Christmas Day, crippled horse

Holly Hocks

Holly Hocks

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Blue was x-rayed last week after minor lameness on her near fore. Vets were hoping to find gas pockets of abscesses, but instead found that her pedal bone was putting down extra bone as the result of a trauma. She was about 1/10 or 2/10 lame at the trot up. The plan is to give her 3 months off to start then see where we go from there. She has been turned out as normal - this morning as the rain was so bad, she just went out for an hour with my youngster while I did the stables. Brought her in - no problems, and she came in as normal. Tonight I went to skip out and feed and hay and she can't put any weight whatsoever on it. She has gone from 1/10 lame to crippled lame. I phoned the vet who will come out anytime but recommended to treat as abscess for a couple of days, but if goes off food or deteriorates she will come out sooner.

So do abscesses come on so quickly? In the space of seven hours? Is it coincidence that it's the same leg as the bone remodelling or something more sinister happening? She was never this lame at her worst and it was barely visible in walk even at it's worst - tonight she is almost waving it at me telling me that it hurts....what a 5h!t day!
 
My TB mare went from sound to non-weightbearing at all in two or three hours when she had an abscess. It was so dramatic I thought she'd broken something:(

Hopefully that's all yours is.
 
Yes an abcess can come on that quickly. My horse went from sound to crippled in the space of about 4 hours in the summer. Then the following day my other horse was waving his front foot at me when i went in the field in the evening to check on them, he was sound in the morning so he did it in the space of about 6 hours. Start poulticing the foot and i hope for you that it is just a coincidence that it is in the same foot as the other problem that you have been having. Oviously if there is nothing coming out on the poultice then have he vet out.
 
Oh HH ((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))).

Yes, I have seen a horse on three legs over a matter of a few hours, over an abcess. I hope this is what has happened here xxxx
 
Agree that abscesses can come on that quickly. I'd agree with your vet to treat as such for now. Fingers crossed that that's all it is.

Hope you have a good Xmas, such as is left.

x
 
I got back from a hack, completely sound, untacked and rugged up. Took him out of stable to turn out and was hopping lame with abcess

Hope she's ok soon. xx
 
cm2581 said:
Could be an abscess but could equally be a fractured pedal bone. What are the heart rate and breathing rate?
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I have no idea - I skipped, fed, cried, came home and phoned vet....I haven't been back to her. The thing is that the x-rays showed no fracture last Wednesday when she was at the vet and she has only been out on soft ground since when she has been out - and apart from one short demonstration of Swan Lake ballet moves from her I haven't seen her hooleying round.....if it was a fracture then wouldn't she have been lame when she went out this morning and them came in? She was only out in the 20x40 starve patch for an hour and didn't do anything in that time.

The one thing that did concern me is that her bed was a complete mess this evening - she is a roller - but the bed was far worse than normally. I did wonder if she had been cast and kicking out, but again would have expected this to be a hind leg issue rather than a front leg one.
 
Holly Hocks said:
I have no idea - I skipped, fed, cried, came home and phoned vet....I haven't been back to her. The thing is that the x-rays showed no fracture last Wednesday when she was at the vet and she has only been out on soft ground since when she has been out - and apart from one short demonstration of Swan Lake ballet moves from her I haven't seen her hooleying round.....if it was a fracture then wouldn't she have been lame when she went out this morning and them came in? She was only out in the 20x40 starve patch for an hour and didn't do anything in that time.

The one thing that did concern me is that her bed was a complete mess this evening - she is a roller - but the bed was far worse than normally. I did wonder if she had been cast and kicking out, but again would have expected this to be a hind leg issue rather than a front leg one.
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Well, its probably an abcess, as they can come on really quickly, but if your worried, then go and check your horse, and see if hes eaten his feed. You will then know whether to get the vet out or not.
 
Headpiece said:
Well, its probably an abcess, as they can come on really quickly, but if your worried, then go and check your horse, and see if hes eaten his feed. You will then know whether to get the vet out or not.
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She's ate while I was there - was her usual very bright self. I will be going up very early in the morning to see her. Will hot tub and re-poultice (I do wicked poultices which stay on in every ground condition! :) )
 
The first three abcesses my sister's tb had we seriously thought he'd broken his leg - on one of them (before we knew what he could be like) the on call vet's words were 'he's ******ed the whole leg, hasn't he' because he had it so twisted out to the side - I thought he's dislocated his patella. He had an abcess in his toe!

Definately treat as an abcess but provide as much pain relief as you possibly can to keep her comfortable but don't turnout like that because if it is something nasty and there's a fracture developed then she could make it worse. I would also have her on a nice deep bed as it will be more comfortable in both situations.
Also without being massively depressing there are reasons for fractures other than pure trauma and the remodelling could be putting unusual strain through the bone making it easier to break.
I really hope it's just an abcess
 
I thought she looked better on first looking at her this morning - she wasn't holding the leg out as much, so decided to put her out while I mucked out and she walked out better than yesterday evening. Went to get her in about 30 minutes later and crippled again just like yesterday. Hot tubbed and poulticed and now going to get some bute down her ( won't eat it in feed so will be syringing it in with water). I am calling the vet tomorrow morning first thing - as previously said, I spoke to the vet yesterday and they have advised if no better by tomorrow they will come out. And tomorrow I should be able to get the vet that has dealt with her since the start of this problem and who knows the full story. She isn't on call today and I would prefer it for this particular vet to deal with her.

She is bright in herself and eating her net up.
 
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