Hock injury - now dragging leg

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Leg_end

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Hi all

My horse got kicked in his hock on Saturday and was hopping lame in trot but just looked stiff and short in walk. Got the Vet out and they didnt think it was anything serious, gave him an IV bute and then advised a course of 2 bute a day along with box rest for 3 days and 20 minutes walking under saddle twice a day. He said we should be back to normal work by Saturday.

Last night I was walking him in hand as wanted to see what he looked like as he was still feeling stiff under saddle for about a couple of circuits of the school and when he is asked to use that back leg properly and stretch it backwards he is then dragging his toe along the ground. This was evident in both walk (only occassionaly and worse on 1 rein) and also in trot which was every stride.

There is still a bit of heat in it but not enough that I would worry about normally (if you know what I mean?) and the swelling has gone. He is still on 2 bute a day and is still in.

Am going to call the vet today but am worried that a) I'm being a super paranoid mum and b) there could be something more sinister going on here...

Any advice please from you lovely people?? (slaps round the face with instructions to stop being paranoid are happily accepted!)
 
If he was in that much pain did the vet not xray him or scan him? I would want a revisit I think especially as he was so lame in trot. 3 days rest with walking under saddle doesnt seem an awful lot of rest for a horse who needed IV bute. Maybe I am paranoid too but I would be asking for xrays I think...........
 
Sounds as if he is still sore on it to me. Or it could be that he has suffered soft tissue damage/ i.e. bruising along the leg either above or below the hock.

I'm not saying its bone spavin that your horse has, but mine started clipping his toe in trot when trotted up in hand and ridden on a hard surface and sparks flew of the shoe. My horse was diagnosed with bone spavin of the hock. Your horse may already have bone spavin but in its very mildest form and this injury could have exacerbated it. Sometimes these conditions only surface when the actual area is injured. Try not to worry, if it is BS it is quite manageable.
 
misst - No we didn't have a scan or xray, vet was quite confident it wasn't that serious as the lameness got better after a few strides (sorry should have mentioned that!!)

Applecart14 - Yes BS was what i was a bit concerned about TBH... Thinking about it, over the last 6 months or so we have had some uncharacteristic stops SJ and last week he did start misbehaving at around the 45-50 minute mark in the school when asking for canter on that rein... but i put it down to naughtyness.

Have called the vet so will see what he says...
 
Well just spoken to vet... he thinks potential chipped bone so Xrays for us
frown.gif
 
Ok. Well hopefully it will only be a small chip in which case the body will hopefully reabsorb the chip. If it is a bigger sequestra then a stand up operation may well be performed to remove the chip. My horse had a chip and I had to paint DMSO on it and eventually it was reabsorbed. My friends horse had to have the stand up op under local anaethetic but is fine now. The problem with a bone chip near a joint will be that there is a danger that the chip could float into the joint itself and impair the action of the joint, in which case the vet may well prefer to operate.
 
Well Xrays were all clear apart from a small bone chip up by the stifle but vet doesn't think thats causing the dragging leg. Good news is that his joints look like a 4yr old (hes rising 9 and is an ex racer) so was well pleased with that!

Bad news is we don't know what it is.. most likely ST damage so 10 days box rest (urgh) and then reintroducing work. If he's still not right then a full lameness workup is on the cards.

Thank god for insurance!!
 
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