**Intermittent lameness... any ideas??**

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Roro123

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Hey,

If anyone has any suggestions it would be very much appreciated! My 17.1hh 15yr old ID x TB went lame in front last summer. I used to do BSJA, ODEs and dressage with him and he never had a lame day in the 3 years I had him before then. He went through a big lameness investigation inc nerve blocks, x rays and ultrasounds, (the only thing we didn’t do was an MRI scan as our insurance did not over for this). The nerve blocks showed that the pain was coming from the foot, the x rays where all fine and the ultra sound showed a vague, small abnormality in a soft tissue in his foot.

Still not knowing exactly what was causing the lameness we put him on box rest for 6 weeks, had him shod remedially and very slowly got him back into work again. I was told it was probably the end of his competing days
frown.gif
After he was back in full work I decided to put him out on loan where he could just hack and do a little schooling. Six months later he has come back to me as he didn’t stay sound at his loan home. My insurance for this injury has expired and I am very confused on what to do next; the vets aren’t being the most helpful! My thoughts are to give him a year out and see how he is after this? Any ideas/ opinions would be great.

Many thanks! <font color="red"> </font>
 
It sounds as if your horse probably has soft tissue damage within the foot. The problem with soft tissue damage in the foot is firstly it is near on impossible to diagnose without MRI and secondly treatment is limited and expensive. If he's old the chances are it's more likely to be wear and tear rather than an acute injury.
As I see it there arre a few things you can try. When Jesper was diagnosed we turned him away for a year then brought him back in to work as a light hack. He had shockwave treatment and steriod injections in to the coffin joint. It might be worth talking to your vet about the possibility of a steriod injection - they aren't hugely expensive and can very expensive at relieving any associated inflammation. The other option is you could turn away for a year, however my vet does say the older the horse gets the less likely turning them away will work.
In your position I'd chat to my vets and try a joint injection to see whether this worked. Additionally talk to your farrier about whether remedial shoeing will help, he may be more helpful than the vet. Normally I wouldn't suggest but depending on what you want the horse to do, if he's only going to be a light hack at his age you could have him on a low level maintenance dose of bute. Finally if none of those work or are suitable it is worth turning away.
Good luck.
 
My horse is exactly the same. Hes been nerve blocked , xrayed and ultrasound - none of which show anything obvious. hes been badly lame for 3 months. Hes been remedially shod - first with natural balance then back to egg bars none of which have made any major difference. I am just waiting for an mri as without it my vet seems to think i should consider putting him to sleep. THats not an option for me unless i can see some concrete proof of whats wrong. Soft tissue in the foot can be hard to diagnose. My vet is pretty certain its a lesion in the deep digital flexor tendon but obviously can't be 100% certain as ultrasound does not scan this part of the tendon effectively. let me know how you get on.
 
Hi guys,

Thank you so much for your replys
smile.gif


Im going to ring my vet and have a chat with her about the ideas you have mentioned; i suppose hes lucky in some respects because he is sound and happy in the field, so when hes out it is not affectng his quality of life. He is not hopping lame and it is only really obvious when being ridden. My farrier is being really helpful and has come up with a few ideas we can try. does anyone know how much an MRI scan would cost?

xXx
 
Hello,

My mare also went intermittently lame whilst on loan, and had all the tests done. Some days she would be fine and others she was hopping. The vet thought it was her deep digital flexor tendon, and when she came back off loan my vet also thought the same. I had an MRI scan done in the end as its the only way to properly find out and for a proper diagnosis, also my insurance on her leg was just about to expire. The scan cost about £990 at Oakham veterinary hospital in Rutland, who were really good, without my insurers paying though I couldn't have afforded to get it done. The scan results did indeed confirm both vets suspicions, but was much worse than we thought, as both front feet had tears in the DDFT. Tendons are really hard to diagnose, and the only thing that seems to work is rest. Theres also a rather depressing statistic which shows that only 5% of horses with this injury ever go back to the work they were doing before.

Mine is only a light hack now after over a year of field rest. Touch wood she's ok so far and its better than not being able to ride at all, most people have no idea how bad her tendons are as she still gallops around the field.

Best of luck with your horse, PM me if you want any more details. There's a load of people on this forum that have horses with either DDFT damage or something similar, so you're not alone.
 
