Ellietotz
Well-Known Member
Good morning all,
I just wanted to follow on from my previous thread about my mare being lame with unknown causes.
Briefly, about two years a go now, she had her hind limb suspensories scanned which were fine, her entire hind legs xrayed including feet with low grade osteoarthritis found in both pasterns in a low motion area but was told this shouldn't cause an issue and a tiny bone spur found in left hock. Her back was also xrayed with nothing found and her SI joint injected as a precaution but this made no change in her movement.
She still moves this way now but it only flagged up to me recently as she was looking slightly more lame on what I thought was the front right but the vets confirmed that the head bob is actually coming from the back left. We initially thought arthritic knees too but as there is no heat in them now and the vet has confirmed the lameness is on the back end, we have somewhat ruled this out for now but it wouldn't be a surprise if she was a little arthritic there too which box rest wouldn't solve either and probably better to keep her moving.
Anyway, my insurance has basically made her entire body exempt from all of this now and written off all conformation related issues too so I cannot afford to get anything else looked into.
The vet has suggested box rest for 2 months, then 2 months in slightly bigger paddock and the last 2 months in regular paddock as he thinks she is bilaterally lame on the back but slightly worse on the left hind, then see how she is as we can't investigate further.
Her PSSM type 2 panel test also came back negative for p2, p3, p4 and pX.
However, the reason I am asking is because some absolute idiots decided to have a firework display in the field opposite to her where she is box resting which resulted in her escaping last night. I'm not usually opposed to fireworks but when it's somewhere surrounded by horses and livestock without any notification, it has annoyed me quite a bit when I could have prepared. When I got there, she had ripped through the electric fencing, dripping in sweat and wouldn't stop jogging/cantering around so I'm back to square one probably and wondering if there is any point to all this as we don't really know what we are looking for or able to see if any improvement is happening. I did take off her shoes too which doesn't seem to be causing her an issue and she didn't look lame trotting round last night.
I put together this Youtube video of her over the last few years and wondered if anyone thought her gait looks any different? Bearing in mind, the first clip from 5 years a go was her second time ridden after 5 years as a field ornament so if that makes no difference, I don't think 6 months will and I'm wondering if this is truly just structural.
She does struggle having her back legs stretched forwards but this may be because she doesn't move like that so the muscle isn't prepared to stretch that far. Rather like doing the splits if you aren't trained to? I don't know, just thinking aloud. I'm just honestly not sure what the point of all of this is if her scans and xrays all came back fine too. Ridden wise, she loves going out for hacks, that's all we do and she is always full of energy, she doesn't seem sore after, actually moves a lot better after it seems once warmed up and I feel if something was wrong, her muscles would be sore possibly? And she certainly wouldn't want to gallop everywhere I'd like to think.
I've sent the video to the vets too but won't hear back from them for a while.
Advice is appreciated as always, thank you.
I just wanted to follow on from my previous thread about my mare being lame with unknown causes.
Briefly, about two years a go now, she had her hind limb suspensories scanned which were fine, her entire hind legs xrayed including feet with low grade osteoarthritis found in both pasterns in a low motion area but was told this shouldn't cause an issue and a tiny bone spur found in left hock. Her back was also xrayed with nothing found and her SI joint injected as a precaution but this made no change in her movement.
She still moves this way now but it only flagged up to me recently as she was looking slightly more lame on what I thought was the front right but the vets confirmed that the head bob is actually coming from the back left. We initially thought arthritic knees too but as there is no heat in them now and the vet has confirmed the lameness is on the back end, we have somewhat ruled this out for now but it wouldn't be a surprise if she was a little arthritic there too which box rest wouldn't solve either and probably better to keep her moving.
Anyway, my insurance has basically made her entire body exempt from all of this now and written off all conformation related issues too so I cannot afford to get anything else looked into.
The vet has suggested box rest for 2 months, then 2 months in slightly bigger paddock and the last 2 months in regular paddock as he thinks she is bilaterally lame on the back but slightly worse on the left hind, then see how she is as we can't investigate further.
Her PSSM type 2 panel test also came back negative for p2, p3, p4 and pX.
However, the reason I am asking is because some absolute idiots decided to have a firework display in the field opposite to her where she is box resting which resulted in her escaping last night. I'm not usually opposed to fireworks but when it's somewhere surrounded by horses and livestock without any notification, it has annoyed me quite a bit when I could have prepared. When I got there, she had ripped through the electric fencing, dripping in sweat and wouldn't stop jogging/cantering around so I'm back to square one probably and wondering if there is any point to all this as we don't really know what we are looking for or able to see if any improvement is happening. I did take off her shoes too which doesn't seem to be causing her an issue and she didn't look lame trotting round last night.
I put together this Youtube video of her over the last few years and wondered if anyone thought her gait looks any different? Bearing in mind, the first clip from 5 years a go was her second time ridden after 5 years as a field ornament so if that makes no difference, I don't think 6 months will and I'm wondering if this is truly just structural.
She does struggle having her back legs stretched forwards but this may be because she doesn't move like that so the muscle isn't prepared to stretch that far. Rather like doing the splits if you aren't trained to? I don't know, just thinking aloud. I'm just honestly not sure what the point of all of this is if her scans and xrays all came back fine too. Ridden wise, she loves going out for hacks, that's all we do and she is always full of energy, she doesn't seem sore after, actually moves a lot better after it seems once warmed up and I feel if something was wrong, her muscles would be sore possibly? And she certainly wouldn't want to gallop everywhere I'd like to think.
I've sent the video to the vets too but won't hear back from them for a while.
Advice is appreciated as always, thank you.
