De-nerved hind suspensories - lame again

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legend

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Hi,
Am after some advice for a friend of mine please?
Her horse was de-nerved about 8 months ago, has done full work up back to fitness and has now gone lame again behind. Vet suggested giving a few weeks off then reassessing. Has had 3 weeks or so off now and no improvement.
No difference on 2 bute a day.
Obviously vet has been booked for nerve blocking and scans (next week).
Just wondering if anyone had any experience?
Thanks very much
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will nerve blocking work if he has already been de-nerved...? I don't think so, unless the new lameness is proximal to the old one.
Odd that there has been no improvement on bute. May be a mechanical lameness he has developed.
 
Could this be a back problem?
It is not uncommon for hind limb lameness to result in ( or result from) back problems/ SI problems. Just a thought but there are posts on this on here if you search.
 
I was wondering about the suspensories/sacroiliac correlation too! But haven't actually seen her boy since he's been lame again so have no idea whether thats likely etc. She rates him as 2/5 lame, so she's been wondering whether thats too lame for a back issue. He has had an osteo to see him a good few times, but since he failed to spot the lameness behind, I am not convinced of his skill!
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I will make sure she mentions it to her vet as a possibility tho, thanks.
And Bean, I'm not sure about the blocking, I'll have to ask!
Although I guess it must do if thats where the lameness is coming from, as otherwise he wouldn't be able to feel it and thus it wouldn't cause a problem? I know there are other nerves to the surrounding areas and that they can obv block the whole leg from higher up which should help diagnose.
We're also wondering about whether its mechanical.
Thanks both of you
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Sorry to hear about your friend's horse! It must be very disheartening.

I had a horse with a weird lameness and there was a suggestion it was suspensory but turned out to be back. When the suspensory option was raised I Googled for information on the de-nerving op. What I found at the time suggested an 80% success rate. The operation itself is 100% successful, i.e. it always de-nerves, but the 20% were misdiagnosed horses so that the de-nerving was irrelevant to the lameness.

Hope she figures it out!
 
have heard of a few horses ok after the op then lame again once back in work. some thoughts about nerves regrowing etc. dont think anyone knows for sure.
 
I would think that if it was the hind suspensory operation which had not been successful, it would not have taken 8 months for it to show lameness. Has the horse being working 'sound' up until this point?

Star is absolutely correct, some horses nerves will grow back but I very much doubt this to happen in an 8 months period as the gap that is left is pretty considerable. I think when people talk about the nerve reattaching, it is years down the line. The other thing I have found is that some horses who do get the nerve reattaching do not go lame because the fasiotomy has allowed the ligament the room it needed to fully repair.

Sorry... I digress
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My mare also had the operation in March 2008 and in October 2008 I noticed some 'strange' steps in the left hind rather than lame steps. I whizzed her straight back to the surgeon two days later and it was confirmed she had some tightness in her sacroiliac. This was medicated back in October 2008 and so far (touch wood) she has not needed to go back for further treatment to this area. I just ensure she has the physio every few months to keep it all supple and working correctly.
 
Hello - sorry to hear about your friend's horse. Ronnie was 3-4/10ths lame with his sacroiliac problem - which is also now a proximal suspensory problem and he's hopefully having the de-nerve op too. Back pain can make them very lame. Ronnie was so lame the vets all thought it was a fractured pelvis until the scintigraphy showed otherwise.
 
Hi all, and thanks very much for all the responses, they are appreciated!
Her horse did come back into work after the op (very) slowly, and had done all of the 'normal' work up to fitness program, and about 4 months solid work at roughly full fitness (he was working Adv Med previously, but hadn't gone back to doing changes or the harder collection etc yet, nor jumping, but everything else he was fine with).
Guess we'll have to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed for something fixable!
 
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