What would you do? Neurectomy? IRAP? Pro-stride? Osphos?

[BoyleHeightsKid]

@beau159

I dug through my PhotoBucket account. These are OLD PHOTOS from 2015. I believe this was shortly after I had his shoes pulled for the winter if I remember correctly. They are of the left front.

I could not find any on my PB that shows his shoes. I can look on my home computer tonight and see if I had anything stashed there.

[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k27/r_beau/Saltys%20Red%20Rock/06%20Red%20foot%209-25-15_zpssx0ncqtg.jpg)

[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k27/r_beau/Saltys%20Red%20Rock/01%20Red%20foot%209-25-15_zpsf9yy5cmr.jpg)

…and just because, here’s the dude in question!

[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k27/r_beau/2017%20Horse%20Pictures/Red%20western%20pleasure_zps1jrr79vz.jpg)

Do you remember anything about his soundness from when these photos were taken? I don’t see a whole lot to be alarmed about there but there does appear to be some coronary band jamming on the inside heel of the right front from what I can see. His angles look great here, so I would really question putting him in a wedge pad… Pads maybe but not a wedge pad. Wedges also add strain to the tendons. I will try to get you an illustration that shows this. I know there is one in The Bowed Tendon Book I can get a picture of. I’m sorry… I just don’t see how a wedge can help him, especially a 3* wedge.

He’s a cutie btw…

[beau159]

@BoyleHeightsKid

Do you remember anything about his soundness from when these photos were taken?

He did well that particular year. Kept him in the wedges all year and did not need to do coffin joint injections. For really long weekends, I would do Previcox as needed, but that’s about it.

@BoyleHeightsKid

I don’t see a whole lot to be alarmed about there but there does appear to be some coronary band jamming on the inside heel of the right front from what I can see. His angles look great here, so I would really question putting him in a wedge pad… Pads maybe but not a wedge pad. Wedges also add strain to the tendons.

I do agree with you there that we are “moving” the stressors off the heel to elsewhere in the foot. Wedges are absolutely not a perfect solution.

But they have worked well for him to manage it and I don’t think either my vet or my farrier would want to take him out of wedges (nor would I).

[x]

For what its worth, if you do go with a neurectomy, we had a horse that worked for many years after having one done with no issues–worked until the day she died without problems.

[beau159]

UPDATE

Although it’s not much of an update. :mad:

I had decided I wanted to try ProStride for Red (instead of IRAP) and I was really excited to see how he would respond to it, but he had other plans…

Now, I feel like a terrible horse owner for saying this, but I honestly haven’t seen Red in detail since October of last year. Since I was pregnant, I took my horses to my parents’ place for the winter. I saw him at Christmas to pat him and say “hi” and then I’ve been busy with a new baby since then. My mom hasn’t had much time to give the horses special attention either. This weather has been atrocious for calving season; one of the worst ever that my parents can remember. Blah, blah, blah excuses…

I went to my parents’ place on Friday last week to take all the horses to the vet for their annual spring things (teeth, sheath cleaning, vacinnations, etc) and do what we need to do to get Red ready to ride this year. And I find that his tendons are a little swollen above the pastern on his left front foot. My mom wasn’t sure how long it had been there because she didn’t notice anything. We did full xrays on both front feet like we had planned anyway (which were all clean) but then my vet also did ultrasound over the swollen area.

There’s no tear, but he’s got a pretty substantial lesion in the DDFT. :no: Vet estimates 6 to 8 months of healing time. Everything below the pastern that was viewable on the ultrasound was completely normal. She was worried he was having inflammation from the “bottom up” from his other issues but that does not seem to be the case.

So in true Red fashion like he does every year, he found “something else” to come up with. Uggg!!

My mom doesn’t think it has been there longer than 2 months, because she believes her farrier would have noticed it if it was. She seems pretty observant. Most likely, Red slipped on the ice or something, or stepped wrong on the uneven ground. Again, the weather has just been terrible this spring with ice/snow and colder-than-normal temperatures.

So I left Red with my parents. No sense in pasture boarding a horse I can’t ride! I’ll take him back to the vet in a few months to check his progress. If we are not getting anywhere, then we’ll jump into shockwave, PRP, and whatever else I need to do to get it healed, but I want to give it some “natural” time first. When he’s cleared to be ridden, then I’m getting him on the list for the AquaTread facility 2 hours away. That will be great to rehab this when he’s ready. And then, time will tell if I ever barrel race on him again. My fingers are crossed.

So there’s that. :eek:

[Palm_Beach]

@Dressagelvr

I’m not saying that you pull him out of the field today and race tomorrow.

What I’m saying is that a performance horse needs to be in some form of work all year long, especially as they age.

Your horse not only has winters off, he’s had 18+ months off recently and is now off again. You also say he was never worked consistently before you got him at age 6.

