Don't trust the vet

kerrieberry2

kerrieberry2

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My horse was REALLY lame today. I have had the vet out and she's found an abscess in his front left foot, which is fine, however, I believe that he is lame on his front RIGHT? When she picked up the left foot I said are you sure its that foot and she said yes, but got me to walk him and said yes its defo the left as he throughs his head in the air when he puts that foot on the floor!

but I have always been of the opinion that they drop their head when it hurts, and also you can see when he's putting his right foot on the floor that its sore and painful, he doesn't seem to be taking as long a stride with that leg as he does with the one with has the abscess!!!!

Does anyone else have any experience with lameness like this? my other horse has never had any issues with lameness, so I've been really lucky for the past 11 yrs/!
 
The horse lifts its head when lame one touches floor to throw weight onto the sound leg (head and neck weigh a lot!)
 
I did the same - called my vet as horse lame n/f but when I trotted up he said o/f as the head nods when the sound foot lands - I felt a right numpty !
I trust my vet - they spent 5 yrs at Uni - I didn't :)
 
The bio-mechanics of lameness come down to weight distribution and how it can be altered by head position. Dropping the head puts more weight on the forelimbs, raising the head puts more weight on the hindlimbs. So in the case of forelimb lameness horses will usually lift its head when the lame leg is weight bearing, so as to transfer weight away from the sore leg, and toward the hindlimbs. Similarly, when a horse with a forelimb lameness is on the lunge, they will often fix their head outwards when the lame leg is on the inside, to reduce weight bearing.
Stride length will also be affected, with the horse trying to spend less time weight bearing on the lame leg. So the swing phase (forward movement), and therefore stride length of the non-lame leg will be reduced.

In short, it sounds like your vet is right.
Also, what are the chances of coincidentally finding an abscess in the non-lame leg?!
 
Yup the head goes up as they avoid bearing wieght on the sore leg and goes down as they bear extra wieght on other side.
Ps finding the abbcess should have been a clue.
 
She's taking a longer stride with the unsound one because at the time she is striding it's the sound foot bearing weight on the floor. The lame foot is the one on the floor at the time of the shorter stride. your vet is correct by the sound of it.
 
Moral of the story: trust the vet unless you do actually know better :rolleyes: Alternatively disregard this and continue to slate your veterinary professional on a public forum even though they appear to have acted entirely appropriately :cool:
 
What rhino said. It does worry me how people presume they know better than trained professionals, without very good reason...
 
It worries me when horse owners can't identify which leg their horse is lame on - when it is blatently obvious! OP - think of it this way - if you get a stone stuck to the bottom of your bare foot - do you lift you weight off it when your foot hits the floor? Horses lift their heads when the lame limb hits the floor in order to take as much weight off the limb as possible. The head then resumes to it's lower position when they lift the lame limb off the ground as the pain and pressure is relieved.
 
JFTD said:
What rhino said. It does worry me how people presume they know better than trained professionals, without very good reason...
Click to expand...

The only time I've ever questioned a professional's judgement was when my doctor tried to convince me that my ringworm (caught off a pony) was eczema. I sat there and argued with him for about 20 minutes before he backed down and gave me a cream for ringworm AND a cream for eczema. I didn't use the eczema cream and my ringworm cleared up within a few days :D .

Professionals are not ALWAYS right but figuring out which leg a horse is lame on is probably one of the first things learnt in vet school.
 
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