Intermittent lameless

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BMMT

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My horse has an intermittent lameness, being 1/10 lame on a straight line and 3/10 lame on a circle. We have already been resting her for almost 4 months with little improvement, and have nerve blocked which showed us nothing. I was wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences and if so, how long did it take for the horse to recover and what would you recommend me doing? Also, do you think that with this level of lameness, riding would be an option if i mainly kept it on straight pieces of land?
 
I cannot see how a full session of nerve blocks can show nothing, they should at least be able to rule out parts of the limb especially when the horse is 3/10ths lame even if the lameness is intermittent it should be possible to do a decent job.

I would want a more thorough vet to be involved to find the area that is causing the lameness and then it can be properly investigated, xrays, possibly MRI, some things will not improve with rest alone and may even deteriorate.

I would not ride a horse that has not improved for rest when I have no idea what is wrong, it is most likely to be in the foot and if nerve blocks are not useful I would get the feet xrayed as the next step.
 
You don't say if it's front or hind or ifthere are any other indicators such as heat or swelling but as be positive says, it should be possibly to nerve block a Horse that is 3/10 lame on a circle , it's just a case of calling the vet to come out on a definately lame day. It could be anything and without blocking it's hard to know where to start. In my experience the 4 cases of intermittent long term lameness I've personally dealt with its been soft tissue injuries in the foot.
I would not be riding a lame horse. You could make the problem worse and the horse is obviously not comfortable. I would be getting the vet out to investigate properly so you know what your dealing with
 
You don't say how far up the leg the vet went with the nerve block? sometimes if nothing shows up low down a vet won't continue higher on the same day as the anesthetic goes up the leg naturally so can often give a false result, so it might be a case of doing it over a few days but I would try nerve blocking the whole leg before anything else.

In regards to riding just because a horse looks sounder on the straight it is still uncomfortable and 3 tenths lame on a circle is not just slightly lame so for that reason I wouldn't ride and after 4 months of rest with no improvement chances are it is not going to now and there are still plenty of things to do before giving up.
 
Shes lame on one of her front legs and there’s is nothing to indicate lameness other then every five or six steps in trot she will limp. She’s completely sound in walk and we had her entire leg nerve blocked with no results, had her hooves looked by the farrier and the vet says that there are no indicators that it is a problem to do with her back or shoulders. Is it possible that she’s just being a drama queen?!
 
So when you say intermittent you don't mean it comes and goes once every week/few days you mean it appears once every few strides? Is this on hard/soft/both?
If she isn't reacting to nerve blocks I guess it is possible that there is some structural change that is preventing that limb from functioning correctly. It might be interesting to look at her limb flight for her normal strides and compare to when she takes a lame stride.
 
Also what looks like front limb lameness can often be cause by the diagonal hind leg, did the vet not look into that? I've also had horses that were lame being but once you nerve block those you find out they are also lame in front. Time to widen the search perhaps?
 
Alibear said:
Also what looks like front limb lameness can often be cause by the diagonal hind leg, did the vet not look into that? I've also had horses that were lame being but once you nerve block those you find out they are also lame in front. Time to widen the search perhaps?
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I guessed you meant intermittent as in lame for a few days/weeks then sound again. If it's the odd stride here and there definately worth investing if it's coming from back end. How old is the horse ? Wondering if it could be something more mechanical as well such as set ring bone but then I would have thought that would be a more regular off stride. Sounds like a bit of a puzzle, hope you get to the bottom of it
 
She’s had sensors put on her which only showed a lameness in the front leg and it’s on soft that she shows the lameness
 
BMMT said:
She’s had sensors put on her which only showed a lameness in the front leg and it’s on soft that she shows the lameness
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Lame on the soft normally means tendon. As the lameness is intermittent, I would discuss with the vet about ultra sounding the lower leg to identify any potentially migrated calcification which are physically interfering with the tendons/sheaths.
 
What does your vet suggest at this point? It seems rest is unlikely to help. The reason I asked about watching her move (not sure which sensors the one on head and one on front forelimb one?) possibly in slow mo is that you might then be able to identify which bit was not mechanically functioning as it should and scan/xray it.
 
BMMT said:
She’s had sensors put on her which only showed a lameness in the front leg and it’s on soft that she shows the lameness
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It might be time for a referral to a lameness expert at one of the bigger equine hospitals.

I wouldn’t rule out what can sometimes be called bridle lameness, a particularly unhelpful term . If this shows on the soft (? School), is intermittent, and maybe more pronounced under saddle (?), then it could be a connection issue. Potentially hindlimb, but other possibilities (including the rider) too.
 
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