Do vets ever actually do anything RE lame horses?

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Starbucks

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I might be being a bit thick here, but so many people seem to spend £k's on vets seeing their lame horses, just for them to be diagnosed with this that and the other but no actual cure/treatment other than box rest/time off or to be told they are knackered forever!

Do any of you have any success stories that have involved anything other than rest?
 
Foot sore / Ossification of sidebones in the feet (previous injury come back to haunt me!) / Gravel gone up between hoof wall and sole of the foot.. I think that's about it and they were all fixed after rest / farrier :)
 
One of my sj has ringbone in both fores. Diagnosis was after extensive trot ups and x-rays. He had the pastern joint medicated and was sound for only 6 weeks. Has just been medicated again, hoping for better results but with the best will in the world you can't fix what is unfixable!
 
There's food for thought Starbucks!

I have just spent slightly over a grand having my mare's superior check ligament lameness diagnosed. The treatment? Paddock rest and walking out in hand.

This isn't the first time either!
 
Starbucks said:
I might be being a bit thick here, but so many people seem to spend £k's on vets seeing their lame horses, just for them to be diagnosed with this that and the other but no actual cure/treatment other than box rest/time off or to be told they are knackered forever!

Do any of you have any success stories that have involved anything other than rest?
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Really interesting and thought provoking.

Diagnosis is one thing - and of course the tools to help do this have come on leaps and bounds over the past several years. However, it doesn't mean that cures exist for many of the limb problems diagnosed. And in fact my own opinion is that many of the treatments are just temporary fixes.

I would not look to spend thousands treating a horse for lameness problems - the outcome will just be the same (albeit 6 months later).
 
mmm......seems to me they diagnose lami or navicular in the first instance, then move on to more expensive diagnosis to find out what it REALLY is, then prescribe bute and box rest as a cure anyway.
 
I spent ( or at least the insurance co spent) over £1k last year trying to diagnose hind lameness in one of my horses. The vet was convinced it was in the hock, nerve blocks didn't show anything and X-rays were clear, they then started talking about further invasive and expensive investigations. I decided not to do this but to try a long period of box rest, which he copes with very well, and see if he improves. 9 weeks of box rest and a further 4 in a small paddock and he was perfectly sound. I am really pleased that we didn't do further investigations as that chances are we would have ended up with the same outcome.
 
No, I think you're right Starbucks, there isn't much in the way of lameness that the vets can actually fix. I think the PSD operation and KS operation have pretty high success rates, but not much else comes to mind.

There's also the issue that insurance only usually covers vet fees up to £5000, so once that money has all gone on finding out what the problem is, there isn't any left to pay for treatment, if there is any treatment anyway.
 
I guess it depends on the problem they diagnose in the first place, or even *if* they can diagnose it. A friend of mine spent about 7K over 2 years trying to diagnose a problem with her horse (he was struggling to breathe, constantly exhausted, lots of symptoms); several vets including a specialist referral practise all told her they couldn't find anything wrong, and the post mortem in the summer said the same... a lot of money, an obviously very ill horse and apparently nothing wrong with him...

I'm not sure how many lamenesses can actually be cured. I think vets can treat a lot of the symptoms but not always the cause. My horse has bone spavins in both hocks, for which he has received treatment but only for the symptom, not for the cause of the problem.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that with lameness, the vets have to aim for damage limitation and making the horse as comfortable as possible rather than "curing" the problem.
 
Now there's an interesting one. Certainly my experience is no they dont really do anything
  • Lammi - painkillers/acp/x-rays... and then rest it (Total so far £1900)
  • Tendon....rest it
  • Ringbone - x-ray it/injections....rest it
  • Inflamed tendon sheath.....rest it

So only the ringbone had any treatment other than pain killers really (didnt work though lol) You have a good point
 
I do have a success story. My boy has always been nappy to ride, can go through stages where he will refuse to trot (typical naughty pony). I found tiny lumps on his spine so had him examined thinking this was where the napping came from. I had him x-rayed and found he did have a small bone growth on his vertibrae (sp?)but nothing that will effecting his riding.
I carried on riding him as normal and he still didnt feel right. I went on a sponsered ride and toward the end he didnt feel right for a few stride but then went sound.
Next morning he was lame and had huge swelling on his off hind. Vet came out and we done nerve blocks, x-rays and scans over a few weeks and found he had done his suspensory. The orgin and both branches.
We decided on the fPRP treatment, We had the treatment and a month box/small paddock rest. Then we started walk work in straight lines in hand . Everything was gradual and took about 6months to be back in light work and a year in full work.

