HHO hivemind i need you - lameness!

dottylottie

dottylottie

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in typical horse form, diva has come up lame after we’ve been making progress, and after i’ve spent £35 on show entries today🤦🏼‍♀️

hacked out yesterday absolutely fine, but they went out in a different field yesterday and had a bit of a hooley - 5/10 mins or so before they settled, checked them again after an hour or so and still grazing happily.

brought them in this morning and diva positively dragged me to the yard, sound as a pound.

i’ve taken her in the arena tonight to lunge her and she’s hopping lame, front left! nothing in her feet, front shoes firmly attached, no heat or swelling in the leg, no heat in any of her hooves, no issue with me poking and prodding at her.

i’m baffled, and very worried! praying that she’s just jarred something being an idiot - previously did her SDFT in both hinds which are still cold and not filled beyond the windgalls she always has, i would’ve thought if she’d do any damage it would’ve been aggravating that!
 
seems bizzare for an abscess with how dry the ground has been! but i’d take it🤣 unfortunately i do think she’s probably done something in the field yesterday😩
 
I wouldn't rule out an abscess just because it's dry. It took a few weeks for one to erupt July last year, and the slight, fluctuating lameness had vet and farrier stumped. (My horse can be far too stoic for her own good.)
 
Hopefully abcess but if she has had a Pooley on hard ground she may have slipped and pulled something. Wishing her a speedy recovery
 
quite literally adding insult to injury now, she’s not left the stable!🤣 fingers crossed for an abscess🤞🏻
 

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have messaged the farrier to see if she can come out next week as i’m assuming she won’t come out over the weekend, but wondering if it’s worth poulticing over the weekend even though she’s got a shoe on?!
 
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dottylottie said:
have messaged the farrier to see if she can come out next week as i’m assuming she won’t come out over the weekend, but wondering if it’s worth poulticing over the weekend even though she’s got a shoe on?!
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I think it would be better than nothing. You could pack the poultice material inside the shoe and then wrap it all up?
 
Our farrier gets calls from the vets round here to go look at cases of likely abscesses, farriers are the foot experts. I think if it were me I’d poultice even with the shoe on. If your vet is competent with feet, I would try them, but I’ve had vets out who were clueless with feet. No disrespect because they have to know about a whole lot more than feet.
 
Having just had one whose never had an abscess the many many years I've owned him brew a very slow abscess. I wouldn't rule it out on hard ground!
 
Plattersby said:
Our farrier gets calls from the vets round here to go look at cases of likely abscesses, farriers are the foot experts. I think if it were me I’d poultice even with the shoe on. If your vet is competent with feet, I would try them, but I’ve had vets out who were clueless with feet. No disrespect because they have to know about a whole lot more than feet.
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Yes I would poultice with shoe on and wait on the farrier. I'd rather have a farrier than a vet for an initial look at a mysterious foot problem.
 
Id be pleading with my farrier to come out. And offering a bottle of his favourite tipple if he could come out.
 
My farrier is really good like that and will do his best to get to a horse in pain 👍 it’s worth asking yours OP 👍
 
thanks for the replies everyone, waiting on a reply from the farrier still but think i’m going to give her a call, i’m on a 12hr shift today so would have to be tomorrow she comes out id imagine.

i think hopping lame might have been an exaggeration on my part, and this was in trot on the lunge - she’s weight bearing on it fine and only slightly lame in walk, she took herself off in trot as soon as we got in there so she’s happy enough in herself! using the term “hopping” because it’s obvious, i think everyone else has probably dealt with horses much more significantly lame than me so i’ve probably been a bit misleading!

if the farrier can’t find anything i wouldn’t be messing about with vet call outs, i’d be taking her in to the clinic to be seen by the owner of the practice who’s done additional qualifications in lameness investigations and handled all the scans etc with both her and lily.

i think i do have a couple of sachets of bute but didnt want to be giving her this if it is an abscess, and obviously dont want to mask anything for farrier/vet
 
dottylottie said:
thanks for the replies everyone, waiting on a reply from the farrier still but think i’m going to give her a call, i’m on a 12hr shift today so would have to be tomorrow she comes out id imagine.

i think hopping lame might have been an exaggeration on my part, and this was in trot on the lunge - she’s weight bearing on it fine and only slightly lame in walk, she took herself off in trot as soon as we got in there so she’s happy enough in herself! using the term “hopping” because it’s obvious, i think everyone else has probably dealt with horses much more significantly lame than me so i’ve probably been a bit misleading!

if the farrier can’t find anything i wouldn’t be messing about with vet call outs, i’d be taking her in to the clinic to be seen by the owner of the practice who’s done additional qualifications in lameness investigations and handled all the scans etc with both her and lily.

i think i do have a couple of sachets of bute but didnt want to be giving her this if it is an abscess, and obviously dont want to mask anything for farrier/vet
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It's better to give a bute or two if the horse is very lame with a possible abscess than not and in my experience it doesn't hinder progress of an abscess when you are poulticing at the same time.
 
Birker2020 said:
It's better to give a bute or two if the horse is very lame with a possible abscess than not and in my experience it doesn't hinder progress of an abscess when you are poulticing at the same time.
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i very nearly gave her one this morning but wanted to reasses tonight, i’m definitely going to have the farrier show me how to get the shoe off myself too! i did consider a stone bruise too, considering she’s got the fronts on now due to having thin soles! if my farrier doesn’t reply in the next couple of hours i’ll try the others that come out to our yard and see if they could have a look at her, i tried to ring mine but no answer. forgot about monday being a bank hol, but hopefully farriers are more lenient with that one then vets😂
 
dottylottie said:
i very nearly gave her one this morning but wanted to reasses tonight, i’m definitely going to have the farrier show me how to get the shoe off myself too! i did consider a stone bruise too, considering she’s got the fronts on now due to having thin soles! if my farrier doesn’t reply in the next couple of hours i’ll try the others that come out to our yard and see if they could have a look at her, i tried to ring mine but no answer. forgot about monday being a bank hol, but hopefully farriers are more lenient with that one then vets😂
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There was a fantastic shoe removal kit on Ebay. I'm going to see if I can find it as Lari is going back to fronts next cycle.

Here it is:
 
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Joker came in lame a few weeks ago. Farrier found no abscess. He was rested. And was fine. I think he had pulled something in the field. He was getting better each day though. IF he hadn’t, then I would have had the vet scan to check ligaments.
 
exracehorse said:
Joker came in lame a few weeks ago. Farrier found no abscess. He was rested. And was fine. I think he had pulled something in the field. He was getting better each day though. IF he hadn’t, then I would have had the vet scan to check ligaments.
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It's amazing how effective a nerve block was for Lari. From seeing him resting his pointing front hoof, to within minutes putting full weight on it, to then walking up sound.
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That would be my first go to in such a situation going forward.
 
exracehorse said:
Joker came in lame a few weeks ago. Farrier found no abscess. He was rested. And was fine. I think he had pulled something in the field. He was getting better each day though. IF he hadn’t, then I would have had the vet scan to check ligaments.
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she did look a bit better last night, my own farrier is away competing all weekend but i’ve messaged another who came out last minute for someone else on the yard - had a reply to ask where we are so just waiting to see if he can come out!

i’ll see if i can link a video, i didn’t get one on the first day as didn’t have my phone in my pocket
 
Whilst I wouldn't rule out an abscess, most I've seen have been a lot lamer than this and my guess would be it's something else and needs a vet work up.
 
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