Advice on supposed tendon sheath inflammation.Double hindlimb lameness

[Bounty]

Evening peeps.

Looking for some advice/reassurance or whatever. My imagination is starting to run wild with worst-case scenarioes. It's a really long post, I'm really sorry, but an ongoing saga.

Just over a month ago I went to fetch my, previously indestructable, mare in from the field. She was absolutely crippled lame in both her hinds. Both very hot and swollen from hock down, especially in the fetlock and pastern area. She was very reluctant to move and had no flexion within the fetlock joint at all, dragging hooves on floor rather than even attempt to pick them up.
No signs that she'd been careering about or any marks/cuts/scrapes/lumps to suggest she'd been scrapping with the others. She's turned out with 3 others, and it's a very stable 'herd' in terms of the pecking order.

Got the vet out immediately, he gave her anti-inflammatory injections and left loads of bute. He examined her thoroughly and suggested that she had somehow managed to severely inflame her tendon sheaths in both hinds, and that after around 10days of box rest they should be drastically improved. Over time shes been cold hosed, bandaged, poulticed and worn magnets!

She improved in both legs for the first four days, and then stopped showing any changes in her near hind. The reduction in swelling made it very noticeable that she had a hard lump at the back of her pastern.
After 2weeks she showed a lot more improvement with her off-hind being almost 'normal' to feel, and her near-hind not right, still with lump at back of pastern,but better. Decided to take her out across the yard about 5metres to graze in hand for 10mins, which she did very calmly. That night she flared up again to almost the extremity she was in the beginning. Consulted vet, who advised more time, more box rest, more bute.
Now, just over a month on she's still not hugely improved, having some better days, but plenty of worse ones. She's off to the vets later in the week for 'further investigation'.

The words bandied around at the moment are 'DDft, SDFT, annular or suspensories, but vet will not be pinned down as yet. What are your thoughts and experiences? So far i've been really good and not worried desperately, but as time goes on i'm gettign worse.
I'll be really grateful for any responses.

 

[star]

my horse damaged both his annular ligaments this year, somehow. one day he was fine, the next i loaded him up and took him to a dressage clinic where he was obviously pretty lame left hind. went through the nerve blocking stage as he has pretty hairy legs and no swellings noted. nerve blocks pointed to fetlock area - clipped the feathers off and noticed 2 very hard swellings on the back of each fetlock, left worse than right - scanned and annular ligaments were severely enlarged, with associated inflammation in the tendon sheaths. tried rest, shockwave, cartrophen injections etc with no joy. Eventually he went to newmarket and had both annular ligs cut end of August. been on box rest and in-hand walking until 3weeks ago when we started ridden walking. he appears sound in-hand now, although when trotting ridden he is maybe still a fraction lame left hind, although that may now be mechanical, rather than pain. he is 20, so as long as he's ok to hack I'm happy. It has been a long saga though. he hasn't worked properly since April. I reckon you need her scanned asap now - that should tell you what structure is damaged. probably could have done with doing that earlier, but at least she's been rested and had bute. I'm all for investigating things early. When mine went lame with his suspensory 4yrs ago he was in having nerve blocks within a week of noticing the problem. Waited longer this time as his insurance cover is less due to his age and I was really busy with finals at uni. Good luck with finding out the problem and sorting it.

 

[Bounty]

Thanks for sharing your experience.
I'm usually very pushy with vets and in this circumstance wasn't keen to wait, but our experience with this guy has always been exceptional and had no reason not to trust his advice.
She's provisionally booked for wednesday morning, so hopefully we'll get a better idea of what we're dealing with.
I hate having horses on box rest, but thankfully she's dealing with it better than me, but i'm off to buy a tongue twister for her tomorrow to ease my conscience!
She's eight and is (maybe was!

) a polocrosse pony. If there's significant damage I probably wouldn't play her again, and definitely not at the level she was at. Sliding stops probably aren't on the list of things to do!
As long as she comes out sound enough for hacking and the odd prelim i'll be happy, and i already had plans to breed from her. I just have to keep remembering that things could be so much worse.

 

[aran]

until you have a scan your really not going to know but at least you've been doing the right things (cold therapy, box rest).

when aran was on box rest i would give him lots of little happy hoof feeds (with carrots) to keep him happy (but not increase his energy) and a snack a ball with fibre nuts in. he had small pony hay nets as he wasnt eatting a lot but liked to be given fresh hay often - we survived months like this which for a competition TB wasnt bad!

good luck

 

[Bounty]

She's setled into box rest really well - all the time i've had her i'd been dreading having to box rest her as she was a chronic box walker.
Incredibly she's now a different horse, very chilled and happy to just stand and doze.
I've tried the snack ball route, but she's too much of a numpty to get the hang of it, despite the others demonstrating frequently.
Anything that is lickable though and she's there like a shot. She has a full range of salt and mineral licks and assorted sweet ones to try and occupy her a little more.
She has several very small feeds of chaff, adlib hay, and carrots and high fibre nuts scattered on the floor every so often.
I've hated waiting and not knowing, and now realise i should have been much more assertive with the vet, but i have done everything i can to make the timne pass easier for her.

Lets hope tomorrow gets the ball rolling along the path of effective treatment.