Since being back in work he has stopped his napping, his attuide to work has changed dramatically. Me and my vet think he had some the injury a long time ago and wasnt till it was torn so badly he had to be lame.

If it wasnt for the treatment I wonder with field rest alone he would of recovered aswell. He is a very fat pony and field rest would mean sitting putting on excessive weight at least I was walking him a month after treatment.
 
Hind-leg lameness, x-rays, spavin diagnosed. Inter-articular injections over 6 weeks, sound horse for 2 years since. Touch wood. £600.

I do, however, worry that lameness will re-occur - it is a temporary 'fix' (obviously arthritic changes are not going to disappear).

I am not sure how many lameness conditions can ever actually be 'cured'...
 
Starbucks said:
I might be being a bit thick here, but so many people seem to spend £k's on vets seeing their lame horses, just for them to be diagnosed with this that and the other but no actual cure/treatment other than box rest/time off or to be told they are knackered forever!

Do any of you have any success stories that have involved anything other than rest?
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Yes, vets have always sorted out lameness issues in my neds. PF had a foot abscess (in the UK) that wouldn't go away; they dug it out and put a plate on her foot. Sorted. The splints that were making her lame (not new splints) were also sorted slightly controversially over in Argentina.
 
Yes definately

14 yr old Ex racing T.B (nearly 19 now!) 1/10 RH lameness. Two vets told me 'it`s as sound as an ex racer of this age will ever be'. But I just knew there was something not right so......

Sent it to 'Super Vet' for the day and he diagnosed an avulsion fracture combined with severe PSD. Treatment was shockwave followed by 3 months box rest (only left the box to go for more shockwave) then VERY controlled in hand exercise program followed by pen turnout but only when, after a further 3 months we were trotting under saddle. Complete recovery (which would NEVER have happened if just rested)

Then lame RH again (que panic thinking PSD back) but spavin forming. Injections failed to help but then treated Tildren x 2 and advised to work, sound and full return to work.

3 yrs on Lame on Foreleg. Took to super vet who immediately diagnosed sesamoid ligament damage. Box rest and controlled exercise again gave us back a sound horse!

He now has a much easier life due to past issues and no longer competes but is still worked regularly and can still beat pretty much any other horse at a flat out gallop, which is his favorite hobby!

I also have a rising 7 yo NF who broke his hip as a 3 y.o. Treatment = 6 months box rest on advice of vet followed by 6 months in field. Sound and in full work, even got an 8 for our paces by a listed judge at the weekend!

Did have one that had all sorts of issues which vets attempted to treat but it turned out he had lymphoma and was PTS aged seven. No vet could have diagnosed until it got to the point of hopelessness :-(
 
Well sure, if the problem is actually fixable. :) Horses have surgery, drug therapy and other interventions that optimise/speed/facilitate healing all the time.

That said, generally speaking, if there's not the POTENTIAL for the body to heal itself then it's unlikely that veterinary intervention will be able to work some unnatural miracle. Most treatments - other than specific interventions - are concentrated on helping the body do the best job possible with the fewest lingering ill effects.

Maybe the problem is expectations and how you define the terms. A great many causes of lameness in performance horses are degenerative conditions so no, no one is ever going to *fix* them per se, you're only looking to alleviate symptoms, slow down the degeneration, rejig the management or otherwise make/keep the horse more comfortable for the longest period of time.

