Horsemad87
Active Member
Hi all,
I'm after some advice and to hear other people's experiences. I have a 24 year old thoroughbred x and we have had quite a few issues over the last 12 months. May 2019 she damaged her superficial flexor tendon, this has been successfully treated with shockwave therapy and currently no further problems, however when we looked to begin ridden work around christmas time she was still showing some lameness, the vet scanned the tendon and was happy with it and thought my mare was showing stiffness due to arthritis being off work for so long (she has previously been diagnosed with hind pastern arthritis, so highly likely she has it in other places too), so we began very gently ridden walking. Unfortunately at this point she then got a respiratory virus which put her off work and she got quite run down. If that wasnt bad enough after recovering from that she got a hoof abscess (never had one before in her 24 years) she then had a repeat abscess which affected the hoof bone and she ended up on a month course of antibiotics. Following vet and farrier advice we box rested her (as it was the middle of a very wet winter) and removed all shoes for 6 weeks. We re shoed her and started ridden work again at the beginning of april. However because she had spent so much time on box rest she was very stiff, we started to investigate further and have pinpointed the lameness as a joint lameness in the left fore (same leg as previous tendon injury) likely the coffin, pastern or fetlock joint, as we nerve blocked the lower leg and she improved. Due to covid-19 we were unable to do further investigation (we were going to block each area in parts) and the vet advised to start ridden walking again and see how she improved. Over the last 8 weeks I've been increasing the length of time walking and she has made a significant improvement and she is loving hacking again. The joy on her face to be getting out again is amazing. Now 2 weeks ago she went into the vets for a dental day and whilst there was trotted up and the vet said we can start trot work. So I started doing very gentle trotting, little bursts of a few strides and then walking again and repeating. She starts very stiff and then loosens off, but I feel like we are hitting a bit of a wall as when we trot again the next day she is just as stiff before she eases off. On sunday I rode her as normal but she went quite lame so I brought her home and got the vet out monday morning. The vet thinks she has just agrivated this current grumbling lameness/stiffness and advised danilon and rest till friday and see how she is. I explained I didnt think she is improving enough from the trot work anyway, so thoughts are to firstly settle this initial acute setback and then either we take her into the clinic and pinpoint the exact joint and look at a joint injection or we put her on danilon for 3 or 4 weeks and start the trot work again. The theory being that she will use the joint properly whilst on pain relief which will ease the stiffness and then we will reduce and stop the danilon.
My initial thoughts were to go for the bute trial because we had great success with this method 2 years ago with her hind leg pastern arthritis. And I'd thought theres no point in the extra work up to pinpoint an exact joint If doing the bute trial. But now I'm not so sure, should I take her in to the clinic to investigate which joint and how bad it is? I know joint injections are very commonly used now but i feel a bit apprehensive of her having one because it would be just our current luck to have side effects or an infection ?
I'm after some advice and to hear other people's experiences. I have a 24 year old thoroughbred x and we have had quite a few issues over the last 12 months. May 2019 she damaged her superficial flexor tendon, this has been successfully treated with shockwave therapy and currently no further problems, however when we looked to begin ridden work around christmas time she was still showing some lameness, the vet scanned the tendon and was happy with it and thought my mare was showing stiffness due to arthritis being off work for so long (she has previously been diagnosed with hind pastern arthritis, so highly likely she has it in other places too), so we began very gently ridden walking. Unfortunately at this point she then got a respiratory virus which put her off work and she got quite run down. If that wasnt bad enough after recovering from that she got a hoof abscess (never had one before in her 24 years) she then had a repeat abscess which affected the hoof bone and she ended up on a month course of antibiotics. Following vet and farrier advice we box rested her (as it was the middle of a very wet winter) and removed all shoes for 6 weeks. We re shoed her and started ridden work again at the beginning of april. However because she had spent so much time on box rest she was very stiff, we started to investigate further and have pinpointed the lameness as a joint lameness in the left fore (same leg as previous tendon injury) likely the coffin, pastern or fetlock joint, as we nerve blocked the lower leg and she improved. Due to covid-19 we were unable to do further investigation (we were going to block each area in parts) and the vet advised to start ridden walking again and see how she improved. Over the last 8 weeks I've been increasing the length of time walking and she has made a significant improvement and she is loving hacking again. The joy on her face to be getting out again is amazing. Now 2 weeks ago she went into the vets for a dental day and whilst there was trotted up and the vet said we can start trot work. So I started doing very gentle trotting, little bursts of a few strides and then walking again and repeating. She starts very stiff and then loosens off, but I feel like we are hitting a bit of a wall as when we trot again the next day she is just as stiff before she eases off. On sunday I rode her as normal but she went quite lame so I brought her home and got the vet out monday morning. The vet thinks she has just agrivated this current grumbling lameness/stiffness and advised danilon and rest till friday and see how she is. I explained I didnt think she is improving enough from the trot work anyway, so thoughts are to firstly settle this initial acute setback and then either we take her into the clinic and pinpoint the exact joint and look at a joint injection or we put her on danilon for 3 or 4 weeks and start the trot work again. The theory being that she will use the joint properly whilst on pain relief which will ease the stiffness and then we will reduce and stop the danilon.
My initial thoughts were to go for the bute trial because we had great success with this method 2 years ago with her hind leg pastern arthritis. And I'd thought theres no point in the extra work up to pinpoint an exact joint If doing the bute trial. But now I'm not so sure, should I take her in to the clinic to investigate which joint and how bad it is? I know joint injections are very commonly used now but i feel a bit apprehensive of her having one because it would be just our current luck to have side effects or an infection ?