This kind of stopping and starting takes a heavy toll on tendons/ligaments and the like.

No, it doesn’t. If the horse is conditioned correctly it will be fine. We give our race horses 90 days off any time they seem to need it. They just get turned out in grass paddocks during that time. Then they go back into training and are racing again in about 6 weeks. It’s the best thing that can be done for them.

[Palm_Beach]

@beau159 Well congratulations on the new baby, and sorry your horse found something else to worry you!

[Libby2563]

Ugh that sucks!!! Are your parents keeping him on stall/small paddock rest or is he continuing to get turnout? As someone who just wasted 6 months turning out a lame horse with no improvement whatsoever (collateral ligament injury was finally diagnosed via MRI and he is now on stall rest), I suggest you look at this study that discusses turnout vs. confinement and controlled exercise for tendon and ligament injuries: http://www.equinepartnersamerica.com/research/Gillis-RehabTendonsLigamentsAAEP.pdf. I too love the idea of Dr. Green but for some soft tissue injuries it does not seem to be the best option. However, the rehab program outlined in that paper is pretty time-consuming so I’m not sure it would be an option for you/your parents.

[beau159]

@Libby2563

Ugh that sucks!!! Are your parents keeping him on stall/small paddock rest or is he continuing to get turnout? As someone who just wasted 6 months turning out a lame horse with no improvement whatsoever (collateral ligament injury was finally diagnosed via MRI and he is now on stall rest), I suggest you look at this study that discusses turnout vs. confinement and controlled exercise for tendon and ligament injuries: http://www.equinepartnersamerica.com…amentsAAEP.pdf. I too love the idea of Dr. Green but for some soft tissue injuries it does not seem to be the best option. However, the rehab program outlined in that paper is pretty time-consuming so I’m not sure it would be an option for you/your parents.

With calving season still underway, the horses just so happen to be in a fairly small area for the time being. Just because the other pastures are all filled with cows! Once the cows go to summer pasture in about a month, then the horses usually have more room to roam.

However, my mom does have two miniatures that need to be kept locked up during the summer for obvious weight control reasons. I already told her she can keep Red in with them too, for more confinement (and it’s not like he needs to stuff his face either…). But we’ll see what happens. She might toss him out in the pasture. He’s been on stall rest before for previous things, and he really becomes a fire breathing dragon when he’s locked up. I know confinement IS better for soft tissue injuries, but we’ll just see what happens and how his healing progresses. I’m already expecting him to be out a full year, so it will take as long as it needs to take.

@Palm Beach

@beau159 Well congratulations on the new baby, and sorry your horse found something else to worry you!

I keep telling myself that Red getting sidelined is a good thing because I only have to spend time keeping one horse in shape instead of two … and can spend more time with the kids!

Since Shotgun is at the reining trainer’s for the next month, I “substituted” Red for Dexter. He’s a horse we bought almost a year and a half ago. My mom hasn’t had much time to ride him, so I thought I could try to get him tuned up better for her in the meantime. He’s 12 this year and we don’t know a lot about his past, except that he probably had a rough one. We paid a fair price for him, but I’m pretty much calling him a rescue case… We know the people we bought him from are whipping spurring “cowboy” horse traders. He had the worst cinch sores I’ve ever seen. Poor guy.

I finally rode him outside of the arena last night. Maybe I’m older and wiser, but I want to make sure my steering and stopping work before I hit the trail. And make sure he’s not going to do anything “stupid”. He kinda rides a little scared; as if he’s waiting for me to whallop him with some spurs. But he seems to be learning that I’m not going to hurt him. He’s also a little barn sour, but he hasn’t been ridden too much so I can’t blame him for that. We’ll work on it.

I snapped a picture the other night - not the greatest, but this is Dexter!

[Palm_Beach]

@Libby2563

Ugh that sucks!!! Are your parents keeping him on stall/small paddock rest or is he continuing to get turnout? As someone who just wasted 6 months turning out a lame horse with no improvement whatsoever (collateral ligament injury was finally diagnosed via MRI and he is now on stall rest), I suggest you look at this study that discusses turnout vs. confinement and controlled exercise for tendon and ligament injuries: http://www.equinepartnersamerica.com/research/Gillis-RehabTendonsLigamentsAAEP.pdf. I too love the idea of Dr. Green but for some soft tissue injuries it does not seem to be the best option. However, the rehab program outlined in that paper is pretty time-consuming so I’m not sure it would be an option for you/your parents.

We kinda sorta follow this program with ottbs that we are rehabbing for a second career. They usually get a bit of stall rest, then maybe hand walking, then they get turned out in a small paddock by themselves. Most of the time they sprout an abscess or two in the beginning of turnout which limits how much they run around. Thanks, Dr. Green.