Help - new horse lame

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Becky12345

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Any wisdom appreciated…

I bought my new mare 2 weeks ago.

I tried her and an experienced friend came with me, we both liked her. She’s only recently under saddle so very green and weak. I went back four days later for the vetting (5 stage, flexions, neck and back x rays). A few close spinal processes but otherwise no concerns.

She was transported to me a week later as I had to wait for some blood results. Two days later, I lunged her and she was noticeably lame in trot. No lumps or bumps or heat in her leg but lame. Much worse on one rein on the other less noticeable. she is worse when she first comes out.

I am concerned that something untoward has happened… that she was buted for the vetting or similar.

I bought from someone who had her on sales livery (so private sale with individual, as opposed to buying from a dealer). The agent is well known sportsperson and so would gave a reputation to lose….

I’m conscious running the bloods is (another!) £500. Not sure if I’m being overly suspicious
 
So you've had her a week?

Well in the first instance, inform the the seller that there may be an issue and you'll update them once the horse has seen the vet.

Then obviously you're going to need a visit from your vet.

Bloods are run for a reason, you yes I'd get them tested.

But try not to panic. It could be something as simple as a bit of an abscess coming. Or pratting around in the field.

Did you insure from date of purchase?
 
No turnout at the sales livery and no turnout as yet at new yard (the fields are currently so sodden no turnout has been allowed). She has been out in a small sand pen.

No lumps, bumps, signs of injury nor missing hair…
 
I would run bloods from the vetting for sure. If they show bute or similar, then you can get a refund. If not, you got what you got, I'm afraid. A vetting is to show what the vet's opinion is on the day, it's not a guarantee. The horse was sound on vetting. Was it an independent vet?

I'm surprised your vet can't come next day for a noticeably lame horse. I would cancel the physio until the vet has done investigations.

I'm guessing it wasn't noticeably lame coming off the box?
 
Becky12345 said:
Later this week…

I also have physio coming just to cover all bases 🫣
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Vet first and soonest, espcially with a new horse that you fear you may have been mis sold. You need to find out what’s what, and that’s why you had the bloods taken, and you need to be prepared to run them.

Physio must not treat a horse with a undiagnosed lameness - physios can only treat a horse with a new lameness once the horse has been assessed by a vet and physio recommended. To treat without vet approval is against their professional guidelines and they could be struck off if they ignore those.
 
Becky12345 said:
Any wisdom appreciated…

I bought my new mare 2 weeks ago.

I tried her and an experienced friend came with me, we both liked her. She’s only recently under saddle so very green and weak. I went back four days later for the vetting (5 stage, flexions, neck and back x rays). A few close spinal processes but otherwise no concerns.

She was transported to me a week later as I had to wait for some blood results. Two days later, I lunged her and she was noticeably lame in trot. No lumps or bumps or heat in her leg but lame. Much worse on one rein on the other less noticeable. she is worse when she first comes out.

I am concerned that something untoward has happened… that she was buted for the vetting or similar.

I bought from someone who had her on sales livery (so private sale with individual, as opposed to buying from a dealer). The agent is well known sportsperson and so would gave a reputation to lose….

I’m conscious running the bloods is (another!) £500. Not sure if I’m being overly suspicious
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So sorry to read this. Please inform the seller that there is a problem and tell them that you will be getting the blood run. You will need to contact the vet who vetted her at purchase to get the blood run. Please let us know how you get on.
 
First I would get you vet up asap to see if the reason for the lameness can be ascertained. If the vet suspected it was something that could be long standing then get the bloods run.

fwiw one of my horses was a real light weight when it came to any sort of discomfort. He once got a stone bruise and you would think he had a broken leg. It took a couple of months for him to come fully sound from it.

Hopefully it is not anything too problematic that can be easily sorted.
 
There are lots of things it could be - was she freshly shod before coming to you? she could have a touch of nail-bind. Could be an abscess brewing. Could have knocked herself on the transport. I wouldn't panic immediately but would want the vets opinion ASAP. Depending what the vet says then I'd run bloods, though if the yard knew she was having a 5-stage it would be pretty brazen of them to bute up as they'd know bloods would be run.

I have seen this with a horse before that turned out to have a conformational lameness, passed a vetting but went lame on day of arrival in new home. It would be highly unlucky if that was the case here too but the only outtake I'd give is that I'd be informing the seller immediately, recording all correspondence and moving very swiftly to push for a diagnosis. Unfortunately in the case I knew there was a lot of back-and-forth with suspecting it had hurt itself on the transport so giving it some time to come right, then vet recommending 'field-rest and see', a pretty inconclusive diagnosis at first, and by the time the issue was actually discovered with proper diagnostics enough time had passed that the seller waved the "well the horse was sound when it left my yard" card.
 
