Any thoughts for my hurting mare?

[BronwenSurf]

Hi all first time poster here as I am really struggling to make my girl comfortable and would appreciate any advice that could help her.. this is a bit of a long story now.
She’s 25 years old and has severe arthritis for many years now, several joints fused in lower limbs and knees. She was pretty comfortable on previcox for a number of years with shoes on all four hooves.
In the last month she had an odd episode of maybe colic where she was lying down and breathing really hard and seemed overall uncomfortable and unwell. She got over that within the day but it was uncharacteristic of her.
The next week she comes up three legged lame and was rocking back on her back heels to move around. She’s looked like this before and it turned out to be an abscess then but we called the vet anyway to make sure it wasn’t laminitis and we took x rays that week and the week after and didn’t see any rotation in the bone so we didn’t think it that was the cause. The week after the second xrays she’s looking a bit better, not great, but less rocking back on her heels and seemed stable. We also got blood work back from the last vet visit and found out for the first time she had really high Cushing levels but no insulin resistance.
All of a sudden three days ago she comes up way more lame than before on the opposite from leg (the one that’s been more arthritic). She cannot get comfortable and is just shifting her weight from hoof to hoof and they all seem really sore to her. She has been on bute pretty consistently through all these episodes of lameness in the past month and was on bute when this most recently extreme lameness came up.
Nothing we’ve tried has seemed to help her including stall rest or going outside for little bits of time. Thinking we will have the vet out early next week but not sure what more they can do if she’s already on bute and limited turnout.
It feels too early to call it for her because we’ve hardly given her a chance to try and heal from this but she seems like she’s in a lot of pain and I haven’t seen improvement in the last few days.
If anyone has anything to suggest or comment, please, I’d appreciate it.

 

[Zoeypxo]

Is the horse now on medication for the cushings? Usually prascend .
Sounds very much like cushings induced laminitis

 

[BronwenSurf]

Is the horse now on medication for the cushings? Usually prascend .
Sounds very much like cushings induced laminitis

Yes she is on medication now. She started it around the time or before she got worse. Does it make sense she’d be laminitic even though the blood work says she has no insulin resistance?
I don’t have much experience with laminitis, I know horses that have had it for a while can have bad days and recover but do they recover from lamenesses like this

 

[Zoeypxo]

Laminitis is also very common with cushings, especially if not under control. Have you had more bloodwork to confirm she is on the right amount of prascend ?
You need a good farrier and vet to take another look if shes not improving. Take off grass, soak hay.

 

[BronwenSurf]

Laminitis is also very common with cushings, especially if not under control. Have you had more bloodwork to confirm she is on the right amount of prascend ?
You need a good farrier and vet to take another look if shes not improving. Take off grass, soak hay.

She’s just been on the prascend for less than a week so we’re still getting her to the correct dosage and will be getting blood work done again to check that.
Not super confident in our farrier at the moment which is unfortunate but yes will have a look at the rest of that. Thank you

 

[meleeka]

If she’s only just been medicated you won’t see a difference for a couple of weeks. Is she on 1 tablet? Sometimes it’s recommended to increase the dose slowly but not usually if laminitis is present. In that case the full dose is given from the off. She may go off hard feed and even look depressed, while her body is adjusting, but it’s more important to get laminitis under control. If laminitis is caused by cushings, it won’t get better until the levels are down where they need to be. You need to treat her as a laminitic in the meantime, so total box rest on a deep shavings bed until she becomes more comfortable. Xrays can then be taken again so the farrier has the information on how to trim.

It’s totally possible to come back from laminitis, even where there has been rotation. It’s not a quick process, but finding and treating the cause is paramount.

 

[splashgirl45]

Is she in a stable with deep bedding, if not, she should be from your description, could the vet give stronger pain relief? She will need time for the prascend to work so it’s important not to move her out of the stable, muck out round her .and make sure she is having soaked hay and low sugar feed if that is how she is taking the tablets.. good luck

 

[AmyMay]

I’m afraid she would be gone by now if she were mine. There is no benefit to her to keep her going, only you.

