[QUOTE=Ghazzu;8303964]
No practitioner worth their salt should be offended by an owner seeking a second opinion. Particularly in a case which does not appear to be moving towards a successful resolution at present.[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
I also feel like many are willing to admit when they are running out of ideas/too far in to see the light/don’t have that particular skill set and will encourage you to seek other opinions.
My vet has cultivated many professional relationships with vets outside of his practice that make a network of vets that he has in his arsenal when a horse he sees has a problem he can’t fix.
Remember that “rising tides lift all boats”, meaning that one vets success fixing a horse can improve everyone’s career. That is, if the referring vet has a realistic view of his/her own skill set and limitations and is willing and able to maintain professional relationships with other vets, clinics, and vet schools in the area.
If your vet is unwilling to admit that she might have run out of ideas, or that it might be time to see a lameness specialist because all she has left is Lyme disease… you may need to find yourself a different veterinarian.
I’d like to point out the symptoms of Lyme as laid out by thehorse.com: http://www.thehorse.com/articles/10200/lyme-disease-in-horses
Your horse has been lame for over 3 months, and although a joint injection improved the horse, it didn’t make it sound. The horse had heat in the pastern but no stated swelling.- Lyme is often episodic with bouts of lameness/heat/swelling. Three and a half months completely off would be one long episode.
Don’t worry about the right hind (at least not yet), depending upon the initial injury, how much swelling and tissue damage there was, and how much the horse actually favored the right hind… I am not surprised that the horse is still moving funny. I’m surprised that the horse wasn’t allowed to work despite the cellulitis. The best way to dissipate swelling is to get the horse moving (as the worse the swelling/tissue damage gets, the more likely that it can become chronic lymphangitis due to scar tissue buildup). My mare kicked herself, blew up with cellulitis (she saw a vet within the first 24 hr), the swelling went down within 48 hours of the vet visit and still managed to be off for a month. No bone chips, no tendon/ligament injuries, and no lingering infection; just a suspected undefined bone bruise and a little bit of what I call “princess syndrome” lol. With an older horse (just like any older being), they are more at risk for muscle deterioration when out of work. So compound that with significantly favoring one leg and you have the makings for muscle wasting on one hind leg (in theory).
What worries me most is that it doesn’t sound like this vet is taking the horse into consideration at all.
At 23 the horse is more likely to have things like ringbone, sidebone, and arthritis. Unless you are new to this horse and/or the first farrier really began to change the way her foot looked before she went lame, I’m highly skeptical that what the vet saw on the x-ray was something “new” to this horse. There could have even been a reason that that the horse was shod this way (LLD? the leg with the wedge was in fact the longer leg?). Any farrier worth his weight is going to trim and shoe the leg, not just the hoof or everything below the fetlock (just because you corrected p1 through p3 pathology doesn’t mean you didn’t create a bigger problem higher up the leg).
I’m confused at how the leap from “moving previously injured RH oddly and tripping on now altered front feet” to “neurologic, must be lyme” happened. I understand that Lyme is prevalent in MA but her symptoms don’t even line up.
Anyway, although your vet may be doing the best with the resources she has, she does not sound like she has the skill set you require to resolve the matter with your mare.
I would seek an alternative opinion and look into having the wedge removed and have the trim/shoeing job reflect what her previous farrier provided to see if that resolves the tripping.
There are enough quality veterinary resources in MA that you should not limit yourself to just one vet, especially if that vet cannot provide all of the resources needed at the level of competency needed. (you don’t expect a lameness vet to do abdominal surgery on your cryptorchid colt, or remove an impaction colic- despite his/her education on how to do so.)
that got long… sorry.
ETA: just remember that your responsibility is to the welfare of your horse, not to your vet’s feelings.