The fact is LIFE is a degenerative condition. ;)

And riding horses, like it or not, puts stress on them. I'm not saying they shouldn't be working - that's what they're for - but surely people understand that using horses, to some extent, means using them up? That's the trade off. And once that's happened you can't turn back the clock. It's true, rest and treatment can allow many things to heal but even then, if there is tissue damage, bony changes or similar, it's there. The horse might learn to live with it, degeneration might be arrested but it will never be like it never happened.

I think if you went randomly around a competition like the WEGs, testing every horse, you'd be lucky to find one WITHOUT an obvious "issue" or at least the precursor to one. Veterinary care and good management are keeping a lot of those horses on the road. It doesn't have to be a death knell at all. If you went around any human sporting competition you'd get the same results. Heck, if you went to any office you'd get the same results.:)

That sounds very depressing but honestly, I don't see it like that. I think if you know horses might/will break you can do a lot more to try to head that off/minimise it. Pretending that "normal" is a horse that never has anything wrong with it just isn't realistic.
 
Mine was on box rest for a splint but after the box rest he was even worse!! So we changed to a more well known vet and got a lameness work up, went for x rays a week later. They found a chipped navicular bone, options were; cortoson (sp) injection or nerve block. We went with the injection and remedial shoeing and he was sound within a couple of days :D Only cost about 400 overall so we were very happy.
 
"Do vets ever actually do anything re lame horses?"

Hmmmm, now I am a well known and pretty vocal cynic on this subject. If you have insurance, I would say "no" - well not until all / most of your insurance money has been spent on expensive diagnostics anyway.
 
Well after the insurance shelling out 2.5k on xrays and treatment of Off Hind bone spavin, and then further diagnosis to include the near hind too I can say that in this instance no, it hasnt worked. After turning melly into a pin cushion (including tildren drip) for the right hind, I decided not to have the left hind medicated except for danilon. Her near hind is now free-er than her off hind, and she is still walking like she has a pole up her bum nearly a year on.
Some things work, some dont, and wear and tear play a big part in that. As does rest.
 
I think it depends on the vet.

When my mare damaged her sacroiliac 2 years ago the vet came out and said she was lame in her hock, despite her having swelling in her back. She put her on bute and suprise suprise she was still lame.

I then got another vet out who I would highly recommend who diagnosed the problem straight away and the treatment started. Steroid injections were the only thing that worked but we both agreed they were not good for her in the long term. We tried another treatment which hadnt been used before but unfortunately that didnt work. 2 years later after a break she is sound again, fingers crossed.

At no point did I feel that my vet was just trying to get money out of me, a feeling which I have had with other vets.

He tried the treatment but it didnt work, a break and rest did. At the time I felt as though he wanted her to come right as much as I did.

I think you need to trust your vet to make the right choice more than anything.
 
Septic pedal osteitis - my local vet was ace, although she thought it was a keratoma (tumour) until she did the x-rays. Horse was operated on and although it was extremely stressful for all of us at the time, she is now doing very well.
She was absolutely crippled though, she was on three bute a day and was still struggling to walk before the operation.
With less dramatic lameness, I tend to turn away for a bit, although thankfully nothing more than bumps and scrapes to date.
 
I treat lameness in a slightly different way. If no improvments are seen and something has to be done, 1st I get the thermal imageing camera put over my horse ( would recommend more people do this) than pass the pics over to my vet which cuts out a lot off time/tests etc finding the problem area.
 
My boy went lame and was diagnosed by my vet within 2 weeks, which ended up being DJD in his hocks. After a course of Inter-articular injections over 6 weeks and he stayed sound for 2 years. Then this January he had a reoccuring lameness due to the DJD and he had a course of Tildren and he was back in work within the week and is now back on top form out dressaging. As a degenerative condition I agree with the views mentioned by Tarrsteps that it's unrealistic for me to assume that the issue is resolved and time and aging will cause this condition to progress and eventually render him unrideable. However as long as he's happy poodling around, is fit and moving pain free i'll be after my vet to help us in any way he can. So in my case yes my vet does actually do something in regards to lameness and allows him to live a comfortable, active life :D
 
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