yesterday–he starts with it set out in front of him a bit, to avoid standing over it (shoes haven’t been changed yet–vet and farrier need to talk) but as we get to the end of the laser session, he moves it under himself and stands more normally.
He’s happy, in the meantime, and thankfully, should he get sound to ride again, the footing where we are is not deep and is very level. We will just have to be patient and help him along as best we can.
Shoes were changed on Saturday. Farrier put on a full size larger to allow heel to expand, and put a 2 degree wedge per the vet. Lasering almost daily and he has begun to stand under himself with the left front even before we start lasering–previously, he had always held the LF out in front of him slightly.
Still jogs with a slight head bob but I’d like to say it’s a 1/5 rather than a 2/5.
Happy and comfortable in the meantime. Re-check at the end of the month. X-rays if improvement isn’t to vet’s liking.
Encouraged by improvement gained in only two weeks just from knowing where to focus the laser.
Heat in foot is greatly diminished, overall.
Ordered magnetic bell boots as well as I have had good results with magnets for bowed tendon healing (alternating with laser).
I had one of our young horses she was 3 at the time, something mysterious happened in the field. I am thinking she was running around not watching where she was going and ran into a tree - just my best guess- anyway, same type of issue. Her right shoulder was swollen, took her to my normal track vet, there was too much swelling to really tell anything at the time, and on an area where x-ray would be very difficult to obtain. He gave us some anti-inflammatory drugs for her. She was dead lame on the RF. Stall rest, swelling went down and took her to a very well known and respected Track vet that travels the country to treat all the best race horses. He was thinking bursitis, gave her steroids for the swelling stall rest, not much else to do unless we do an MRI. This is a horse that already was saved from EPM knocking on deaths door, when she was just a yearling - went to look at her brother got him took her home too bc she was laying in a field with extremely high fever and the owner was just going to leave her like that- … Anyways. ’
Stall rest, hand walking for about 6 months. then controlled turnout for another 6 months. After about a year and a half we brought her back into light work, just walking/trotting. To build up muscle. Whatever happened to her, left her with uneven range of motion in her shoulders. So while she looks off, she is not in pain just doesn’t have the same reaching ability. She is now after about 2.5 years finally able to be in regular work. I brought her back very slowly to make sure that her mystery injury was not bothering her, however no showing.
[QUOTE=BLBSTBLS;8704947]
I had one of our young horses she was 3 at the time, something mysterious happened in the field. I am thinking she was running around not watching where she was going and ran into a tree - just my best guess- anyway, same type of issue. Her right shoulder was swollen, took her to my normal track vet, there was too much swelling to really tell anything at the time, and on an area where x-ray would be very difficult to obtain. He gave us some anti-inflammatory drugs for her. She was dead lame on the RF. Stall rest, swelling went down and took her to a very well known and respected Track vet that travels the country to treat all the best race horses. He was thinking bursitis, gave her steroids for the swelling stall rest, not much else to do unless we do an MRI. This is a horse that already was saved from EPM knocking on deaths door, when she was just a yearling - went to look at her brother got him took her home too bc she was laying in a field with extremely high fever and the owner was just going to leave her like that- … Anyways. ’
Stall rest, hand walking for about 6 months. then controlled turnout for another 6 months. After about a year and a half we brought her back into light work, just walking/trotting. To build up muscle. Whatever happened to her, left her with uneven range of motion in her shoulders. So while she looks off, she is not in pain just doesn’t have the same reaching ability. She is now after about 2.5 years finally able to be in regular work. I brought her back very slowly to make sure that her mystery injury was not bothering her, however no showing.[/QUOTE]
I was actually SURE that it was a right shoulder injury because of the degree of restriction that was going on through the shoulder joint, but the shortened stride/shoulder hike for this horse was a result of wanting to get off of the LF as fast as possible. Same thing for him–would have been impossible to get a good image of his massive shoulder.
Did you ever try massage therapy or chiropractic adjustment for your horse? Would help to give her a baseline for flexibility. After three massages at most, you’d know what your baseline is for her being free of her accumulated muscle issues, since we all know, even for ourselves, that we can get in the habit of just adapting to a limitation that we didn’t even realize we had until it’s gone. Case in point: I didn’t know until I went and got a sport massage myself that I hadn’t been able to lift my right arm over my head in years, until I could actually do it again.
Even one massage would knock out a lot of her built-up issues. You may be pleasantly surprised. Uneven range of motion could be from a pinched nerve in the shoulder/cervical area, and a chiro would be able to tell you that.
Similar to your case, time appears to be the answer, though.
My guy did have a twitching muscle in his right shoulder, but it could have been from using the right front more to stay off of the left front. He could still have something else going on, but in his case came sound with a foot block, so at least for now, this appears to be the root of his current problem.
Also–yikes to the person you got your horses from! Glad you got them.
Thank you, and glad your guy is on the road to recovery!!!
I will look into a massage for, and a chiro. My track vet does some acupuncture so I may try that if I can get her to stand still that long. She is kind of a circus horse lol
[QUOTE=BLBSTBLS;8705149]
Thank you, and glad your guy is on the road to recovery!!!
I will look into a massage for, and a chiro. My track vet does some acupuncture so I may try that if I can get her to stand still that long. She is kind of a circus horse lol[/QUOTE]
Hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised! I haven’t had a horse yet who didn’t settle into the massage–it sometimes takes the whole first half for them to calm down if they’re extra fussy, but that’s rare, and they always settle by the end! Good luck!
Because my pet peeve is threads with no resolution, I want to update this in case anyone else find themselves in a similar boat.
The first vet that blocked him localized the lameness to the correct foot/portion of the leg, but not quite the right area of soft tissue.
After a few months of up and down rehab, I had a lameness specialist come out. He did an ultrasound and found a large lesion in the left branch of the SDFT in the pastern and a smaller lesion in the right branch.
We did shockwave monthly for 3 months, and I did cold laser almost daily in the interim (though not on the same day as shockwave, obviously).
The horse improved dramatically over the course of a month, and by the end of 3 months, he jogged sound. I walked him under saddle through most of this because, as the vet said, you can’t really hurt him by walking him under saddle. I don’t weigh much, and he’s a big horse, so I didn’t feel I was unduly burdening him, and the resistance was good for him. During this time, we only walked on very firm surfaces–concrete or dry, flat, grass fields. Avoided the (only slightly) deeper footing in the ring until he was consistently trotting well on the grass.
Fast forward to current day, and we basically made it through rehab and a BRUTAL winter this past winter with no major setbacks.
For various reasons (weather, his other health issues unrelated to this lameness, etc), we had to wait until this spring to really get back into consistent rehab, so we started at trotting 30 seconds in each direction, and increasing the total trot time by 1 minute per week.
We always start with 10 minutes of walking to warm up.
I add 7 seconds in each direction, each ride, as long as he feels solid because I ride him about 4 times a week, about every other day, except on weekends, when he is ridden two days in a row, and then, depending on how tired he seems, I sometimes keep the time the same on Sunday as Saturday.
He has been sound for the duration of this rehab, which is just incredible. I laser him afterwards each time.
We are currently at 4 minutes and 21 seconds of trotting in each direction, and when we get to 5 minutes in each direction, we will add cantering… one lap each direction, and increasing by one lap per direction each week.
It’s been over 2 years since I cantered my horse (on purpose–there have been a few spook steps that don’t count haha).
So… long story short… time and very, very incremental rehab, and no small measure of luck, and this horse is functional again. I am still being very careful about footing, turns, time, etc.
As I keep telling him, we are doing this so he can go run around and have fun without being in pain afterwards.
So happy for you and your horse. :yes:
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
