Getting a referral for Rockley Farm from vet

[Michen]

This is bad news, maybe he will be better tomorrow, is he on bute for a few days?

My heart broke over my boy, to the point where my work was suffering as I was soo bloody stressed about it! Hes out on loan now and sound over all surfaces boot free I keep saying it, and dont know if you have seen, but diet was key for mine. I have another horse, rock crunching sound even when suffering border line neglect, fat as a pig and full of thrush. Not on my watch when he was on loan, but he was still rock crunching! But the big cob CANNOT cope without supplements. He really, really cant! I know a lot of people feed a lot of stuff for seemingly no reason, but I cannot empasise enough how important diet is!

Cleantrax his feet, it costs £15 and will be worth it! Change his diet, no alfaalfa, a GOOD mineral balancer with high copper and zinc and NO iron, and get him pads made for him, not generic ones. And then get those boots and pads on and walk him. As many miles as you can manage! he can probably manage the boots and pads 24/7 at least for a little while, and if not, put them on for turnout and get him in during the day in a deep bed.

He can be fixed, honestly!

This gives me hope, but surely it depends on the extent of the soft tissue damage? I don't know. It's ridiculous because when I bought him I was not going to insure him and I said to everyone, if he goes lame he will be put down. I'm not getting into lameness diagnostics etc for a 200 pound horse. And here I am, sobbing my heart out and spending about 6 hours a day reading whatever I can that may help. Sad eh!

 

[criso]

This gives me hope, but surely it depends on the extent of the soft tissue damage?

I keep saying go back and read the stories at Rockley. If you do you'll see there is no soft tissue that some horse there hasn't had. You can do a search on the different types of injury.

Mine had damage to the DSIL, DDFT. Collateral ligaments and navicular bursa in both feet. I don't think there were many soft structures that weren't affected.

I would be expecting soft tissue and that wouldn't be my major concern. What would worry me is some sort of fracture - very unlikely in all 4 feet or a navicular cyst which don't seem to respond as well.

 

[Leo Walker]

Bailey was soo lame he had to lay down for a few hours everyday. The whole yard laughed and joked about him needing a nap. They also laughed about him taking 10mins to walk down the drive, and it was just accepted he couldnt be ridden in the school He couldnt bear to stand on his feet all day, hence why he came in and laid down, he couldnt walk down the drive as there was the odd gritty bit, and he couldnt cope with the school as it was deep going

I bought him last June, took the shoes off 3 weeks later when I saw a friend ride him and realised he was crippled Its only been the last month hes been ridden out without boots, but I have an amazing set of photos the day after the shoes were taken off and he was turned out! He went mental! and if a horse could grin he was! I have no doubt he was buggered internally, but once the shoes were off I HAD to carry on, so we did and now hes bouncing about all over, totally sound Going by how long it took to get him even 25% right, and MRI would have shown bad things! He actually had a lameness work up a few months before I bought him, and nothing conclusive was found when he was trotted up etc. Clearly as he was lame in all 4 feet

Bailey is a lovely boy and funnily enough, doesnt lay down for a few hours each day, funny that!

 

[Michen]

This is bad news, maybe he will be better tomorrow, is he on bute for a few days?

I keep saying go back and read the stories at Rockley. If you do you'll see there is no soft tissue that some horse there hasn't had. You can do a search on the different types of injury.

Mine had damage to the DSIL, DDFT. Collateral ligaments and navicular bursa in both feet. I don't think there were many soft structures that weren't affected.

I would be expecting soft tissue and that wouldn't be my major concern. What would worry me is some sort of fracture - very unlikely in all 4 feet or a navicular cyst which don't seem to respond as well.

I think what my vet is concerned about is tears/holes which I can't seem to find anything about on rockley blog... Having said that my eyes are shot and I'm skim reading!!

 

[criso]

Fairly sure Storm had a tear to the DDFT and was written off by the vets.

However my vet did say to me a long time ago that sometimes the minor injuries never come right and severe tears do.

 

[criso]

Just to add


The last study I saw, mild collateral ligament damage has the poorest outcome statistically. That's with traditional treatment.

 

[Michen]

Just to add


The last study I saw, mild collateral ligament damage has the poorest outcome statistically. That's with traditional treatment.

Okay. I am feeling slightly calmer now I think I will speak to Nic before i make any decisions regarding putting him down… even if he comes home for a few days first.

 

[Boulty]

Gonna play devils advocate here and say that my pony showed next to no soft tissue abnormalities on MRI despite being bilaterally lame in front (resolved with palmar digital nerve block) and horrendously sore when shoes were removed to take said MRI (there were little irregularities that the person interpreting them questioned the significance of but that's it. I happen to think these little things probably WERE significant, just that the evidence doesn't exist yet to support that theory but in the eyes of the vet at the time the MRI was pretty much fine). The only thing that showed up on an x-ray was sidebone. (at least the only thing that the vets eye was drawn to but I'd wager someone who specialises in this sort of thing could have seen clues about which structures were in need of improvement... that probably goes for the MRI too) That's it as far as the fancy referral vets were concerned.

To look at his feet from the outside they were horrid and I kick myself for not doing something about it sooner. Toes waaaaay too long (front feet really shouldn't be that shape...) , collapsed at the back, very flat with soles so thin you could get them to flex with moderate thumb pressure... I didn't see all of this until I got my eyes opened to it though.

Point is diet and management were my main enemies and the main things that needed to change to bring my horse sound. They are still the main things that stand in our way as I can't get either totally 100% spot on in the situation I'm in at the moment. I'm hoping to change that at some point in the next few years but don't fancy going from the frying pan into the fire! I underestimated how important those things were before I started on this path as I think a lot of people do and unfortunately my pony is one of the sensitive ones (this spills over into riding too) if things aren't 100% to his liking I soon know about it

 

[ALO]

Just caught up on this and wanted to say do t give up hope. Mine had a ddft tear in his left fore foot near to the insertion of pedal bone in 2012. I did the bare rehab myself and he's now back to full health, sound and living life. It wasn't easy but we got there in the end. Good luck for today.