GrassChop said:
I don't know much about vetting but would they not have checked this in the original blood tests?
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No they take the bloods and store them and you can run them to screen for bute etc. on request at a later date for an additional fee. The bloods that OP was waiting for were likely strangles test or similar.
 
KikiDee said:
No they take the bloods and store them and you can run them to screen for bute etc. on request at a later date for an additional fee. The bloods that OP was waiting for were likely strangles test or similar.
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Thank you.

I'm surprised they would charge another £500 to test blood they already have.
 
GrassChop said:
Thank you.

I'm surprised they would charge another £500 to test blood they already have.
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It's the lab fee unfortunately 🙃 actually taking the bloods is a minimal cost, most people take them as a precaution but don't need to actually run them unless they later suspect horse was doped or buted at the time of vetting.
 
Just to add to the mix if she has any kind of arthritis staying stabled constantly with minimal turnout can indeed make them appear unsound, you mention the lameness eases a bit with movement which would make me question an arthritic element. What specifically did they xray?
 
Do you know who the owner of the horse was and did you pay the owner or the agent. I've seen that dealers will offload a horse via an agent to create the perception of a private sale. I have also come across well known sports people who turn out not to be the people their public personna suggests. It might be worth doing a bit of reseach on dodgy dealer fb pages as to whether either of these have a history.

If either throw up some concerns I'd get the bloods run. If not I'd give your vet a chance to investigate what the problem is, then decide.
 
KikiDee said:
There are lots of things it could be - was she freshly shod before coming to you? she could have a touch of nail-bind. Could be an abscess brewing. Could have knocked herself on the transport. I wouldn't panic immediately but would want the vets opinion ASAP. Depending what the vet says then I'd run bloods, though if the yard knew she was having a 5-stage it would be pretty brazen of them to bute up as they'd know bloods would be run.

I have seen this with a horse before that turned out to have a conformational lameness, passed a vetting but went lame on day of arrival in new home. It would be highly unlucky if that was the case here too but the only outtake I'd give is that I'd be informing the seller immediately, recording all correspondence and moving very swiftly to push for a diagnosis. Unfortunately in the case I knew there was a lot of back-and-forth with suspecting it had hurt itself on the transport so giving it some time to come right, then vet recommending 'field-rest and see', a pretty inconclusive diagnosis at first, and by the time the issue was actually discovered with proper diagnostics enough time had passed that the seller waved the "well the horse was sound when it left my yard" card.
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Unfortunately sellers are pretty brazen. I believe this is a sales livery sale isnt it? The laws are a bit different in this case.
 
ester said:
Lab testing is expensive, initial screen is cheap compared to if you need to drill down to identify which drug if you’re going to court over it.

Chucking a needle in a vein and putting blood in a tube is the cheap bit
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I had blood run back in 2012. it cost £262 then. You have to say what you want them to look for ie. NSAIDs or some sort of dope, your vet will help you with the names. Mine came back with a"possible presence of NSAIDs" this is how it is worded but that is taken as a positive. The vet at the time who by the way was absolutely mortified, said to me if that was a race horse the trainer would be in very very serious trouble! If there was nothing present it would say nothing detected or words to that effect. I could have had it run again for a further £700 plus vat and they would have told me the name of the drug and how much of it the horse had been given. Fortunately we did not need to do this second test. Thank God I married a Lawyer.
 
nutjob said:
Do you know who the owner of the horse was and did you pay the owner or the agent. I've seen that dealers will offload a horse via an agent to create the perception of a private sale. I have also come across well known sports people who turn out not to be the people their public personna suggests. It might be worth doing a bit of reseach on dodgy dealer fb pages as to whether either of these have a history.

If either throw up some concerns I'd get the bloods run. If not I'd give your vet a chance to investigate what the problem is, then decide.
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Agree with this.
 
Not to be the voice of doom, but it is also possible insurance won't cover this.
Usually the first two weeks of cover are for injuries only, before the full cover kicks in.
If the lameness happened two days after arrival and there's no obvious wound/accident then it would seem unlikely the insurance will pay out.
Fingers crossed it's just a knock, or if it's anything more serious then the previous people take the horse back easily.
 
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