Chronic lameness

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StableManager

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Hi, Help is urgently needed and any advice is greatly appreciated. I have a horse who was found in the field two and a half hours after being checked previously, to be chronically lame. He was unable to weight bear and was shuffling around the field on his toe of the off fore. This was three weeks ago. The vet initially nerve blocked and he came sound. He was then poulticed but this drew nothing out. After x-rays he was diagnosed as a possible fracture to the pedal bone, but an ortho surgeon disputed this. Three weeks down the line, despite poulticing, farriery, antibiotics and box rest with bute, there is no improvement. His leg is swollen with standing in and there is obvious concern for his other leg. He's a heavy horse. The farrier is coming back tomorrow to try and pare away somemore hoof in case there is pocket of pus in there, failing that an MRI scan is the only possible option or we have him put down given the length of time and no improvement. Anybody got any thoughts - time is running out and his welfare must be given first priority.
 
Heavy horses do not do well on box rest. They need to be moving gently all the time or their legs fill. It is because they are so big and made out of the same stuff as light horses.

I could take one of my perfectly sound heavies, put it in a stable for two weeks and over that time it would become unsound.... it would sieze up!

If the owner is thinking of calling it a day.... Give the horse one more chance. Turn it out in a small section of field... tennis court size and let it trundle round. See if it frees up over a few weeks.

I had a Clydesdale who bruised his coronet band. When I found him I thought he had broken a leg because he was unable to weight bear... and he had a lot of weight to bear. Because he obviously didn't want to use that leg he was hopping lame... which ended up ricking up his pelvis and making him even more lame. Even whe the pain of the coronet injury had gone, he was still hopping lame because he had wrenched the opposing hind and SI joint. Tiz a big horse thing....

I didn't put my horse on box rest, just in a small field where he could see the others. He had bute and anti biotics and the physio treated him for a few moths. Slowly but surely he came right.
 
Thank you. Not sure I would get him out into a paddock though as he is so lame, he is now reluctant to even move around on his toe which he was doing before and he is therefore hopping on three legs. If he moves suddenly he is liable to fall over!
 
I would lay money on it being an abcess. They can take weeks to come out, and the horse can struggle with lamenss issues whilst it's all working it's way out.

Hope I am right - but fingers crossed for nothing worse.
 
We had one on our yard that was in a similar state and it was eventually found to be an abcess. Good luck - an awful situation.
 
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