Help. Anyone seen this before?

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ChristineCorp

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2 years ago our little mare yanked up her hind leg in pain suddenly during a leg yielding exercise.

Diagnosis was muscle strain, remedy, months of rest then lots of lungeing in the sand.

Her action was to hitch up the right hind in canter left, particularly in the transition to trot.

When we moved to ridden exercise she was good in walk and trot, sound in canter on one rein but ran like a dog on 3 legs on the other rein. Problem is clearly worse with a rider on board.

Vet no 2 did nerve blocks and x rays and diagnosed spavin which in time would fuse without treatment.

One year later she's brilliant in walk and trot so we tried her on the lunge in canter. Same situation, sometimes hitches the leg , sometimes not. Asked our own vet to take some more xrays with a view to possibly giving her some steroid injections.

Soundness test undertaken, no soreness in flexion tests, slight occasional hitch on lunge in canter. X rays taken.

No change in xrays from last year, just very clean fusion of some parts of the hock joint. i.e no spurs.

We're left with a mare who is sound after flexion tests, sound under saddle in walk and trot, and a vet who's sceptical about spavin being the cause of the problem.

Back to square one, our vet thinks the problem is higher up but that after 2 years it's probably too late to do anything about it.

He at least is prepared to follow this up, meet with the vet who diagnosed the spavin and try to solve the mystery, but it looks as if we're left with a brood mare.

Can anyone throw any light on this strange situation? By the way she gallops around the field totally sound.
 
No, definitley not stringhalt. The jury's still out on the stifle business. Just have to wait until the vets get their heads together mid week and see what they suggest.

It could still possibly be that this is her peculiar reaction to the fusing of the hock joints but none of the vets have ever seen anything quite like it.

The problem is that she has no difficulties with walk and trot whatsoever.
 
MacT - has she had a referral to a specialist lameness vet? I'm Wales too and about 5 years ago my Highland x developed an odd stumbling and my local vets were struggling with a diagnosis/treatment. Long story and best to draw a veil over it! I was advised to have Sullivan referred to Bushy Equine Vets near Dursley in Gloucester as their head honcho is a lameness expert. It's a specialist equine hospital about an hour and a quarter from Swansea area and they were personally recommended. They are marvellous and Sullivan's problems (sadly couldn't be helped) were very quickly identified. I also took my next boy Sunny there immediately when he developed serious eye problems and again they were truly marvellous. Their expert knowledge and standard of care is amazing. I wasn't sure if you'd already had a referral or not? Just ignore if you have or PM me if you'd like their tel no x
 
How is her back? has it been checked and x rayed?
It sounds a bit like my gelding who started having an odd action in right canter last November - sort of hopping / holding his leg up every few strides. Initial diagnosis was muscle strain, treated several times, didn't get better.
Vet initially thought hock but nerve blocks didn't improve it, vet then thought may be stifle but eventually diagnosed with problem in his back - kissing spines. When he was nerve blocked in his back he could finally canter properly. Steroid treatment didn't work so he's just had surgery on his back.
Might be worth investigating. When it started I never imagined it could be kissing spines.
 
I personally think it's tendons or ligaments and the person who was sitting alongside me when it happened. We saw it but the vets have been dismissing what we have to say until now. If I'm right it could be too late to do something about it.

The specialist saw her when she was sore because we'd tried cantering her again and he's adamant that it's spavin because she went sound when he injected local anaesthetic into the joint. Like I said, she's never been unsound in walk or trot so I don't know what he thinks he saw in the first place.In his opinion she was lame in trot but we've never seen it and she definitely didn't react to any flexion tests.

The problem is that we don't know if the specialist actually cantered her because we couldn't be there. Our vet is very kindly going to visit him to find out. He's convinced that the specialist has missed something because he saw the hock fusion, which may not be causing much of a problem. If she was lame in trot she wouldn't be scoring over 75% in walk trot dressage tests.

There again the specialist may be right and she's just showing a peculiar reaction to the spavin pain.

It's so frustrating, not knowing, worrying, waiting for the vets and blamimg ourselves.

She's had her back checked several times, the first vet is a qualified physio and Bowen therapist. There was some muscle spasm but it went and of course that happens with spavin as well.
Aaargh!!!
 
Hi christine. Just wondering if you ever found out what was wrong with your horse? My horse is showing exactly the same symptoms. Sound, walk and trot, sound ish one rein canter, hitch in leg on other rein. Been diagnosed with spavins, tested for kissing spines and suspensories, but all clear, steroid jabbed steroids, but no improvement, but i think it's coming from her stifle.
 
Hvae you had a chiropractor/ physio ect to look at the horse?

Maybe is something that can be fixed/ managed with the correct exercises and treatment treating the muscle etc.


**Just realised this thread is rather old!
 
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