Help! Horse in pain!

[The calamity groom]

Hello,

My horse recently was in the equine hospital for a full lameness examination and body scan. The reason for this is that he was very uncomfortable (especially in canter) whilst being ridden. So, to cut a long story short, the diagnosis was coffin joint arthritis and sacroiliac pain. We injected him with a low dose steroid and he came home. He showed signs of improvement instantly! The next thing we did was put some remedial shoes on to get some weight off his toes. He was still feeling good. But now... He is suddenly very lame. I had him x rayed to check for rotation of the pedal bone and they were clear, also I asked the vet to test for septic arthritis and that was also clear! He is walking like he has an abscess but there has been no sign of it and it has been a week. He is currently on box rest with foam pads on (as we thought it could be laminitis). We are also testing for cushings. Does anyone have any thoughts, or have previously experienced this? Vets and I are stumped.

 

[skint1]

We went through similar things with my TB gelding, he started with hock arthritis which initially responded well to injections but he had a number of related issues with sacroiliac, his back, then his coffin joints etc. He also had similar issues with his feet. I cant remember exactly but for about 2 years we did try all kinds of treatments but each time he moved from a slow rehab back into "work" he would come up unsound, even hacking- so we retired him last year. He was on 2 Danilon a day and I was going to put him down at the end of the summer but he seemed so happy and well in himself that I didn't have the heart, he wintered well and is now down to 1 every other day and still a happy lawnmower. I hope that helps.

 

[Birker2020]

Hello,

My horse recently was in the equine hospital for a full lameness examination and body scan. The reason for this is that he was very uncomfortable (especially in canter) whilst being ridden. So, to cut a long story short, the diagnosis was coffin joint arthritis and sacroiliac pain. We injected him with a low dose steroid and he came home. He showed signs of improvement instantly! The next thing we did was put some remedial shoes on to get some weight off his toes. He was still feeling good. But now... He is suddenly very lame. I had him x rayed to check for rotation of the pedal bone and they were clear, also I asked the vet to test for septic arthritis and that was also clear! He is walking like he has an abscess but there has been no sign of it and it has been a week. He is currently on box rest with foam pads on (as we thought it could be laminitis). We are also testing for cushings. Does anyone have any thoughts, or have previously experienced this? Vets and I are stumped.

I'm not a vet so I am purely guessing but could he have a bruised sole, assuming he was turned out (after his box rest from the steroid) to the time he went lame and may have stood on a flint or similar? Could it be a haemotoma under the sole which requires digging to relieve pressure? My horse had one six days after shoeing. How soon did it coincide with his remedial shoeing?

Could it be that he is overcompensating in another area because he is taking the weight of the areas that were causing him pain before?