My vet is certain that a DDFT lesion is going to show on my mri too. I am hoping he is wrong but i know deep down es probably right. He is going to oakham too next week so its good to hear that you got a positive diagnosis from there as i feel like i've been going round the houses for the past 3 months.
I've also been told to expect a bill of about a thousand pounds but am hoping the insurance will pay half if my claim is accepted. My horse has had ringbone in the affected leg for 10 years so always on dicey grounds claiming on that limb although the vet says its is totally unrelated.
Did your horse need a lot of box rest for the tears or field rest? mine is out at the moment but unsure whether i'm doing right or wrong as the vet doesn't seem to know what to do for the best either. he is very lame but happy eating .
 
Hi Claire,

I was hoping that the vets would be wrong too, but sadly Angel's mri scan was really bad. Oakham were wonderful, their facilities are amazing and my mare settled in within a few minutes of seeing a big haynet and comfy bed. The day itself was horrible though, I sat in a golf club nearby whilst my dad played and couldn't stop thinking about the scan happening a few miles away. A guy called Ben did the scan, he has a foreign sounding surname, and said it was one of the worst for a DDFT tear he had seen, and that she was unlikely to ever be sound again. On the way back I cried buckets in the lorry, it was absolutely horrendous! He also recommended I claim for loss of use which I'm just in the final stages of doing, just waiting for farmkey to arrange a time to freezemark her.

The bizarre thing about my scan was that they found ANOTHER DDFT tear in her left leg. She's never been lame on this leg, and the vet had never treated it. Apparently its an old injury but god knows how she went so long jumping and galloping around with it. I was pleasantly surprised that the whole thing cost just under £1000 though as I had expected it to go over. I'm with Petplan and they covered it all.

When she first went lame (back in March 08) because it was so intermittent my loaner missed the opportunity to cold hose and box rest when it first happened. She was put on field rest straight away, then box rest for about 6 weeks when the vet finally confirmed that he thought it was, then field rest again. I wanted to give her as much time off as possible to try and let it heal. Just before Christmas when I had her back, she overdid it in the field and had another 3 weeks box rest over new year. After that she lived out for the rest of winter, and the scan was in March this year. In may I sat on her again, and am now hacking her out, just seeing how she feels. At the moment she feels great, and is dying to have a canter, so I figure she can't be feeling that bad. One vet thought that I should start riding her back in january, as the field rest hadn't worked so far. I thought it was too soon though, and I'm glad I waited for her to have a scan and wait until she'd had a full years rest.

I know what you mean about not knowing whether field or box rest is best. Angel is definitely field sound, and although she was happy enough being on box rest and not too stressed, as soon as we let her out for the first time she hooned around the field! So potentially undoing all the good work. I preferred her being on field rest, so at least she was moving around and not becoming stiff.

Let me know how your horse gets on, PM me if you prefer.
 
Thank you so much for the feedback. It sounds like your horses problems had been going on for a long time too.
I will let you know how i get on next week.
Just one more question - did you get your diagnosis and treatment plan from the vet at oakham or did it go back to your referring vet? I can imagine how you felt with the wait - not looking forward to that day at all :-(
Hope your mare stays well.
 
Oakham gave me a definite diagnosis and confirmed what my vet had thought it was, however I wasn't referred back to my vet because there was no treatment plan he could recommend as the injury was too severe. There is a surgery option but he didn't think it would be successful, and wouldn't be worth pursuing in my case. They did send the scans to my vet to see them, because he's a bit old school and apparently doesn't believe in mri scans-I've no idea why. This is the vet that told me to start riding again in january, he has a lot of experience with tendon injuries but I ignored his advice and carried on with field rest, which a previous vet had recommended. It sounds complicated but basically as my horse was on loan in Worcester when it happened, my loaners vet dealt with it at first. When she came back to me in Leicester my vets took over, and both their advice has been completely different!

Ben at Oakham just said to carry on with field rest until she'd had a year off, then see how she goes, but to claim for loss of use straight away. I haven't had my vet out since my scan because she hasn't been lame since, but when he or someone else from the practice next comes to the yard to do jabs etc I might get them to see how she is. So basically theres nothing that the vets can do for Angel, but I know other people have had success with shockwave treatment-it all depends on the severity of the tear.
 
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