Lame 3 year old - help required desperately!

M

marblelou

Member
Joined
8 January 2011
Messages
15
Visit site
Hi there, wondering if anyone can offer and help or advice.

I have a 3 1/2 year old horse who is very lame. It has gradually got worse over the last few months. I started to back him earlier in the year when he turned 3 and was just beginning to get him in the school to start some basic walking, stop, starts, left, right etc and he has basically been lame ever since.

I have had an oesteopath look at him on an ongoing basis, vet has checked him out (nerve blocking, scans, x-rays) and absolutely nothing has showed up, and I have recently given him a course of danilon to see if that would help but no. After freeze blocking we narrowed the area down to the 6 inches below his knee. There has never been any heat from the leg either, but his lameness is very obvious for anyone to see.

I'm really beginning to come to my wit's end now - all I want to do is ride my lovely youngster and I can't!! Has anyone got any suggestions or recommendations as to next steps or to what could be the cause?

Thanks so much.
 
To be honest I think you have two choices...

1. Turn him away for 6 months and see what happens when he's a bit more mature, is he simply unable to cope with what you are asking of him as he's physically not capable

(I have one rising 3 yr old we won't even think of backing until she's turned four in Summer 2012 as there is no way she'll be ready or physically mature enough this year

2. Referral to a lameness specialist at vet hospital and more diagnostics

Sorry :-(
 
If he was mine, then my decision would probably depend on whether he's insured or not. If he is, then 2nd opinion on lameness, or MRI or something - surely there must be some way of confirming the problem??

If not insured, I'd turn him away for at least 6 months, maybe more as it's been an ongoing problem for a while, so may take a long time to get better (if it does).

That's just my opinion though :) Hope you get some answers.
 
welcome to my world! i have a young horse with an undiagnosed lameness- i now have a 4k vets bill and have gone down the turn away route- could you do that? try him again in 6 months?
 
as its so low down could he have a low grade infection in the hoof? could try antibiotics, i did with my pony after 8 months of lameness, 5 vets etc etc, x rays nothing to be seen, she was cured in 10 days
 
The location is, I think, spot on for sore shins. This is very common in young racehorses and if they carry on working they can develope into shin splints or stress fractures. You may even already have stress fracture(s) that are so fine that they are not showing on the xray. If uninsured, I would turn him away for three months and review in the spring. If you don't want that leg excluded from insurance for the rest of her life I would do the same. If you intend to sell some time in the nearish future (so no ongoing insurance problem), then I would MRI or scintigraph if your insurance pays.
 
Thanks so much everyone for all the help and support, I appreciate all the comments so much.
It seems that most people the best thing would be to turn him away for a few more months and see how he gets on. I was reassured in some way by the fact that nothing major showed up at the vets but it's still so frustrating that I have a hobbly horse and no diagnosis!

I am insured but like cptrayes points out, my initial vets bill was £450 and so didn't claim as I didn't want to have an uninsurable leg for the rest of his life. I need to double check exactly what I'm covered for though to see if I decide to go further down the vets route that I don't end up with a bill for thousands!

I think I might turn him out until Spring and see then - then might go down bone scan / MRI route.

Thanks so much everyone
 
cptrayes said:
The location is, I think, spot on for sore shins. This is very common in young racehorses and if they carry on working they can develope into shin splints or stress fractures. You may even already have stress fracture(s) that are so fine that they are not showing on the xray. If uninsured, I would turn him away for three months and review in the spring. If you don't want that leg excluded from insurance for the rest of her life I would do the same. If you intend to sell some time in the nearish future (so no ongoing insurance problem), then I would MRI or scintigraph if your insurance pays.
Click to expand...


Very interesting, thanks. He is half TB and thus very flighty at times and prone to galloping around the field. He has also tended to do stupid things as a youngster such as attempting, and failing, to jump out of his field, getting leg stuck in hay nets and racks etc so he could well have done himself some sort of damage that you refer to that isn't showing up in the scans. I am insured but as you say, don't want to end up with an uninsurable leg for the rest of his life. I think I may, as you suggest, turn him out until Spring and see how he is then, whether I need to go down the MRI route. Thanks so much for your comments.
 
clairefeekerry1 said:
welcome to my world! i have a young horse with an undiagnosed lameness- i now have a 4k vets bill and have gone down the turn away route- could you do that? try him again in 6 months?
Click to expand...

I feel for you, know exactly what you're going through! What have you had done so far at vets? I think I am going to turn him away for a while longer. He's already been turned out since August though and no improvement. How old is yours?
 
as he has been lame for a few months and no real answer from your vet i would be asking to be referred for a full lameness workout , and/or mri. that is why you have insurance.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
as he has been lame for a few months and no real answer from your vet i would be asking to be referred for a full lameness workout , and/or mri. that is why you have insurance.
Click to expand...


Agree with this,though Id want at least a bone scan before any more work up was done. and to be honest - if you dont get a diagnosis, you are likely to lose any future lameness claims on the leg anyway,so its better to get an answer for the insurance, at least then they will only exclude that bit. (speaking from bitter experience of this - i gave up with mine when i decided to demote mine to a companion - becuase we didnt bother making sure what part was the problem, Ive lost her back,her pelvis and all of her hind legs....)

hope you get an answer xx
 
marblelou said:
I am insured but like cptrayes points out, my initial vets bill was £450 and so didn't claim as I didn't want to have an uninsurable leg for the rest of his life. I need to double check exactly what I'm covered for though to see if I decide to go further down the vets route that I don't end up with a bill for thousands!
Click to expand...

