Just had news on Lanky from the Equine Clinic

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LankyDoodle

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They did nerve blocks, and the problem was pinned down to the stifle. The vet said that after further examination, there was shown to be some kind of reformation there which indicated arthritic changes. There is puffiness there and the vet has now said that he will of course scan Lanky's stifle as he believes some kind of ligament damage (unrelated to the arthritis) there has caused the lameness, but that this particular ligament damage is the type that would leave him with some level of lameness on and off always. I was in a bit of a daze so don't really remember the name of it, but it sounded like minascul (?). He then said that a scan may not show up anything too thrilling so he'd have to put a camera into the joint to see what is going on.

I'm so confused. I don't know what would have caused this injury or the onset of arthritis when he is but 8 years old. And I don't know what it means for his future? Obviously if he is lame on and off then being ridden is probably going to be out of the question? What is probably going to happen is that the vet is going to inject antiinflammatories into the joint and he will be on box rest for 2-3 weeks, when Lanky will be then taken back up there for the keyhole surgery. How much is THAT going to cost? I don't want it to come down to cost, but my insurer will only cover up to 3000 per claim.

I'm absolutely gutted.
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I'm so sorry for your news.
If it helps a friend on the yards horse had key hole on his stifle earier this year and the cost was about £1200 including his board whilst he was in horsepital
 
Don't panic yet, really.

My girl damaged herself last year - a complete fluke accident - she went out sound, 15 mins later, she was on three legs.

She typically did something with a poor prognosis for healing, due to a very low blood supply to the area. We worked with the vets, box rested, treated and walked her. We got there.

OK, I cried my eyes out at various points, got upset with the guy at the insurers, who I then had to phone back and say sorry to!!

Also, I'm firmly of the belief that there aren't many horses around that are in full work that have completely clean X rays. Don't take the boney changes as bad news yet - they may not affect him and it may just be this ligament damage.
 
I'm so sorry to hear your news - don't write him off just yet - you never know, turning him away while you have the baba may do him the world of good.

Get vets to give you a quote for surgery and then you'll know where you stand on that front. Who is he insured through?

(((Hugs))) Hope he's better soon.
 
Thank you for this.

I can't stop crying at the moment. We've only had him for a year. He's sustained no major injuries in that time and now we face the prospect of him becoming a field ornament.
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My husband is saying things like 'we can't let him go on through life like that' which is scaring the hell out of me - it won't come to that, will it?
 
He is insured with Scottish Equestrian.

They were very good when we lost our mare last year - paid up within 2 weeks.

I am trying to get through to my normal vet as I could not make head nor tail of what the guy at Western Counties was saying. It was all 'don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom' etc, and I just felt like screaming down the phone for him to talk some bloody sense.

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Thanks for that crazymare. I hope he will be OK. He's only 8 and I've spent the last year getting to know him, building up a bit of a bond with him. Now I've got an arthritic 8 year old who will look like he's 19, and a 19 year old cob who thinks he's 8!
 
Don't have anything else to add but echo other peoples comments, I have my fingers and toes crossed for you and I hope everthing turns out to be ok. (((hugs)))
 
I am so sorry to hear about your horse!!!! Try not to be too down-hearted, there may well be many things they can do for him. Your local vet might be better at explaining what is going on and what your options are, take it one step at a time.

Re costs, one of mine had double stifle arthroscopy and the cost was 2,000 pounds including all follow-up visits, so you may well be fine with the insurance.
 
I suppose that the thing is, this vet is just making an educated guess, based on his experience and knowledge, rather than one based on diagnostic material at the moment. The xray has showed some kind of changes there - boney obviously - which indicate the arthritic changes; but as yet, no scans have been done, and he is saying his feeling is there is a tear to this ligament, but he can't know until he has done the scan, and he can't know how major or how repairable it is until he puts a camera in. So while I know that through use of the nerve blocks, it's pretty certain it's in that area, and that for there to be sudden lameness, it must be a soft tissue injury of sorts, I won't believe at the moment, that he has such level of damage to cause him to be unrideable forever!

Thank you for the posts, everyone. It's so frustrating not knowing and not understanding what's going on. The scan will be tomorrow morning, so I then have another wait to hear back about that. Then bring him home and take him back again in 2-3 weeks... well that's another month along with us not knowing if or when he will be sound again.
 
Just be positive for now.

Honestly if you'd seen my girl, you would have written her off there and then. By saying she was on three legs, there is no exageration - I very nearly got the trailer out for a 150 yard walk, as I didn't think she could do it.

Shes jumping fantasticaly at the moment!
 
The ligament is called the Meniscal.

Brilliant about your girl, crazymare. Lanky wasn't too bad on soft ground - hopping lame in trot (but only started out with a dragging movement), but was ok in walk. On rougher ground it was a lot worse and also with turning. After a short period of box rest, he improved slightly, but not enough so was referred to this clinic, where they have so far done lameness workup, nerve blocks and xrays. I;m thinking that the area is going to be puffy if he's sustained an injury to the stifle, and the reformation shown on the xray is due to healing, so maybe it's a recent kick injury or something?

Oh I don't know. Waiting is the worst. I want to go and see him. Not knowing is so hard.
 
£3000 should be more than enough for the operation and tests, the only thing that might take it over the £3000 is the course of action afterwards.

My horse had arthroscopy of both of his stifles and all the scans and blocks before, plus a week in horsepital. As his damage was so severe and they actually took a lot of cartilage out we had quite a lot of treatment ahead of us. I had to inject him with Adequan, which I think was about £1000 for 7 injections, this was the first thing to try and then move on to IRAP. Both of these treatments help with them mending themselves. Anyway after the Adequan there was no difference and the vets thought that as the damage was so severe if the Adequan had helped a little bit we would have done the IRAP. Unfortunately for my boy as the pain was so bad and the damage not getting any better I lost him in April. HOWEVER!!! He was 12 and had a really tough life and had a very nasty accident on the lunge so I could see exactly how the damage was so bad.

