Advice on lame mare please!!

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katie1630

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My mare is lame on her front leg and has been for 2 weeks now. the leg is swollen just above her fetlock but the heat has gone out of it now.
She was in the stable for the first week and I managed to bandage it for a few nights but she spent the first 10 years of her life in a field with nothing done to her and she doesn't cope with being indoors that much so after much wrestling to get the bandages on, she just pulled them off. Plus she gets laminitis very easily (even from hay) so box rest isn't an ideal choice.
While the snow is fairly thick I've put her in the school with the shetland with no bandages and put MSM powder into a handful of chaff for her and i'll bring her in when the snow turns to ice (probably tomorrow night) The school isn't icy and she doesn't bomb about .
Can anyone suggest ideas for how I can help her please?!
She can weight bear on it and isn't resting it as much as last week so I know it is improving but I just feel like there's something I should be doing that I'm not- if that makes sense??!!
Thanks in advance x
 
You need to get the vet.
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sounds to me like she may have pulled a tendon. i would get it looked at, as the longer you leave it, the more damage could be done...here's hoping that im wrong...x
 
i would definately get the vet, thats how mine started, no heat a tiny bit of swelling and a slight lameness and it turned out to be quite serious requiring extensive treatment. hopefully it will be something and nothing but you really need to get it checked x
 
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Sorry, forgot to say the vet has been out to see her and he just said box rest and bute.

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Did he tell you what he thought the problem was?
And if his box rest and bute treatment didn't work, you should really be calling him back rather than asking a forum full of us nutters.
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Well if still lame id get the vet back out. Could be a tendon or suspensory ligament? My mare has done both in her 25 year life & would rather die than box rest!! can you pen a small square so she can be outside?
 
I went down this road with x-rays included. £500 later I decided to get a 2nd opinion. Turned out she had sprained a suspensory. You really need a good vet to do a full lameness work up
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I went down this road with x-rays included. £500 later I decided to get a 2nd opinion. Turned out she had sprained a suspensory. You really need a good vet to do a full lameness work up
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You went down what road? Asking forum nutters?
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lol at nutters!
Think I might ring him in the morning. He said she's probably slipped on the ice and pulled something. One of those oldie sort of vets who knows his diagnosis and doesn't feel like he has to share with anyone else! bit scary TBH!
I didn't use bute and she didn't really rest in the box.
I'll ring him again in the morning and ask his advice.
THanks guys!!
 
So you didn't bute and you didn't box rest?
tbh if she is still lame after 2 weeks i would definitely get vet out again, or take horse in for further investigation.....
 
Katie1630 - if you're paying the vet, then you are entitled to find out his diagnosis, and prognosis, and to get continued treatment til your horse recovers.
Madam_Max - you are one of the nutters.
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Katie1630 - if you're paying the vet, then you are entitled to find out his diagnosis, and prognosis, and to get continued treatment til your horse recovers.
Madam_Max - you are one of the nutters.
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How rude!
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This is just the reason why I didn't post, rude abusive forum members like you
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Katie1630 - if you're paying the vet, then you are entitled to find out his diagnosis, and prognosis, and to get continued treatment til your horse recovers.
Madam_Max - you are one of the nutters.
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S
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How rude!
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This is just the reason why I didn't post, rude abusive forum members like you
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I love it when I can quantify success.
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Prepared to get totally shot down now but ...
I cant understand why people pay for the vet and then dont take there advice.
Sorry, hope your mares better soon.
 
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Prepared to get totally shot down now but ...
I cant understand why people pay for the vet and then dont take there advice.
Sorry, hope your mares better soon.

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Lining up with you!
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But I also wonder why people stay with vets who give sub-standard service! My vet will sometimes admit he doesn't KNOW why a horse is lame (he's ALMOST perfect!) But he'll say what it MIGHT be and offer several alternative approaches, from full lameness work-up including nerve blocks and x-rays, down to box-rest and bute and see how horse responds. I always pick the latter, initially, and 9 times out of 10, it works! IF it doesn't, then we move on!

But box rest and bute ONLY works if you give the horse box rest and bute!
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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Prepared to get totally shot down now but ...
I cant understand why people pay for the vet and then dont take there advice.
Sorry, hope your mares better soon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lining up with you!
grin.gif
But I also wonder why people stay with vets who give sub-standard service! My vet will sometimes admit he doesn't KNOW why a horse is lame (he's ALMOST perfect!) But he'll say what it MIGHT be and offer several alternative approaches, from full lameness work-up including nerve blocks and x-rays, down to box-rest and bute and see how horse responds. I always pick the latter, initially, and 9 times out of 10, it works! IF it doesn't, then we move on!

But box rest and bute ONLY works if you give the horse box rest and bute!
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Exactly!
 
She's an Icelandic who has never been stabled before so whats the point in trying box rest if she's pacing up and down the stable stressing and sweating off condition?
She is on a handful of hay twice a day only so my concern is the affects bute could have on her stomach. I don't agree with bute, my choice.
The ground isn't slippery and she isn't shod. I wouldn't put her out on ice.
I only moved here 2 years ago and have already been through 4 vets trying to find one that I trust with my animals. Not easy when I don't know anyone to get their advice.
I posted on here to get advice not to be judged.
 
the best thing you can do is find a website with approved vets in your area, ring them and ask them advice over the phone and i would imagine that they will ask to come and see her. if you cant box rest i would confine her to a smaller area so she has limited movement as thats what box rest is. i can understand why you dont want to bute, to me if there is no diagnsosis it just masks the problem rather than cure it.
hope this is of some use
 
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She is on a handful of hay twice a day only so my concern is the affects bute could have on her stomach.

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I'd be concerned for her stomach too if that's all she's eating. So little forage is a huge colic risk
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She is on a handful of hay twice a day only so my concern is the affects bute could have on her stomach.

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I'd be concerned for her stomach too if that's all she's eating. So little forage is a huge colic risk
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i agree, i think you would be better off soaking your hay and giving it ad lib, you need to feed enough to keep the gut moving constantly, horses are trickle feeders and need to eat little and often otherwise you run the risk of an impaction or a colic of some kind.
 
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She is on a handful of hay twice a day only so my concern is the affects bute could have on her stomach.

[/ QUOTE ] Surely you don't mean that - she must be getting more than that?
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I can see this turning into another 'provocative' post and I am just thinking that a lot of recent posts which have one way or another ended up like this are started by new users...
 
OP

get vet out

box rest with light sedation if she is that bad, or if you have area with no snow fence a very small area off.

give bute, it is anti inflammatory hence even if you dont have a definitive diagnosis it will bring down the swelling

feed ad lib soaked hay.

work up lameness further if required.

*leaves thread before it deteriorates!*
 
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