Please make that final call.

 

[BronwenSurf]

If she’s only just been medicated you won’t see a difference for a couple of weeks. Is she on 1 tablet? Sometimes it’s recommended to increase the dose slowly but not usually if laminitis is present. In that case the full dose is given from the off. She may go off hard feed and even look depressed, while her body is adjusting, but it’s more important to get laminitis under control. If laminitis is caused by cushings, it won’t get better until the levels are down where they need to be. You need to treat her as a laminitic in the meantime, so total box rest on a deep shavings bed until she becomes more comfortable. Xrays can then be taken again so the farrier has the information on how to trim.

It’s totally possible to come back from laminitis, even where there has been rotation. It’s not a quick process, but finding and treating the cause is paramount.

Thank you for your comment. It has only been a few days so it’s helpful to hear how the process may go if she can recover and how we can hell

 

[Clodagh]

I’m afraid she would be gone by now if she were mine. There is no benefit to her to keep her going, only you.

Please make that final call.

Please this. I can tell you love her, do the final best thing for her.

 

[BronwenSurf]

Is she in a stable with deep bedding, if not, she should be from your description, could the vet give stronger pain relief? She will need time for the prascend to work so it’s important not to move her out of the stable, muck out round her .and make sure she is having soaked hay and low sugar feed if that is how she is taking the tablets.. good luck

We have been considering stronger pain relief and will speak to our vet about that thank you

 

[BronwenSurf]

Please this. I can tell you love her, do the final best thing for her.

All the hard evidence we have so far says it’s not laminitis and she’s getting medication to treat the Cushing even if it is. Why would you recommend this when we haven’t even found the problem to fix yet? Should you not investigate as much as possible and treat what you can for longer than the 3 days she’s been this sore before calling it?

 

[Clodagh]

All the hard evidence we have so far says it’s not laminitis and she’s getting medication to treat the Cushing even if it is. Why would you recommend this when we haven’t even found the problem to fix yet? Should you not investigate as much as possible and treat what you can for longer than the 3 days she’s been this sore before calling it?

You’ve already said she is in long term pain with arthritis. Before this episode could she canter soundly around her paddock and roll and lie down to sleep and get up again easily?
Anyway, good luck with her.

 

[BronwenSurf]

You’ve already said she is in long term pain with arthritis. Before this episode could she canter soundly around her paddock and roll and lie down to sleep and get up again easily?
Anyway, good luck with her.

Yes she could do all those things before this episode, even went for small hacks which she loved. I’m sure y’all can tell this post was asking for a bit of a reality check as much as it was asking questions about Cushings and laminitis, so I suppose that is what I’ve gotten.

 

[Maesfen]

Yes she could do all those things before this episode, even went for small hacks which she loved. I’m sure y’all can tell this post was asking for a bit of a reality check as much as it was asking questions about Cushings and laminitis, so I suppose that is what I’ve gotten.

I think sometimes, when you're so close, it just does need a reality check from others to open your mind to what you really need to do. It's always hard but it really is the right thing for her before it becomes an emergency with all the hassle and upset that causes let alone the mental trauma that can cause her. A horse feels incredibly vulnerable if it can't get up or get away; it's mental torture for them so please don't put her in that position, it's not fair.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Honestly she has terrible arthritis and is now possibly suffering from laminitis and sounds like she is a lot of pain if she is rocking back on her heels, she is 25 and if it is laminitis your looking at 6 months or more of box rest and that's not fair I would be letting her go.

I've had 2 horses have laminitis one was 22 the other only 15 and the box rest was tough for them I would seriously struggle watching an elderly horse go through that.

 

[Peglo]

My old mare was a bit stiff but doing well going into last winter. After getting the farrier out she went lame and then the lameness put so much stress on her old joints, her arthritis (which wasn’t bad to start with) was just too much. I’m sorry to say it didn’t improve and she was PTS.
Trying to avoid putting weight on the lame hoof just loaded her joints. The worst thing for her was limited movement in a stable and I understand why yours is being kept in if suspected lami but it won’t help with the arthritis.