Horse baffling all of us! Foot issue

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Arniebear

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I have a 14yo TB who is/was prepping for the event season. He has pretty good feet for a TB, shod all round however does occasionally pull his off fore off. He's been lame (off fore) now for 5 weeks, no heat, no swelling, no reaction to poking, prodding or hoof testers, varying levels of lameness, sometimes 1 10th other days 5 10ths, sometimes sound on the soft, lame on the hard, sometime looks sound in a straight line lame on a circle when off fore is on the inside. Always been sound in walk. Bute trial did nothing, no real improvement shown.

We initially thought an abscess so farrier whipped shoe off had a look but couldn't really find anything other than a corn, we poulticed for a week, found nothing, he popped shoe back on but bevelled it away in the corn area in case it was the corn causing the issue, no improvement.
Into the vets for nerve blocks and x rays. Blocked sound to palmer nerve block, xrays didnt show much, some minor pedal osteitis and vet thinks a gas pocket in the corn area although farrier not convinced. Vet suggests poultice again as reckons its an abscess... we did...nothing.
Farrier unconvinced its an abscess so we opted to treat it as bruising/pedal osteitis, shoe back on this time with pads and pro foam which would resolve the pedal osteitis if that's the issue. Day 1 after being shod with pads, big improvement in lameness 1 10th on the hard, so not totally sound but better than expected, told to wait a few more days let everything settle and trot up again... this time round we are 5 10ths lame on the hard.... what the heck is going on!!! Baffled the farrier so off we went to the big vets for more diagnostics.

Nerve blocked the following:
coffin joint - no improvement
fetlock - no improvement
high palmer nerve block went in - still no improvement - which is odd he blocked sound to this nerve block a week earlier
low palmer nerve block went in - improvement but not blocking totally sound

Vets concluded he needs an MRI, throwing out suggestions its possible soft tissue damage in the foot. He's not insured so i wont MRI have been here before with soft tissue damage in the foot with another horse and i'm well aware there's not much they can medically do to help apart from a few injections so i'm fully prepared to turn him away for a 6 mnths to a year if needs be.
Have been treating him as if its soft tissue damage, so box rested for the last 5 days, day 3 curiosity got the better of me so i trotted him up again where he presented 1-2 10ths lame... 3 days earlier he was 5-6 10ths lame. day 5 and i stuck him out in a pen so he can hang with his buddies and eat some grass... he's pretty chill anyway so was fine all day. Get him in this evening and for the first time we have heat in the foot around the coronet band and heat up the leg. I will be phoning the vets again first thing tomorrow as the heat is a new thing i'm not happy with. He's absolutely fine in himself, still chirpy, eating well, dragged me to the field this morning, doesn't understand why he's not being tacked up and joining in the fun!

I'm just a loss with him atm.

Vet 1 thinks deep seated abscess
Farrier cant find anything thinks its probably not and possibly soft tissue
vet 2 thinks soft tissue
I have no clue what to think, he's not presenting like an abscess to me usually they go dog leg lame and wave a foot about he's never done this but neither is he presenting like my previous horse who had confirmed soft tissue damage in the foot.
He's had a few abscesses in the past which have presented a bit weird, he's never been lame with them just slightly off, nothing blew, no pus etc but then the farrier found a tract 5 weeks later at the next shoeing so he isn't a massive drama queen for abscesses anyway

Any ideas? I'm open to anything. I know all i can give him is time which he can have as much as he needs, his turnout space is currently restricted to a pen, he's still stabled at night to enforce rest, obviously he's not being worked hasn't been for the last 5 weeks, still shod with pads on, if its an abscess most likely will come out the top so shoe not restricting this and he's super super sore without a shoe on so don't want to make him any more uncomfortable than he already is.
 
Will he stand with his foot in a bucket of warm water? That's the only think I can think of that won't harm, but maybe help, if it is an abscess somewhere high up.
 
It could be worth testing for Cushings. One of the symptoms is foot pain, with little response to NSAIDS. This was the only symptom my Arab X Welsh threw up, before going into full blown laminitis. Hope you can get it sorted.
 
I have had similar with mine. Trot sound in a straight line, lame and reluctant to trot on a circle when lame foot to the outside. Tender around seat of corn and inside heel. The farrier flattened the shoe to take the pressure off. Some improvement for a week or two, but then lame again. Tried shoeing with dental implant stuff and pads. No improvement then after a few days very lame. Removed shoe and poultice, nothing for a couple of days, then lots of pus for 4 days. The pus came out alongside the frog. I think maybe the bruise caused the abcess.
Shoe on now and I have been plugging the gap under the shoe with cotton wool soaked in Stockholm tar (very messy).
He is sound today 🙂 but did do a couple of slide stops which I think may be the cause of the bruising in the first place.
So fingers crossed 🤞 he sound tomorrow.
 
My big horse has really thin soles. Before we stuck pads on he had virtually the same. X-rays didn’t show anything. Ended up guy giving him time, shod with pads. After removing for shoeing he’d had 2 abscesses burst of their own accord and what was probably a bruise. He had 8 weeks off in all.

