Grace has been to the vets - it's not good news!

Chin up, i'm sure she'll be fine
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I'd give her some bute, Vet has given it for her to make her comfortable. Effects wear off in same way as a human taking an antinflammatory (nurofen) Just don't give her any on Friday morning
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It could be the collateral ligaments of the coffin joint - they can go suddenly like you describe and cause acute lameness, especially if the foot is out of balance. It happened to my horse. It looks worse than it is, and it will clear up with around 6 weeks of box rest/hand walking. We went barefoot when it happened with mine as she had navicular syndrome issues from foot imbalance.

I'm not saying it's this, just throwing another possibility into the arena.
 
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Not every lameness has to have a serious underlying cause. I'll put good money on it being in the foot - either bruise or abscess.
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Brighteyes, I agree whole heartedly with this... but when the vet is saying they think it is more than things like abscesses and bruising, you do tend to start thinking of what else it could be. Which is why she is going back on Monday for xrays, nerve blocks and scans.
 
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It really could be an abcess or bruising, especially if her foot balance is a bit off - recent experience as shown me exactly how important that can be!
Although don't want to depress you, she does sound rather like my OH's mare - she was fine then suddenly went hopping on one front foot. We are 3 months down the line now and the only thing we have found is ringbone, but like the poster above, the vet doesn't think that should be causing as much problem as she is suffering from, if that makes sense? Anyway, we are off to Newmarket tomorrow for a 4 day work-up, basically to see if she has torn a tendon in the foot which is one of three possibilities mentionned by our vet - the others being that it is the ringbone after all, or that there are some king of changes around the navicular bone that haven't shown up on x-ray. So at least I should be able to update you further by the end of the week on what they have said for her!
As PG said above though, I personally wouldn't bute her until the next checkup is done as it might mask the problem, not only for the vet but also for her - don't want her to not realise she is hurt and play silly b*ggers.
I'd also go with you idea of getting a foot specialist involved sooner rather than later, as we are desperate to know what is going on too with our girl, and the ore you can do to get answers the less you will worry. I am so relieved we should finally get answers this week - again, like you, we would most likely put her in foal if it is likely to be a long layoff.
Best of luck, hope you get some answers - would be interested to hear what they say when you do!

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Thank you... please let me know what they say at Newmarket. I hope you get the answers you crave this week. Soft tissue damage has been mentioned as one possibilty for Grace too, so tendons and ligaments within the foot so I am trying to find out more about this area as we speak so I know the things they are talking about.
 
I'm feeling really guilty for mentioning low grade laminitis Becki. Been reading too many barefoot forums, where pretty much everything is put down to that. I am sure it isn't anything to worry about and like others have said it is probably a bruised sole.
 
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I'm feeling really guilty for mentioning low grade laminitis Becki. Been reading too many barefoot forums, where pretty much everything is put down to that. I am sure it isn't anything to worry about and like others have said it is probably a bruised sole.

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Don't be silly... no one could suggest anything that would make me feel any worse than I do at the moment
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I want to know of things than can cause lameness in the foot, however serious or minor they are. It isn't until you have a problem in the area that you really start looking into it, so at least I will be more 'up' on foot lameness
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A raised digital pulse only means that there is more blood circulating in the foot for some reason, most commonly it is laminitis but it could be anything!
I won't tell you about my mare as it'll only worry you (mine was worse than the worst-case scenario!) but if it is a tendon, six months box rest is really the maximum amount. Mine had just over four months box rest, and had daily turnout for two hours in a small pen throughout. She then was turned away and will be re-assessed in April, after nine months turned away. TBH I would not even consider putting a mare in foal if she is recovering from a tendon or ligament issue, they need to be rested and not to have extra strain put on the legs.
Then again there's nothing you can do now except keep your fingers crossed that it will be a bruise or an abcess or something "fix-able". My fingers are very crossed for you too, I've not had much luck this year but you can have some of my limited supply!
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Thank you Silmarillion... My luck gets even worse I am afraid. My farrier has just phoned to say he cannot come in the morning as his van has broken down... so I am not 100% sure what I am going to do now. There is a recently trained (fully qualified since March 2007) farrier who has been training with my farrier and helps out at the vets with their shoeing who may be able to do Grace this week, but nothing is certain.

Going over her due date is not going to help the situation at all... I just feel like crying!
 
No, he moved and is based in South Wales now... He comes back here four days of the week and was due to come back tonight but obviously he cannot get here with his van not working
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oh, thats definitely out of the question then. Oh hun I know how youre feeling. Chin up, im sure itll all come good in the end for you and Grace.

Is the other farrier good? does your farrier think hed do a good job?
 
