Advice please on lameness

[pottamus]

Need some advice from all please! My horse has gone mildly lame or possibly foot sore during a hack. He has a shortened stride in trot but you cannot notice any lameness in walk on a straight line...only when you turn him in a circle on the offending front leg does he look sore...so it's not major as he is fully weight bearing on it.
My thoughts are this...and need your input on what you think...
He is only sore on his off front and there is no swelling, abnormal heat, smell, cuts etc. The only possibility is that his shoe on this foot has slipped a couple of mm so the end of it is touching his frog...could this be the cause? We also went on some stoney tracks but this is nothing unusal for us and has not been foot sore before. He is well and fine himself and will put full weight on the leg and is happy for me to pick the opposite foot up so he is standing on the lame one. I have had a good press and he does not flinch around his frog/heel area.
He has never been lame, has strong legs and feet and is well built being a Welsh D.
I have spoken to the vet on the phone and given them all information and they have ruled out laminitis, suggested it was the shoe issue and said to wait for the farrier unless it gets worse. If anything it has improved slightly since yesterday.
I have the farrier tomorrow so will hopefully get to the bottom of it then...but what do you think?
Thanks in advance.

 

[AmyMay]

Mmm - Give it a couple of days and see how it goes with rest and the farrier.

I'd be inclined to get the vet up to look if it hasn't improved by early next week.

 

[H-J]

My only advice is to call the vet asap, I have known alot of horse come down with things lately and alot of suspensory's etc. My 5yrd old was fit and well had just won a dressage test on 70%, he went ever so slightly lame on turns when schooling so I have him a rest then brought him back into work and after 3days was slighly lame again, he went up to the vets and it turns out has navicular in every foot and there is no treatment for him. VERY VERY upsetting.

Dont want to make you panick, but think it would be wise to call the vet just to put your mind at rest, Good luck xx

 

[brightmount]

HollyJane, that's devastating and very unusual for a 5 year old to have navicular on all 4 :-(

Was it the vet who said there is no treatment? They won't readily advise going barefoot as it isn't a conventional treatment, but it has been tried and tested again and again for navicular horses as you may already know. My horse was about to be PTS when we decided to give it a go. We had nothing to lose, and she has come on remarkably in 6 months. It requires a longterm outlook and a steady programme of conditioning which means taking the horse back to walk, possibly using boots, and working up from there over a period that may be a year or more, depending on what you're starting with.

To find a qualified Equine Podiatrist go to http://www.aepauk.org/

 

[Oaksflight]

Sounds similar to my lad, just getting the physio out for him. There's no heat, cuts, swelling or bruising. So we're moving onto his back/shoulder. Could just be something as simple as a stone under his shoe in your case?

 

[H-J]

I know was devastated, and I have had him since he was 5mths old.

He has bar shoes on a the moment for extra support, but the vet has said he will just get worse and worse even in the field as a companion, such a shame he was related to moonfleet and was going to be my next eventer. I think we have chosen a date around September as I dont want him to suffer id like him to go happy as he is now really

 

[OWLIE185]

My advice would be get the vet in straight away and get them to take your horses digital pulse on each of his 4 feet which will be elevated in amplitude if he has the oneset of laminitis.

I would be tempted to treat it as laminitis and put down a thick bed down in your stable put him on reduced feed such as a slice of two hour soaked hay every 4 hours and nothing else and keep him in until you get a diagnosis from your vet. laminitis should be treated as an emergency and can be caused by several different things not only grass such as emerging encysted red worm, cushings disease working on hard ground etc.