He pulled a shoe 3 weeks ago and immediately had an abscess and a bruise again. He is a twit in the field.
 
ester said:
Did 2nd vet xray/give view on X-rays? I’d want to see if that possible gas pocket has changed at all.
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Yeah said she couldn't see anything of concern on original x-rays we opted to not re-xray at the time as she doubted it would show anything as she was 80% it's soft tissue so suggested MRI only. She was honest but brutal, actually told me to box rest for a month and then PTS if no improvement.... Won't quite be taking that full advice tbh box rest/pen rest of course but I won't just simply put him down if that doesn't work!!!
 
Carrottom said:
I have had similar with mine. Trot sound in a straight line, lame and reluctant to trot on a circle when lame foot to the outside. Tender around seat of corn and inside heel. The farrier flattened the shoe to take the pressure off. Some improvement for a week or two, but then lame again. Tried shoeing with dental implant stuff and pads. No improvement then after a few days very lame. Removed shoe and poultice, nothing for a couple of days, then lots of pus for 4 days. The pus came out alongside the frog. I think maybe the bruise caused the abcess.
Shoe on now and I have been plugging the gap under the shoe with cotton wool soaked in Stockholm tar (very messy).
He is sound today 🙂 but did do a couple of slide stops which I think may be the cause of the bruising in the first place.
So fingers crossed 🤞 he sound tomorrow.
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Glad yours had a good outcome! 🙂

Definitely not sound today and unlikely to be sound anytime soon tbh.
Still heat in foot and leg after stabling over night. Phoned vet, she wasn't fussed just said continue box rest and don't even trot him up.
 
Similar symptoms in one of my mares…had X-rays, blocks etc..finally had MRI which showed a keratoma which was removed and we are in the process of healing.
 
ihatework said:
One of those PITA ones is my under qualified opinion.

What would I do?

Take shoes off, stick in field, shut eyes to everything but proper hobbling and assess a 3 monthly interval

(And if an abcess blows in the interim then bonus! And good ….)
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This is most certainly a pain in the arse!!!!
I can't take shoes off he would be crippled but agree I just need to turn away and ignore... Easier said then done he's meant to be at a BE event in 2 weeks (obviously not going!!!) but I'm devastated over it tbh I've had A LOT of bad luck with horses and I've not evented for 5 years due to horse injury, had alot of excitement over him and this season after 2 years of bloody hard work to retrain him. I know I know it's just horses but that doesn't stop me being really sad about it.
 
My horse was on off lame for a few months, no reactions on hoof testers, not much to see on x-ray. MRI showed a 'space occupying lesion' vet thought it could be a keratoma, so booked him in for surgery, which he had, but also blew a massive abscess out of his coronet band about 4 days before the op!
 
Midlifecrisis said:
Similar symptoms in one of my mares…had X-rays, blocks etc..finally had MRI which showed a keratoma which was removed and we are in the process of healing.
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He won't be MRI'ed. It's not a financial option for me.
If field rest doesn't fix him then he will just be retired.
But he can have as long as he needs whether thats 3 months or a year +

He's had a heavy race career prior to me so if time doesn't work then he can just chill until his time is up. I'm lucky enough to have them at home so no livery costs to consider otherwise it would probably be a different story
 
Arniebear said:
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I was the same. Worried sick and it was coming into summer after the worst winter slog and he decided to have a nice little holiday 🙄. I think with time it will pass or an abscess will appear. Farrier was flabbergasted 2 came a burst under the pad. There was no sign under testers.
 
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Arniebear said:
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I do get it, it’s gutting.

I’ve developed a very detached protective coping style over the years … I kind of expect vets bills and disappointments- so in the spells there aren’t it’s a bonus 😂

What I would say however is if he would be crippled in the field without shoes then you do have a longer term problem brewing I’m afraid. It’s not normal (even with tb feet), even though I don’t argue it’s not uncommon.
 
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My 'its not an abscess prepare for worst' blew half his hoof wall off and you could see dead laminae underneath. It was grim but he was instantly happier and it all grew back. I think because it tracked up hoof testers didn't show a reaction.

I actually have quite a collection of long & arduous abscess stories so I wouldn't assume it isn't that just because the farrier can't find one.

My one where it took the hoof wall off was during a lockdown and as a bit of a desperate attempt to help (do something, anything...) i put him on L94 from Trinity. Probably a coincidence but maybe it just gave his immune system a boost.
 
If you are box resting, would it make sense to take the shoe off and poultice the hoof for a few days. We used the animalintex with 2 nappies over it, then vet wrap. So it also had some cushioning. We carried on with the nappies and vet wrap for another few days and turned out with duct tape over it the day before the farrier came to put the shoe back.
 
I had similar with one of mine. On off lame, vet could only say it definitely wasn't an abscess or a break, but could be anything in-between. Went through period of paddock rest, followed by rehab plan, only for the farrier to expose a huge empty abscess hole a couple of visits later. We think it must have been high up and drained very slowly through his coronet band.
 
Nothing helpful to add that hasn’t already been suggested, just a virtual hug. I’m beginning to realise that on the whole horses are an expensive way to be miserable with a Few occasions highs thrown in. Xx
 
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