It was my farrier who suggested him actually... I think I will speak to the vets in the morning and see what they have to say. The new farrier has a very quiet manner around horses, and has trimmed Grace's feet when he came with my farrier and she really liked him. She can be a bit jittery with men for some reason, but she really relaxed around him and he trimmed Troy too and was very patient with him.

My farrier is eventually not going to come up to this end of the world, so the new farrier will be taking over the remedial shoeing at the vets I believe...
 
well if he suggested him then he cant be that bad or he wouldnt be recommending him to you.
Sounds like hes worth a try as Grace likes him and hes quiet etc around them.
Did you talk to your farrier about Natural Balance shoes?
 
No I didn't... just want to get this problem sorted and her feet right for nerve blocks. At least once she has been nerve blocked and xrayed things will be a bit more clear.

I have had a good sob and blubbed and now have to sort something out tomorrow. If this new farrier cannot do it tomorrow, I will phone the vets and just ask them to take the shoe off and do a nerve block and xrays with her feet as they are. Surely they will be able to see what's going on even if her feet are uneven.
 
Ask your vet for advice, my vet talked to my farrier after x-rays were done to try to improve Maiden through corrective shoeing and all the while both vet and farrier were telling me not to let anything else change, so they could tell if it was working. If your vet agrees with this other farrier doing Grace then fine, but if not you may just have to be patient until your other farrier can come. If they try to nerve block her barefoot and she's more lame than "usual" (ie. with shoes), I wouldn't have thought they'd be able to tell whether the anaesthetic will be acting on the "new" site of pain (the footsore bit) or the "old" site of pain (the one you really want to find). Being shoeless will help the x-rays as if they need to get an image from underneath the foot they'd probably have to take the shoe off anyway, but I doubt it would help the nerve blocks at all.
If there's one thing Maiden has taught me this year, it's to be patient with injuries and lamenesses!
 
I bet you have. Its hard on you. whats your OH think about it all?
Could new farrier just take her shoes off and trim them, then you wait for your farrier to come over and put new shoes on?
I wouldve thought it would be better for her feet to be trimmed and more balanced but if you arent in a position to get this done then im sure the vets will be able to do something with them as they are.
Are you having the nerve blocks and exrays done next monday?
bruising doesnt show up on exrays does it? cant remember. All I can say is I found more things going on with mine when she had her last lot done when could explain a lot of things - wonderful things exrays. we couldnt go down nerve block route with madam as shes an absolute class 1 bitch when it comes to needles and no one fancied going that close to her lower legs with a needle when shes flailing them around in the air.
 
totally agree with you about this:
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be patient with injuries and lamenesses!

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it took my mare nearly 6 weeks to recover from severley bruised foot. add that on top of nearly 4 years on and off lameness where nothing seemed to help,I felt completely let down and that the bottom had dropped out of my world. After 4 years Ive found the major problem and I now have a totally sound horse
 
Yes, she is going in for xrays and nerve blocks on Monday and they are planning on her staying over the night for further investigations.

I can't leave her shoes off because she is very foot sore without her shoes now she has them on. They also have a few cracks in them, so I would prefer for the shoes to be put back on. My farrier seemed pretty confident in this other one's abilities, and he has been fully qualified since March and has been shoeing since then regularly.
 
My friends mare had similar symptoms to grace and ended up being diagnosed with a pulled tendon in the hoof and some soft tissue damage - she came sound again after 4 months off and was back in work after 6... she has to keep her off jumping for a year but is schooling and hacking out happily...

I hope Graces recovery - if it is the tendon - is as straight forward...
 
well the only thing I can think is getting her some hoof boots till you can get your original farrier out if you havent decided on the new farrier but they are expensive for a short period of use.

I hope you get it all sorted out soon Becki. Let me know if you need anything and how youre getting on.
 
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My friends mare had similar symptoms to grace and ended up being diagnosed with a pulled tendon in the hoof and some soft tissue damage - she came sound again after 4 months off and was back in work after 6... she has to keep her off jumping for a year but is schooling and hacking out happily...

I hope Graces recovery - if it is the tendon - is as straight forward...

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Did you friends horse just suddenly go lame?

Was the lameness consistent?
 
No, the lameness was all over the place - she could look sound cantering across the field then be hopping lame on a circle - the one consistancy was that she was lame on a circle on the lunge no matter what surface she was on... the inconsistancy was the reason they took so long to diagnose - vet came out twice and declared her ok before finally figuring out what was wrong...

My gelding has a similar lameness - vets have said they cant find anything but i think it could be something similar - he is stiff going left, though not on soft surface in school...
 
Grace is consistently lame no matter what surface she is on, in walk as well as trot. There has been no change between Friday morning when she went lame, and this morning...
 
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