Advice on difficult to diagnose lameness

[sassyequine]

I am really interested in any advice or experiences about hard to diagnose hind lameness as this I am a little bit in despair about my horse. He is a 5 yr old Zangersheide Warmblood gelding. Bought in June to SJ, stoping at fences and lame 4 weeks after buying (have pursued legal route, no good!) Initially diagnosed as Upper suspensory desmitis, hole about size of little finger nail in ligament. That was in July. It would only block out to the tarsal metatarsal joint and not to the nerve, and when it did he then went lame in front. He has since had 3 months off and 3 shock wave sessions and some cortisone. I have been bringing him back into walk work and I still think he feels awful, tripping, stumbling and crossing his own legs a lot. As well as getting grumpy about rugging and tacking up (which is totally unlike him?) we re assessed him on monday and he is still lame, and now it only blocks 70% to the TMT joint. If anything he is now more lame for doing none/less work. There is definately something else going on, I know him and he is uncomfortable and tripping and stumbling a lot? He has had some digital x rays taken of his hocks and my vet is reviewing them and sending them to Rossdales for 2nd opinion. At the moment they seem to be focussing on the hind leg and I just feel like there is something else, he feels cold backed and really unhappy about moving forward. They are saying that they may operate on the ligament, which until they diagnose him properly I am a bit reluctant to do. I have never had a horse with wobblers but reading some of this it sounds like him? Any advice or thoughts would be welcome?

 

[vicijp]

Have you had his back checked since the initial injury? It may have caused an unlevelness somewhere that makes him uncomfortable.
We brought a horse that sounds just like yours. He nerve blocked down to both hind hocks and proximal suspensory RF before we had him. Slight changes in his hocks, 'nothing out of the ordinary' but the vet injected him anyway. The RF scanned clean but they also injected that anyway. The horse didnt come right with the old owner, but with plenty of time has not had a lame day here.
Personally I think 3 months for ligament damage is nowhere near enough, it would be 12 months in the field for me. If he went lame 4 weeks after you buying him he is guaranteed to have been patched up already.

 

[Lynz25]

Get him sent to Rossdales ASAP they will diagnosee quicker than your own vet as they have more specilist equiptment. My horse has been operated on there by Andy (specilist in hind limb problems and undiagnosed lameness). My horse had radioactive scan to see if there was any increased bone uptake then ultrasounded and then nerve blocked to find what the problem was. Also check your insurance as mine only ran for a year from when the problem occurred. Mine runs out in Jan as thats when I first got the vets to do blood tests as I could tell that my horse was not right even though there was no lameness. He didn't actually get sent to Rossdales til July and with no work he became worse.

Good luck and keep us updated

 

[Clodagh]

I would try to get him referred, too. When my mare went to Rossdales for Andy to operate their diagnostic equpment was so much better than my vets, the xrays were so clear, it was unbeleivable.
Also, if you despair, as Spaniel says, most injuries like yours, in the old days, would have been turned away and bought back after a year. Rest can cure so many things.
Nowadays we always try to fix things quicker as we can see what the problem is, but I have heard many a story of 'written off' horses coming back again.
Good luck with him.

 

[sillygillyhorse]

I am with Vicki on this one (currently going through a similar thing with one of my horses but only just starting to look). It is very common in horses with hind limb lameness to have back problems due to them compensating. The grumpiness about being saddles and rugged would, for me, be strong indicators of back discomfort.

good luck with getting a diagnosis, would be interested to hear especially as one of mine sounds similar!