Equine Metabolic Syndrome and lameness?? HELP

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u04elw2

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A friend and client of mine has the lovliest little shetland mare who was diagnosed with Equine Metabolic Syndrome not too long ago. She is on Metaformin tablets and her diet is very high fibre and her owner is doing everything she can but she is constantly lame.

A few weeks ago it was a back leg, then it moved to a front leg, now it's the other front leg. It only ever seems to be one leg at a time and she is very stiff if she's been lying down. The vet has discussed putting her down but she is a very happy little pony, she walks/trots/canters about still, just a lot of the time she's on 3 legs!

Does anyone have any experience with this condition? Can't say I've ever had a pony with it so I'm not really sure but we both think the type of lameness looks very much like an abscess or something - except she's been x-rayed, looked at by the vet, given soaks and even just been left alone to see if anything surfaces but nothing has!

Could this be abscessing that just never comes to a head? Or something else in her feet / muscles / bones / anything? Her owner is really worried about her
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There was a thread on here some months ago about EMS and someone posted a link to an American forum. It had some brilliant advice and made me realise that a pony I thought had cushings actually had EMS. There was plenty of info on symptoms, diet etc and alot of what my vet had told me was out of date.

Perhaps someone else will remember it and put in a link? I am rubbish at finding things on here...
 
Our veteran pony has EMS but to be honest he has never been consistently lame apart from laminitis 2 years ago, instead he shows signs of cushings, and during my research i have not come across that acute lameness is a sypmtom so maybe it is not directly connected with the EMS? i hope that you find out what is wrong soon and sorry i couldn't be of more help
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Yes, agree, my ems pony (although not diagnosed by vet as that) has never been acutely lame, just periods of having a digital pulse and being a bit footy. Manage him with strict feed regime at the moment.
 
One of the driving ponies I look after has been diagnosed with this. He had laminitis, had all the treatment and just doesn't get better. The basic picture I got off the vet amounted to - its a b**tard, they don't really understand it, they can't exactly treat it (although sometimes some treatments help) and they certainly can't cure it. My suggestion is stick with what the vet advises but if you doubt the information they're giving you is totally up to date, insist on a referral to a specialist in this field.
 
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