Sasana Skye
Well-Known Member
I took my mare to camp September 2017 and when I brought her back she was really sore along her back behind the saddle. I thought this was probably fairly "normal" given she had done about 8 hours of hard riding over 3 days so I gave her 3 weeks off and physio. After the physio session she'd be comfortable but a few days later sore again whereas usually the physio would sort her out for 6 months.
It got to the point I was having physio done every few days and then I called the vets who did a lameness workup and found a right hind and left fore lameness so they came back with the xray machine and took pictures of her fetlocks, hooves, hocks and back (she later went to Breadstone hospital for deeper, clearer xrays of all of the above). Her back was clear apart from one area of dsp's which were closer than they should have been but not touching and no 'white bits' we think this was secondary to the lameness so must have been going on for a while, bless her heart.
Thank goodness the fetlocks and hooves were clear including the navicular bone which the vets said was really healthy. I didn't notice the original lameness and we had no performance issues so the only symptom she showed was back pain. The forelimb lameness was put down to poor foot balance so we did remedial shoeing (she is going barefoot next week) which sorted the front end out.
Vet was reluctant to formally diagnose the changes in her hocks as 'arthritis' due to it being really very mild but we did steroid injections anyway. He (vet) told me to keep her in for 8 hours then she could go out that night. We also did a course of Cartrophen and arthrimed. This was all done between October 2017 and January 2018, she is checked every 3 months we haven't needed to inject again yet although she is due a check again in August. She is honestly now the best she has ever been and absolutely no pain in her back whatsoever anymore so I'm ecstatic.
It got to the point I was having physio done every few days and then I called the vets who did a lameness workup and found a right hind and left fore lameness so they came back with the xray machine and took pictures of her fetlocks, hooves, hocks and back (she later went to Breadstone hospital for deeper, clearer xrays of all of the above). Her back was clear apart from one area of dsp's which were closer than they should have been but not touching and no 'white bits' we think this was secondary to the lameness so must have been going on for a while, bless her heart.
Thank goodness the fetlocks and hooves were clear including the navicular bone which the vets said was really healthy. I didn't notice the original lameness and we had no performance issues so the only symptom she showed was back pain. The forelimb lameness was put down to poor foot balance so we did remedial shoeing (she is going barefoot next week) which sorted the front end out.
Vet was reluctant to formally diagnose the changes in her hocks as 'arthritis' due to it being really very mild but we did steroid injections anyway. He (vet) told me to keep her in for 8 hours then she could go out that night. We also did a course of Cartrophen and arthrimed. This was all done between October 2017 and January 2018, she is checked every 3 months we haven't needed to inject again yet although she is due a check again in August. She is honestly now the best she has ever been and absolutely no pain in her back whatsoever anymore so I'm ecstatic.