Head bob…always forelimb lameness?

little_critter

little_critter

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I have a suspicion that my boy is having some trouble with his hinds. Unfortunately when the vet came out he was having a good day so there wasn’t much to see.
However yesterday I thought I could feel a slight head bob, and lunging this morning I could see it too.
I thought a head bob went with forelimb lameness….can you get it with hindlimb lameness?

I’ve taken videos to send to the vet this time.
 
Someone more informed will be able to tell but I'm sure the head nod coincides more with the front end. With back end lameness the hips normally drop. With regards to front end lameness, the head comes up when the offending limb has normally hit the ground.
 
They use the head as a counter weight so yes a head nod can be due to hind limb lameness.

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When my horse did his near fore suspensory branch was lame on the right rein. This was because on the right circle he was pushing off with the injured leg which was actually bearing more weight during the weight bearing phase of the stride. N

So it's not always obvious which leg is the injured one if that makes sense.

Vet said it was mechanical rather than pain because bute made no difference and on scan the calcification was evident.
 
Last edited:
ycbm said:
If they are lame on the back they tend to nod upwards and on the front downwards.
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Click to expand...
Oh, I would have said otherwise.

If they are in neutral, and a sore front leg comes to the floor, they bring the head up sharply from the pain, as in the head moves away from the pain to attempt to de-weight it.

If the head is in neutral and a painful back leg comes to the floor, the head comes downwards to pull the weight forwards and away from the back end.
 
little_critter said:
I have a suspicion that my boy is having some trouble with his hinds. Unfortunately when the vet came out he was having a good day so there wasn’t much to see.
However yesterday I thought I could feel a slight head bob, and lunging this morning I could see it too.
I thought a head bob went with forelimb lameness….can you get it with hindlimb lameness?

I’ve taken videos to send to the vet this time.
Click to expand...


Well we all agree they can head nod when the lameness is on the back 😁

I hope you find it's something simple to fix.
 
Thanks everyone.
He hasn’t been consistently and clearly “off” but I’m assimilating a few signs and I’m adding this head nod to the list. I’ll get back on to the vet on Monday.
Interestingly a few years back I took him in for a lameness workup because he looked lame in front. I was told he was lame behind and by trying to shift his weight of his hind legs he was causing issues in front.
It could be the case that he’s doing the same again.
 
Having sent the video to the vet, I had a chat with him yesterday.
He asked which I thought the ‘bad’ leg was. I said I’d initially seen a hip drop left hind, then noted squaring off of the right hind toe, then seen the head bob so I wasn’t sure.
He had shown the video to a specialist and it seems the answer is “Yes”
He’s probably lame on 3 out of 4 legs (sounds like there was some discussion between vets as to which front leg was the issue)
 
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