Bosworth
Well-Known Member
One of my liveries has an old horse - approx 20. he was brought in from the field about 5 weeks ago, seriously lame in the R hind and dragging his toe. i checked his leg throughly, palpating through the stifle and hock and he was very boggy around the stifle. Owner ( novice - only horse) decided to box rest for a couple of days and turned out again. He was brought back in by another livery within a day as lame again, and toe dragging. he was back on box rest but the owner insisted on turning him out daily in a very small paddock. He was sound on the flat concrete but in the field again becomes very lame and toe dragging. I asked her to get the vet out as clearly there was a serious problem. Her vet is unfortunately limited in the availability of good horses vets, and the one who came out basically said it was arthritis in the hock and he needed to be on box rest for 4 weeks but could be turned out in small paddock. I queried this as diagnosis made without xray or scan and in my experience arthritis is buted up and turned out to ensure constant mobility, whereas ligaments should be on strict box rest. I was there one day when the horse was turned out in the small paddock, it flipped, turned itself inside out and was crippled lame again on hind - but sound on flat concrete. So I put it straight back in and insisted she get the vet again as it was clearly no better for the 3 weeks rest. Another week on and she finally got vet out. I was schooling my horse while he was here so I know he only trotted it up on the flat, I suspect she hasn't told him he goes crippled on rough ground. I know he has not been scanned and the vet's diagnosis - he has arthritis so needs to be turned out daily in small paddock to get him used to going back out.
Now in my experience toe dragging and crippled lame on uneven ground and sound on hard flat does not tie in with arthritis, it is more likely to be ligament, and turning him out to throw himself round is going to cause serious problems.
if it were my horse I would definitely want a scan and xrays to provide a definitive diagnosis, but this livery is really inexperienced and believes everything her vet says. I know this horse is going to go hanging lame as soon as it goes in the paddock, so do i just ignore it, bring it in each time or what? I don't really want to interfere but nor am I prepared to have a horse on my yard that is crippled lame without a firm diagnosis.
Now in my experience toe dragging and crippled lame on uneven ground and sound on hard flat does not tie in with arthritis, it is more likely to be ligament, and turning him out to throw himself round is going to cause serious problems.
if it were my horse I would definitely want a scan and xrays to provide a definitive diagnosis, but this livery is really inexperienced and believes everything her vet says. I know this horse is going to go hanging lame as soon as it goes in the paddock, so do i just ignore it, bring it in each time or what? I don't really want to interfere but nor am I prepared to have a horse on my yard that is crippled lame without a firm diagnosis.
