So sorry to hear about the continuing struggle.
Shot in the dark:
Have these horses been supplemented with spirulina?
No.
My horse is at CSU for a bone scan tomorrow. They just told me they need to pull his front shoes and Equipak. His farrier appt isnât for another week after he comes home. I didnât plan for this. Hope I can find someone to at least tack the shoes back on so he has some protection in turnout.
The good newsâŠitâs not the neck. At least, the neck looked fine on the bone scan, which indicates that treatment continues to help with inflammation.
The findings are: some uptake in lower hock joints. He has some spurs here we arenât too worried about, but it may be time to think about injections, since heâs so sensitive. And, the real news-- major hot spots in 3 rear ribs on the left side. Like, may be fractured kind of hot. :eek: They are going to try to get a better look tomorrow morning with the clinic X-ray machine. Donât ask me how he would have done that. 
How on earth could he have fractured a rib?!
Jingling that whatever is the source of the hot spots has a good prognosis.
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Because. Horse.
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Ask beowulfâŠsheâs dealing with that in hers. They can get cast in the middle of the night and extricate themselves without any human being the wiser. Mine rolled next to a fence (in a 2 acre, grassy paddock) and got stuck. Was found calmly grazing with a bloody shoulder, quick search found a broken lower board trimmed with hide and hair.
They have their secrets.
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With no signs of injury or damage to the fence/stall?! I find that odd
Well, with my horse, there was a broken board. In the cases of midnight attempts at self mutilation, if thereâs nothing visibly wrong with the horse, feed and water buckets are in place in the AM and Its eagerly anticipating the feed wagon? Nobody looks for anything.
Iâve also walked into stalls in the early morning that looked like a bomb went off but nothing was broken or dislodged and the horse apparently fine.
If youâve ever slept in an in barn apartment, cot in a stall or tackroom? You hear all sorts of things but by the time you investigate, you find nothing and all returns to (sort of) quiet. IME itâs more likely with bigger horses and stall size has nothing to do with it. Clumsy rollers maybeâŠno idea.
The Appy I had was a hard payer and managed to bruise the ribs on his turn out buddy. 
Iâm just surprised in this case because
- This horse is very closely managed (micromanaged, and I donât mean that in a bad way)
- There were no external signs of injury
- There was no evidence of having been cast (I presume or OP would have said)
- Heâs not on group turnout and I think is in somewhat controlled turnout
- This doesnât explain the GI symptoms or all the other horses acting strange
I think regardless of how the injury happened, there might be multiple things going on.
I knew a horse that broke a rib by wiping out on his side in the paddock while on micromanaged individual turnout. It does happen.
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This would be my best guess of what he may have done.
Vet said he could have also tried rushing through the stall door or paddock gate with the guys and whacked himself.
It doesnât explain the NQR-ness of the RH. It may explain flank/loin sensitivity because itâs around ribs 16-17-18. Does explain refusal to move under saddle, holding a leg up at me when girthing, and better performance with no rider. But I am afraid itâs not the only thing. The radiologist didnât mention anything about the SI area.
thanks for the mention findeight â yes, dealing it with it in my gelding. Or rather, dealt with it - the rib fracture is completely healed, still have a ways to go with the pelvis. He is also one of those special horses that just had the perfect storm of injuries in a small, micromanaged paddock. He was actually only in that paddock because there was a big thunderstorm and he doesnât share the shed well with the group turnout boys, so he got his own room for the night and somehow managed to get 2 punctures in hip and shoulder, broken rib and broken pelvis in two places, combined with massive hematoma on the inside of the ischium (so uh, not really operable or maneuverable). They will do the most damage they can and need only the smallest of encouragement.
The good news is, a broken rib is very, very manageable and doesnât often affect their long-term performance once healed. They can heal in as little as 4 weeks. Optimum management seems to be to just keep them quiet - some people do a stall, others do a small medical paddock. We opted for stall for the first month because of the other injuries, and then a teeny medical paddock cojoined to the stall until January. My guy has absolutely no evidence soundness wise that his rib was broken⊠Heâs still gimpy behind (pelvis) though.
I still think we need to involve a witch-doctor.
ETA: I wanted to edit to add, my gelding showed very little evidence that he fractured his rib - AKA, there was no mud, puncture or cut near the rib fracture site. Actually, during the emergency call when the first vet came (it happened on a weekend and my preferred vet has those off) I asked if it was worth investigating his ribs given the litany of other injuries and she said no - he actually did not respond to palpitation of the ribs. It wasnât until 2 days later when we couldnât control his temperature that I asked my preferred vet to come out and x-ray the ribcage.
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I didnât want to be Debbie downer but my suspicion is handler-error and someone doesnât want to admit it to you. Not random pasture accident with no marks/evidence when no one was there to see it.
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Possibly but the staff at this barn is great and my horse can be a handful. Around the time I suspect this happened, we had some ice, and I kept him inside longer than the others because of his Equipak and his dry lot being one of the worst when icy. I was the one that first turned him out when it thawed enough, which was the time most likely for him to be an idiot. This was just after the 1st week of the year. By the 11th, my riding notes say âno go!â
His last acupuncture appointment in late Jan found sensitivity on these ribs, which was new. In late December, he had some rib sensitivity on the left, but farther forward (14-16).
So, we could be at least a month into this injury already. We are at least that long into the poor performance.
His manure cleared up after I added Probios Ă couple weeks ago. He does still have a lot of gas, so I need to keep working on his diet. He does need a little something wet like beet pulp because I will keep him on Osteon for a while longer now, and thatâs kind of a lot of powder.
Waiting now to hear more from CSU. I have to get a helper go with me to pick him up because now he has loading problems thanks to the fire and maybe also this injury so Iâm not going up there till later so my friend doesnât have to hang in Fort Collins all day. The techs or students usually help me load but it could take longer than usual.
Has he choked recently? Lots of horses with recent choke episodes will get sensitivity points on their ribs and obliques, as well as obvious places like the neck, etc.
He has tried to inhale the new hay a couple of times but nothing serious. That shouldnât make the bone scan light up though, right? I mean that shows active bony remodeling?