You must check with your insurance company! because even if you didn't claim it is still a pre-existing condition and it will be on your records! that is why before insurance companies will pay up they will ask for a full vet history.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
 
marblelou said:
I am insured but like cptrayes points out, my initial vets bill was £450 and so didn't claim as I didn't want to have an uninsurable leg for the rest of his life. I need to double check exactly what I'm covered for though to see if I decide to go further down the vets route that I don't end up with a bill for thousands!

I think I might turn him out until Spring and see then - then might go down bone scan / MRI route.

Thanks so much everyone
Click to expand...

Just a warning re insurance. If they ever ask for veterinary history and find you have not informed them about the treatment that you didn't claim fr, they will try to wriggle out of payment for anything as it is a breach of their terms and conditions not to inform them of anything your horse has had treatment for. I got stung by that one. They wouldn't pay out as I hadn't told them about a totally unrelated condition I thought too insignificant to claim for 3 years before!
 
Re the lameness. It sounds like the start of a splint forming to me. Some horses can go very lame indeed with nothing showing for ages and then they develop the splint.
 
I wanted to second cptrayes advice, plus do check again for a deep seated abcess in his foot.
We had a horse go lame for weeks and nothing showed up, eventually as his frog grew the farrier found a half a nail sideways into his frog, he must have trodden on it and bent it sideways where it snapped leaving half in his frog. Once removed he was sound within days.
If the horse is insured I would suggest further investigation because "very" lame really shouldn't happen at his age unless it's to do with bone.
Although I agree turn him away but if he were mine I would want more definitive evidence of exactly what the problem was first.
 
Spoke to vet again who said next stage would be MRI - likely to be approx. £1k. Insurers supposdly cover but I'm with e&l and after a quick google search am slightly worried as it's full of terrible stories about them and how they don't pay out for anything! Great!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by brucea
Is he shod?

No he isn't shod, I have had someone suggesting that shoeing front two feet may help?
Click to expand...

Almost definitely not. They will just make any concussion worse and just alter his balance which could also make it worse.

Time - best tool in the box.
 
marblelou said:
Spoke to vet again who said next stage would be MRI - likely to be approx. £1k. Insurers supposdly cover but I'm with e&l and after a quick google search am slightly worried as it's full of terrible stories about them and how they don't pay out for anything! Great!
Click to expand...

Hey there! Good luck with E&L, a couple of years ago my horse fractured his leg, the vet gave a grim prognosis, and due to the bone becoming infected he also had scepticemia, he was in agony, the vet and I made the heart breaking decision to put him to sleep as the journey to another clinic would have been cruel (especially with such a poor prognosis) I rang E&L to get permission, and the vet spoke to them. They gave the go ahead and I said goodbye to my beloved friend. E&L then said they would not pay out as there was a possibility, that after an op he could have been a companion horse and they basically accused me of doing it for the insurance money. 2 years later and a solicitor and court and they were ordered to pay out. They made a terrible time much worse and made me drag it to court. Worst insurance company in the world. No compassion at all :(
 
Don't be frightened by other stories I had no problem with e and l paying my vet bills, I did have a disagreement with them when it came to paying out for loss of use but we came to an agreement in the end...

Follow their rules and they seem to be very good... I was covered for 100% of our bone scanning but there is a chance you may only be covered for 50% of the cost so something to check..

Also whoever posted it above is correct. If they apply for your records and you try to claim for lameness on a leg you have previously had problems with but not informed them then they can refuse to cover..

Good luck hope you get some answers
 
He is still very young and the chances are that the splint bones (med & lat) are still bonding to the metacarpal this can, and often does interfere with the DFT in a young horse asked to work.
I would barefoot trim him and turn him away to grow into the horse he wants to be.
When you start again you will find a different animal, bare in mind it can take many years (5-6) for the splint bones to set.
 
I would be inclined to have a thermograph of the whole horse - this is a very good way of pin pointing the point of inflamation. Then with this the vets can have another think.

In the meantime, turn away and give him the whole winter off.
 
If everything has been excluded such as ligaments , tendons, etc ans a he is a young horse I would turn him out but you can still do some ground work with him (in-hand)

I would try using an infusion of Comfrey, which will help any splints or shin pain. You can get the comfrey leafs from Hilton Herbs, put some in a bowl add hot water and allow the leaves to soak in the water then use some vet gauze and wring it out (You can keep the infusion ) wrap it around the leg and bandage.

Comfrey helps with inflammation and any sprains and strains, which will help with shin splint and bone splints.
 
If I was in your situation I think I would get a good farrier out to see if they can shed any light on the lameness. At least get their opinion on what could be the problem. Personally if my horse goes lame my first port of call is my farrier then if he can't pin point the problem I would get the vet. It could be something silly like puss in the foot/abscess, etc which the farrier maybe able to sort. One of the horses at my yard was diagnosed with laminitis by the vet we got the farrier out and it was an abscess. So maybe worth a try?

Other than that it could be that he's done something in the field or that he's just not mature enough for the work you are asking at the moment. If the farrier can't find anything then I would turn him away for now and have another look at him in the Spring. Review the situation it may well be that he just needs to mature for a bit or if he has done something silly in the field then he will have the time to "mend". I don't think it's worth going any further in terms of investigations otherwise you could end up wth a hefty bill and that leg will be excluded on the insurance. Just give it time and be patient it will be all the more rewarding when you can start working him. Try to stay positive and to be honest the weather is going to turn rubbish soon anyway so you aren't missing much! My horse decided to hang himself last weekend and whilst he's ok and the vet has said he can be ridden i'm going to turn him away for a month or so give him time to heal. Any excuse not to ride in the ice and snow! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top