Finally got some answers

[mudmonkey17]

Took horse to vets today after being 'not quite right' for a number of weeks. Always knew he was probably arthritic in few places due to his age (18) though does really well.

After lameness workup he was found to be 1/10 lame in left fore, 3/10 lame in right fore and 2/10 lame in left hind, most likely due to arthritic changes.

Had nerve blocks to right fore and xrays of both front feet. These are going to be reviewed along with old xrays and notes from when previous owner had him and then a pan made. Possibly some injections into joints as has had a successful injection into hock with previous owner around 4yr ago.

Got fingers crossed this will help though know there a possibility it may not, we only really hackers and low level riding club events. Would be happy just to hack and maybe odd flatwork session.

Just dreading the bill at the end. Does anybody know how much i should be preparing myself for?

 

[Birker2020]

Took horse to vets today after being 'not quite right' for a number of weeks. Always knew he was probably arthritic in few places due to his age (18) though does really well.

After lameness workup he was found to be 1/10 lame in left fore, 3/10 lame in right fore and 2/10 lame in left hind, most likely due to arthritic changes.

Had nerve blocks to right fore and xrays of both front feet. These are going to be reviewed along with old xrays and notes from when previous owner had him and then a pan made. Possibly some injections into joints as has had a successful injection into hock with previous owner around 4yr ago.

Got fingers crossed this will help though know there a possibility it may not, we only really hackers and low level riding club events. Would be happy just to hack and maybe odd flatwork session.

Just dreading the bill at the end. Does anybody know how much i should be preparing myself for?

My friend is a physio and its really interesting hearing about how horses overcompensate for injuries. In your horses case you say he is 3/10 lame in off fore and 2/10ths lame in near hind. Horses are often lame on their diagonal opposites as this is the way that they compensate for their injury by trying to move their body in a different way to alleviate pain.

An example: Imagine you had sprained your left ankle and it hurts like mad. Because it hurts, without even thinking about it, you will automatically be putting more weight onto your right leg in order to compensate. Over a period of time (if you didn't take painkillers and were still in pain) this would increase the muscle in your right leg as it is working harder to try to stabilise your bad leg. Eventually it will become overworked with the effort of trying to keep your weight off your left ankle leg and it too will become sore. Not only will your other leg become sore but you may find that your back becomes sore too due to the fact that you are holding your body differently to stop the pain in your left ankle and NOW your right leg too!

This is how the horse's body reacts too changes too. But because the horse can't tell us he is sore (or simply is too stoic and good natured to tell us) we often overlook there is a problem. Because he can't tell us he is sore, and we don't know he is sore we don't put him on painkillers or get the problem investigated. Therefore the horse will be overcompensating all over the place. And something that may have been quite simple to get investigated in the first place may take twice as long as there are all sorts of issues due to overcompensation now.

My physio friend often finds horses with muscle build up one side of their body in response to a problem on the other side. Its like trying to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. Imagine being called out to a patient who has a sore muscle and then being able to tell the owner, "well actually I'm sure there might be a problem with such and such a leg" and the owner hasn't a clue! This is what has happened with my horse. I'm sure my friend she would explain it much better than me.

From now on every year or even six months if I can, I will get her to just give my horse a physio check to pinpoint any problems that I may not have noticed or that my horse is too polite to tell me about.

My reply isn't in anyway a dig at Mudmonkey who has done the best for her horse. Its just a reply about how fascinating physio really is. Its something that I always looked at previously with a bit of disdain. Another way to make money out of horse owners. Second best to the chiro. But since learning the things I have learned from my friend and the journey she has come through from starting off as a physio student to becoming a qualified veterinary physio and all the information she has told me along the way, I find the whole thing incredibly interesting and just wanted to share it with you.

 

[YasandCrystal]

I second that applecart, physios are brilliant. My physio could pinpoint the precise muscles my horse was over compensating with and those he was underusing due to his SI dysfunction. She has patiently used a Tens nerve stimulation machine to 'reawaken' the nerves to the underused/wasted muscles. It's brilliant stuff and quite a skill to measure muscles.

 

[mudmonkey17]

Agree completely about the Physio. Have got an excellent Physio who has seen him in past and saw him again 2 week ago and picked up on the lameness along with back pain caused by the lameness.