Horse lame - problem with hocks

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CBAnglo

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horse's hock has been nerve blocked and horse came sound. Nerve blocking the lower hock horse still lame. nerve block upper hock horse still lame. xrays and ultrasound are all clear.

anyone had the same experience? vet says the next stage is mri and only a 85% chance of getting a diagnosis and even then might not to be able to treat it.

just wondering if i should just call it a day - horse is only covered for 50% of mri so i would have to pay £650 myself. he would be happy enough retired and i have another riding horse.
 
yes he was treated for an acute si ligament strain in january but was very unlevel behind.

he did nothing for 3 months just daily turnout. he was then ridden 3 times a week for 8 weeks in walk and he became very lame.has done nothing for a further 3 weeks and now nerve blocking etc.

i have decided to go for mri and need to speak to insurance on monday. he is only 7 so if it is fixable then i owe him the chance.

just wondering if anyone else had been in the same situation? its not something common li
 
mine's done the box rest, field rest, ultrasound and bone scan. nothing. last test is mri but its clear this is a complicated problem and he may never come right.

good luck with yours.
 
funnily enough he has now been cleared of si injury - it was actually the hock that was the problem.

at the time i was dubious about the si but vet who saw him was a leading orthapaedic surgeon and is also a consulting vet for a major insurance company. i raised a hock issue at the time but was told no.

will never use that vet again i wasted 6 months because of him and am seriously considering taking it further.
 
At the moment you need to focus on your horse. I understand the dilemma you are in.
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It is a real bugger when you know something isnt right but you cant get to the bottom of it.

I wish I could help but I cant. I may well be following your route though, so would be interested in any updates.

Fingers crossed you will find out.
 
Would the vets not try standard hock pain relief injections to see if they work? I appreciate ideally you'd get the MRI, but as a next-best option?

If it doesn't work then you could always retire him. Apologies if this is a daft idea.
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They have nerve blocked the hock as a whole, and then every individual part of the hock.

When they nerve blocked the whole of the hock he went completely sound. When they did the lower and upper separately he was lame, and when they isolated individual bones he was also lame. So they wouldnt be able to just inject him - they would need to know which bit to inject.

He is having his mri scan tomorrow so we shall see what the vet says after that. There really isnt anything left after that, so he will be retired if he is field sound. I think he would be happy enough as he has been a field potato for the last 5 weeks and really loved it. Although he is quite a young horse so I guess that he was really on "holiday" so I will have to see how he takes to it long term.
 
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