Hoof MRI Cost

KittyH

KittyH

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My dressage horse is taking a longer step with one fore leg than the other in walk, extent varies particularly with ground conditions. Sound in trot and not lame enough in walk to nerve block etc. First flared up last summer when was lame in trot. Nerve block to foot improved soundness, X-Rays showed nothing unusual. Has been 99% sound, competing to adv since, but would be briefly unlevel after cooling down following very hard work. Now ground has dried out is noticibly Unlevel in walk again. Want to get foot MRI scanned as want to get to the bottom of what is wrong. He isn't insured but I do put money aside each month so I do have a pot. Looking at Hird and Partners as seems to have good reputation. Cost of an MRI there on one hoof is £1190. Does that seem reasonable? Has anyone got any bright ideas or suggestions? Thank you.
 
I thought usually in the region of £1250 for two hooves (this is on the basis of my own horse and two friends) but perhaps that's because most of the costs are to do with the consultancy, equip, sedation etc - so cost of second hoof is negligible I guess! So yes about right. good luck, I know how frustrating these niggly lamenesses are :-(
 
My mare had an MRI done at Hirds when she was 14, shes now 21, and it cost me 520, the other half of the cost was paid by NFU so total cost then was 1040. Excellent Vets, Peter Scholefield is the Senior Vet there and he looked after my girl. Really nice man who explains things well and is good with the horses. I was there whilst she had it done under sedation.
 
Does that price include sedation as they require a fairly large amount to remain totally still so dont forget that and vat if not already added on, one of my liveries was quoted £1k but by the time various bits and bobs, inc vat, were added on it came to well over that.

Then ask your vet whether it will make any difference to the treatment if you find out what soft tissues are involved and how bad the damage is, assuming it is soft tissue as nothing showed on the xrays, it may be that as you are self funding there is no reason to have a definitive diagnosis and the money may be best spent on treatment.
I assume you have gone the remedial farriery/ foot balance route so it may be injections next or looking into barefoot, which may well be the best long term, if not quickest solution, for a sound horse with fully functioning feet, my horses are not insured and I think I would rather treat the clinical symptoms in a case such as yours than have a clear diagnosis if it makes little or no difference to the treatment plan.
 
When my last horse had an MRI on one foot at Rossdales two years ago I seem to remember the bill being around the £1k mark so that price would seem about right to me.
 
be positive does make a good point - the MRI mine had was pretty inconclusive, and that was for a niggly lameness like yours and it was frustrating to STILL have no diagnosis! My insurance paid so it was fine, but if forking out myself I would have been more annoyed. Though your horse competing at advance is deffo worth more than mine so financially maybe more worth the expenditure to work it out, if that makes sense! But it's worth considering that they aren't always going to get you the answer you want, so treating the symptoms is a possibility....

My £1250 did include sedation and everything - in fact they even did his fetlocks for free as couldn't see anything in the hooves.
 
I wonder if you would need to do both in your situ? they often do because having the 'good' foot in comparison is better and once you've got the horse set up for the MRI it isn't a huge amount more effort. Worth checking the likelihood of them wanting to do both if the first doesn't show anything obvious!
 
I had one hoof done a few years ago and it was £1100 including sedation etc, so sounds about right tbh.

Just be prepared that it might not give you a conclusive diagnosis.
 
I had the one hoof done several years back at Liphook, and it cost around the £1k mark at the time.
 
Thank you for all your help. Price does include VAT and sedation, so sounds like that is about right. Treatment wise yes we have tried improving hoof balance and I do have a really committed and knowledgable farrier but as he is not evenly weight bearing foot balance is becoming harder to achieve rather than easier. Don't think he would cope with barefoot as he's very soft soled, but I really don't know much about barefoot so I may be wrong. Did think about getting hoof injected first but sort of feel that I'd like to know what the underlying problem is so I can make an informed decision and farrier feels the same. It is a hell of a lot of money though if I don't get a diagnosis. Was quite reassured that I had to wait until late August so vet would be back from Rio!
 
Just to add my mare did have both fronts MRI'd to check for problems in her opposite foot. The scan revealed tears/damage to her DDFT, nothing in the opposite foot. Her navicular bursa was also inflamed and this showed on the scan too. Very interesting and Peter went through everything thoroughly.
 
Izzwizz said:
Just to add my mare did have both fronts MRI'd to check for problems in her opposite foot. The scan revealed tears/damage to her DDFT, nothing in the opposite foot. Her navicular bursa was also inflamed and this showed on the scan too. Very interesting and Peter went through everything thoroughly.
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It is Peter I'm waiting for. I'll get him to examine my horse and then go from there. Thanks for the info.
 
I paid just over £1000 for both hooves a few years back at Bell Equine a few years back (with extra sedation as he moved and they had to redo) and the rvc was offering £950 for both hooves a while back so unless it's not much more for both feet it does sound expensive.
 
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