If you try and search for CarmaandFlin on here, her boy Flin had the same operation (arthroscopy) in the stifle, one week before my horse, his damage was not as bad as my boys - you will have to double check with her what actually was seen. Anyway her boy had IRAP and it was very successfull, she is already out and about going to stressage on him - which is fab for both of them. So honestly don't worry, £3k will more than cover the op and most probably treatment, I would see why they can't ultrasound him rather than go in straight away, I only say this as it is pretty invasive and if there isn't much to see in there, they have run the risk of infection as a secondary problem.

Good luck and keep us informed xx
 
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I am so, so sorry to read this, and know all too well how you must be feeling.

My 8 year old is currently at the vet hospital - serious osteoarthritis in her hind fetlock (we're X raying the other one today, and I expect it to be the same) so she is looking like a LOU claim
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((((hugs))))) xxxx
 
Thanks Puppy. It was supposedly the fetlock that was the problem actually, but nope, stifle. We don't have LOU on our policy, so he'll become a nice expensive field ornament if he isn't one of the 50% who returns to work at some point. We have cover for death, but I'm really really hoping it doesn't come to that.
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I'm really sorry about Believe as well. I know how much strife you've had over the last year. It seems that for some people it doesn't rain it pours.
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((((hugs to you as well))))
 
lochpearl, thank you for your informative post.

They are doing an ultrasound tomorrow and will then inject with anti-inflammatories and rest for up to 3 weeks, before returning for the keyhole surgery. I have to get my insurer's permission to have the surgery done, but I can't see a problem.

So far, I've had 2 vet call-outs, a course of penicillin, a referral to Western Counties Equine Clinic, a lameness workup there, nerve blocks there, xrays there and ultrasound there. We have also had 2 night's livery/nursing care which our insurer will not cover. I'm estimating that without the livery/nursing care, we've probably used anything up to about 800ish of our vet cover.

Sorry about your boy. I'm hoping that Lanky will not have serious damage, but if he does and it means long term pain and lameness, then of course we'd have to do the right thing.
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We're not there yet, though.
 
Thanks. I've already spoken to NFU about the likelihood of LOU
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Give she was bought to BSJA, as a horse that had won and been placed in classes at Scope, no matter what they do to improve her, I don't see any hope of her being capable of that.
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Thankfully, Be is of course a mare. I wasn't planning her foals for a few years yet, but I guess she will be a Mummy sooner than planned.
 
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Yep. Don't tell me - you work there?
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No one of my friend's is a nurse there, my boy was in there last Thursday and Friday for lame work up - sorry I should say my new 4 year old that is lame on 3 legs!! We are going back on 3rd for MRI. Just wondered if your girl was there then xx
 
Small world! Is your horse a big iron grey?

ETA - the nurses there are very nice
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Although one at the weekend did say Be was very messy
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Can I give you some advice as I really think that this is partly where we went wrong. My boy had medication into the joints before his operation, it didn't work - this is because he managed to run around in his field. Do as much rest as possible to maximise the effect on the injections and they migh tthen not need to operate.

Good luck and honestly I think he'll be ok. My new 4 year old has just been found to have abnormal densities in both his stifles and soft tissue damage to his feet - I think I will give up now!! We unfortunately have to go the MRI route - just taking out the second mortgage lol!!! Good luck and keep positive!! xx
 
Very small!! lol!! yes - was he kicking the hell out of his door?? He has a bad habit of doing that when he expects attention. Poor thing is only 4 passed a 5 stage with flying colours 2 months ago - just wondering how we have got here!!

Which box was your mare in?? If I'd known she was there I would have come and said hello xxx
 
First of hugs
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The horse I had before Hen had a Stifle Arthroscopy as a 5 (!!) year old and then the other one done as a 10 year old, he was perfectly sound and able, never had any form of joint supplement, was in full work and perfectly happy. He was stabled 24/7 in the winter (no turnout at yard) and never came out the box stiff. The only lameness problems we ever had were down to his front feet and never keeping shoes on!!

I know how devestating it is to here this kind of news, but try not to assume the worse straight away - I have a 15 year old cob with osteo-arthritis in both the pasten and coffin joints in both front feet, and ringbone in 3 out of his 4 feet, yet to watch him at the moment you'd think he was an unbroken 4 year old!


It really is a case of management with Arthritis and ligament damage tends to respond well if you give it the right rehab, unlike tendons which can have everything done for them and stil F-up!

Fingers crossed!
 
Ahh, he is lovely; he has a very kind, honest face
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No door kicking when I was there, or not that I noticed - although I was in a state of shock on the thursday.

Be was two stables down, on the same side, last stable. There were only 4 horses there thur/fri so I'm surprised you didn't see her. Although she maybe had her head in her haynet
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Very sad to hear about the trouble with your boy. And so soon after a vetting
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Thanks, Hen.

I'm now calming down a bit and I realise the vet is giving the worst case scenario, being the doom and gloom merchant and all that, and that possibly, with a bit of patience, lots of rest, the right veterinary care and supplements or whatever, he will come right. In all honesty, I think the bit that scared me the most was 'on and off lame throughout his life', which would be down to the meniscal damage.
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I guess I just need to wait and see really, and hope for the best. What goes against us is that this damage could have been done a long time ago and because he is practically sound on soft ground, it wasn't so obvious until he became really bad.

It is, oddly, nice to know that others have been through the same and had horses come out almost sound and had a good life afterwards.
 
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