Horse Ligament advice

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Lucyy-xx

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Hi,
My horse is sound when trotting in a straight line on the hard, also sound when trotted in a straight line on a surface. Lunged on soft surface on the right and is sound, but on the left he is lame on his offside fore (the one on the outside) But on the lunge on the hard he is sound. Would of had him nerve blocked,but he is seriously scared of the vet and getting a needle in his leg wouldn't of gone down well! We xrayed and nothing showed up. I'm presuming it is soft tissue damage so am going to have his leg ultrasound today, does anyone have an success on this. Or any ideas what it could be? I'm really worried he has done something serious. He is only 6 years old. Thanks :)
 
How long has he been lame? Has the vet used hoof testers on him?

If only a short time, that pattern of lameness, on soft ground when it can go up inside his foot and press on the sole, but sound on hard ground when it can't is characteristic of an abscess or bruise on the inside edge of his foot.
 
ycbm said:
How long has he been lame? Has the vet used hoof testers on him?

If only a short time, that pattern of lameness, on soft ground when it can go up inside his foot and press on the sole, but sound on hard ground when it can't is characteristic of an abscess or bruise on the inside edge of his foot.
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He has been lame for about 3 months. He had Box rest for this time and no improvement. Yes, hoof tested and was fine. I'm thinking it's more serious than an abscess or bruising after this length of time.
 
No because they wanted to ultrasound or maybe MRI, but i couldnt afford it, so said give him box rest and he's still lame so now we are going to ultrasound. If it is ligament it will take more than 3 months to heal....No new vet needed thank you....
 
My horse was nodding on his off fore on a right circle although he had a supsensory branch injury on his near fore. Because the near fore hurt when he pushed off on it it produced head nodding in an effort to take the weight over. He was sound on hard surface in a straight line in front of the vet in trot, but worse on the lunge.

His fixed now, but it took a while for the head nodding to go away - if he was ridden too forward the head nodding is obvious. The vet says he is sound which is good enough for me.
 
Sounds fairly typical presentation of suspensory ligament injury. Horses often appear sound on hard surface in straight lines, but will be lame on lunge on soft surface (worse on rein with affected limb on outside). Is there any heat/swelling? If not, nerve blocking to isolate area followed by ultrasound will confirm. Depending of location of damage, vet might suggest steroid injection to reduce inflamation of the ligament. Good luck!
 
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