Another update on my collapsing horse

ribena73

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For those of you that wanted updates on Ronan's collapsing, here goes!

He's been off the bute now for a week and hasn't yet gone down, although does look uncomfortable when first tacked up. I've been using a different saddle which I was told was a better fit, and also bought an atherston waffle girth and a sheepskin girth sleeve. He did go down when I lifted his front leg up to stretch it out (whilst on bute and whilst tacked up), but that's been it.

Had a saddler out today who actually said his wintec saddle was a reasonably good fit and didn't seem to be putting any undue pressure on him, in fact its a better fit than the other one I've been using (even though apparently at 17" its too small for me, so felt a bit insulted at the judgement on the size of my bum!) He had a good feel of his back and didn't get any obvious reaction. However, he did get a huge reaction when he prodded him in the girth area , just behind and above the elbow, moreso on the right hand side. So he thinks it might the girthing problems rather than back problems. Have just spoken to my vet and she said that she had the same reaction in that area.......

Anyhoo, next step is to arrange a physio, and my saddler is intrigued by Ronan and so is going to rack his brains over what to try- he's particularly keen on trying the cair girth, although he did admit that he wasn't sure if the cair part stretched as high as where the problem appears to be.

So, still not solved but at least we're getting everybody nice and confused and their brains working
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Thanks for the update. Its doing my head in not knowing what's causing this, so God knows how you must be feeling. Pretty frustrated, I suppose. I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.
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Am just googling but I'm sure i have seen a gel girth and you can get gel covers that may be softer than a normal girth? There was also a shaped girth in horse and hound a while ago that was designed to not put pressure on the breast bone. Will post if i find it!
 
Has your horse been scoped for stomach uclers? My sisters horse had them and although no where as severe reaction as yours, he did protest about being girthed

Our vet said that if the uclers are present around the intestine inlet (i think!) it can cause massive problems when tacking up
 
We had a welsh cobxTB who did this once, when about 5 years old, never did it again, but did turn out to have a number of food intolerances, which lasted for the rest of her life (she was 24 when she died) she was always a tad awkward to put cross surcingles on.
 
Flame- doing my head in too, and everyone else who becomes involved I think. Am wondering about changing Ronan's name to Enigma
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Amymay- I used Huw Thomas in the end, mainly cos of the logistics of it, and given that it might not be a "one stop" solution and so might require several visits trekking up and down to BRecon would have been difficult.

EandJ- i did mention ulcers to the vet, so that is "on the list", but it is a process of elimination so we're going through things stop by step now, starting with the less invasive treatments first.

Thanks goodness for insurance is all I can say- I have a year (well just under now!) to get to the bottom of this
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