Hind Annular ligament concern and hard lump on fetlock

Topaz Tiger

Topaz Tiger

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Hi guys, posting this here and veterinary.

Topaz has developed a hard large pea sized lump on the inside rear of her hind fetlock joint, towards the bottom of it. There appears no pain or heat on palpation.

This happened a couple of weeks before I was going away, so as she puts down bone very easily if she has a knock, I decided to leave it until I came back, to see if 2 weeks rest improved it.

Upon my return it was no different, so asked the vet to come out and give her a bit of an MOT at some point in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime i showed it to my physio, who was non committal and just said keep an eye on it.

Over the last 10 days she has occasionally slightly lost the 3 beat of her canter when she has the affected leg on the inside, partic shown during a dressage lesson this week, and when I schooled her today. She feels like she doesn't want to take more weight behind, tbf she has never been as good on this rein, but she now feels worse.

On examination the annular ligament on the affected leg feels very slightly thicker, but there is no hard swelling around it, nothing pointing to constriction of the area and she trotted up sound on the straight.

I saw her get up out of the corner of my eye in the week and I thought she was favouring the affected leg at first, but by the time I turned round, she seemed find and trotted up sound.

The vets coming out Monday, I'll give her an easy weekend, I'm googling the symptoms like mad, but finding no obvious answer.

BTW my previous horse was retired after a failed annular ligament resection, so I'm findng some of the similarities slightly alarming.

However topaz has had no injury to the area that I'm aware of, apart from some lameness in the winter that turned out to be an abscess.

Any thoughts/experiences would be welcomed. Our event season is actually going well for a change, so I'm dreading bad news..... :(
 
Doesn't sound like annular ligamemt to me...there's usually a tell tale obvious band around the fetlock with some swelling above it. my boy has had it buty didn't really make him lame. sounds like you need a scan on his leg. fingers crossed that all is OK..let us know.
 
Thanks Cynorian, if it is a problem with the AL, will def look at spas, was going to look at ultrasound as well. Not keen on a resection, as it failed to work on my other horse. Roll on Monday.....
 
Milo had both hind legs suffer from AL contraction when he was 8. It started in his right hind but spread to his left (as a compensatory thing I suspect). He went to Paton and Lee who injected a steriod in to the area and sent him home. It settled down within about 3 days. It was the old vet who did it. Milo has probably out lived him.... ;)
 
Ebenezer_Scrooge said:
Doesn't sound like annular ligamemt to me...there's usually a tell tale obvious band around the fetlock with some swelling above it. my boy has had it buty didn't really make him lame. sounds like you need a scan on his leg. fingers crossed that all is OK..let us know.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. My boy had a fetlock like a football, still has, but completely sound.
 
Thanks guys!
Will stop panicing, maybe it's just a bony growth and an unwillingness to collect so well on that rein, nothing more sinister...... It makes a change..... :p
 
Well vets been out today.

He says it looks like the lump is an impact injury, that's caused some swelling to the surrounding area which has caused the AL to look more pronouced. The lump is caused by new bone being put down.

It is in ligament, sesamoid, annular ligament area, she reacts to pressure to the lump, but she is sound on it.

His advice was to keep an eye on it, if it gets any worse then we will need to X-ray and scan, but otherwise investigate it at the end of the season if necessary.

She also has some ringbone forming, as again she's not lame, advice is the same for that.

She's due for her inoculations end of August, so will get him to examine the two areas again then.

So good news, just the wear and tear you would expect on a 12 year old event horse :)
 
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