Hind issues update and still no further forward :-(

charlie76

charlie76

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I posted a little while ago about my dressage horse loosing the quality of the canter . Had a saddle fitting and ordered a new made to measure saddle which is due any day now.
In the meantime I had the vet as I was concerned about the possibility of hock issues. He was x rayed and no changes at all so we looked at his back. Back was very sore so we x rayed for kissing spine. Again clear, so we medicated the muscles. He has a week off, a week of lunging and then came back into work and he seemed much improved for about two weeks but then is canter lost power again. I trotted him up on the hard and he looked sound but seemed to be almost swinging his left hind. Had the chiro and she said he was unlevel in his pelvis so she worked on him. He then worked for about another two weeks but I still wasn't happy. He also forges a lot.

Vet came back yesterday after the horse had a week off, as I thought maybe he has a SI issue. Vet said there was no pain from the SI . Trotted him up on the hard and he looked sound but was still moving wide behind and swinging the left hind. He was also ok after flexions.

We put him on the lunge in the school and he was def lame on the right hind and looked awful. I hadn't ever seen this before on the lunge. We then trotted him up on the soft and he was still lame.

He then blocked the hind suspensory and it made no difference , he also wasn't painful when pressure applied to the area before nerve blocks.

Vet said that it may be stifle so he blocked the stifle and he was SLIGHTLY better for a few steps but not sound.

He has the vet coming back to scan and x ray the stifle but I'm not sure that is the issue.

Any ideas? He wasn't lame ( just under powered) before I gave him a week off.
 
Glad you have ruled out all the scary ones like suspensorys and kissing spine but it is so frustrating when you can't work out what it is. If only they could talk!!. Maybe as someone said the horse is compensating for a foreleg issue but I'll share my experience which may or may not be of any help. Similar to you, my horse was underpowered, felt like handbrake was stuck on so I got the vet out. Similar to you, I had hocks x rayed, as he had had problems about 5 years ago. Anyway, X rays were all clear. We then blocked hind suspensorys and it made no difference at all. He had no obvious SI pain although his back was sore . He wasn't lame just, not quite right, swinging a bit on left hind. Anyway vet suggested going straight to injecting SI rather than nerve blocking as the needles are enormous and it's not the sort of thing you want to do twice. So we just went for it and injected both SI's, more on the left than the right. Horse was on box rest for 24 hrs, then typical him, he reacted to the suspensory nerve block in one leg and it blew up like an elephant. Vet had never seen reaction like it. Anyway when that went down I was eventually able to get on ten days later. The improvement was instant.
 
Remind me how old he is?

Have you treated for ulcers? Known several horses that had weird right hind leg issues that have resolved after ulcer treatment.

Its great you have ruled out the obvious big issues, but I know how frustrating it can be, I have one here that has had just about everything checked and still don't really know what is wrong.

Other options would be getting Rob Jackson or Roger Meacock out, both are really, really good.

I might think about thermal imaging to see if it throws up anything.

ETA, might be facets disease if he has sore spots on his back.
 
Have you videoed him in walk from the front and back and played it back in slow motion? I only ask as this was the thing that highlighted my boys uneven movement, despite having seen lots of vets and chiro etc. Managed to work through it through doing in hand work to straighten him up. Now he comes out sound most days on the lunge (not riding atm) and if he doesn't have to work him differently to work him through it. This was with the help of a classical instructor who between her and the trimmer who pinpointed the unevenness have done more for my horses soundness and musculature than the vets tbh.
 
It's very early days, he has a sore back, if you've ever had a sore back yourself it may well be muscular- I'd give him 3-4 weeks off in a flat turnout if possible before getting too invasive - a week off is nothing in terms of injury recovery. Then if still sore further work up (and possibly at a referral hospital for best quality)
 
Can you access a vet with a biomechanics set up? - just a couple of sensors. My vet has one and says it is particularly useful for sending you in the right direction with the more complicated ones. Given that you have now covered most of that hind.
 
I'm sure I posted last time. But minus the vet workup (which was my next stage) this was my horse exactly. Under powered and one leg swinging wide. Rob Jackson who is a chiro vet fixed him in about 5 mins and he has been a different horse ever since. I'd get him out and see what he says. People rave about him, but its for good reason.
 
I would think about treating for hind gut issues as this can cause all sorted of issues with the right hind.

My horse is similar to yours. Right hind issues but everything checks out. Physio and osteo both say his movement is limited in the right but its from compensating for hind gut inflammation. The happier his gut is the sounder he is. He has a history of contact issues and it seems this is all linked to his gut too.

He had Rob Jackson last week and is 3 weeks into a course of Ranitidine to hopefully cure the IBD. Last night he was able to take the contact on the right rein, albeit just in trot, and looked sounder then before. We are taking 6 weeks to build him up and hopefully solve the hind issue but fixing the gut and getting him stronger.
 
Wide behind can often mean suspensories and from your post the vet blocked the lame hind leg but not the opposite one? You really need to do both as sometimes they've been compensating on one leg for the other one being bad which in turn makes the good leg also bad so they don't come sound til you block both.
 
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