bit fed up now with ongoing lameness-ideas?

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clairefeekerry1

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story so far is 7yr old started throwing odd lame stride on left front whilst schooling. continued to happen so had vet out. trotted up sound,lunged on hard surface sound so vet had a good feel, and said get physio out, if that fails try on bute and speak to farrier as balance of his feet mite not be right (a bit piegon toed).physio said tight all over and after she had done her bit he seemed sound for few days then it started all over again and now he is very lame on left front but only when ridden. he is about 1 or 2/10 lame in hand.had farrrier out, good poke about, looked at feet balance and thought all was okay. tried on bute and still lame. had vet out again to see ridden and agreed very lame. nerve bloked lame leg from fetlock down and still very lame. he now has to go in for futher nerve blocks and x rays. i am really worried now. no heat no swelling, no different on bute, no different with nerve block. what sort of thing am i looking at here? shouldnt most lameneses go away under nerve block or bute? could it be in his shoulder???
 
This sounds a lot like my horse.

Don't get your hopes up, though, I don't have any answers for you!!

In my case, my horse was x-rayed more or less all over. Showed up he had sidebones and there are differing opinions on whether that may be the cause of some lameness (he's more sore and hence short striding on his front left, rather than outright lame, if you see what I mean?).

I've found keeping him on a very flat field, or even in a woodland area we have which has nice soft ground has really helped, as has bringing him in at night. Not sure if you could experiment with variations like that to see if anything such as that may help?

Have just found someone that is a vet specialising in Chiropracting, who I'm now working with and so far I'm feeling more hopeful (other Chiropractors we've seen have been variable but she seems really good). Not sure where you are but if you're anywhere near me (Kent/ Sussex) and want her details pm me.
 
the vet thought he would be too young for side bone, but that was one of my thoughts. i cant help but think navicular but i thought that would go away with the nerve block. i just wish i had some idea what we were dealing with!
 
mine is 9 and his sidebone is so "well" developed that it's probably been growing for a couple of years. So, just because your horse is 7, sadly I wouldn't say that would mean you can say it's not sidebone...... maybe just get an x-ray of the front view to check, therefore? (not sure what you then do with that, tho, other than at least you know what it is and can try to manage it accordingly - and welcome to my world!!!)

Subsequent to my own lad having nerve blocks, I've been told that actually just because you nerve block the foot/ lower pastern, and there's still lameness, doesn't actually mean that the lameness isn't in the foot - potentially the cause could be in the foot but the resultant pain could be travelling higher up the leg still.

Not sure if that helps you!?!
 
Honestly I would get a thermal imageing camera on to him which will show the spot which is a problem. Google the inner picture to find out more.
After ongoing lameness problems in horses before where vets will rake up high vet bills I have the camera put over them and you will get a print out which you can than show your vet. Some vets also have these cameras. It's cheap as well at £50 for full body
 
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