lameness help!

[toomanyneds]

Hi,I'm fresh out of ideas so was hoping some suggestions from here may be worth a go!ive had my horse for a year, I've had a grumbling issue from the offset every time he gets 'competition fit' I get a grumbling issue with what I thought was his back. he has bolted goes disunited hates being rugged and tacked up and is general really evasive.I had 2 different back people come and see him both saying he was 'locked up' in his lumbar region, not telling me why, and saying they had worked the area and to walk him for a few weeks and then start work again. all 3 times there was some improvement but then when back in full work the problems start again.I have had teeth back saddle checked and nothing of any relevance.So I called my vet to check out his back, vet confirmed soreness in back and we x-rayed and scanned for kissing spine- nothing on either of any significance so we started to look further.on further examination it was apparent the problem was in his right hind- failed flexsion and a slight lameness on a small circle. he was gradually nerve blocked from top to bottom with little/no improvement.My vet referred him to Sue Dyson at the AHT in Newmarket.So I took him sunday and he was trotted up lunged on hand and soft surfaces and I rode him for 20 minutes infront of sue.to my dismay when flexsion tested on his forelegs he literally Hopped! Not what I was expecting for a hind leg problem :-0after the awkwardly silent examination above sue tells me he is consistently lame in his right hind, on the lunge he is lame outside fore and under saddle he is lame inside fore. so that's 3 out of 4 legs!! that's all the information I was given and told they would nerve block the following day.So as asked I called yesterday to be told;when the right hind was blocked from just below the hock he was sound on that leg but lame left hind ( the only sound leg from the day before)when both hinds are blocked from just below the hock he is sound behind totally but still lame in front.The left fore becomes sound when the foot and fetlock is blockedThe right fore doesn't come sound under any nerve block.They have x-rayed all 4 legs and can find nothing of any significance.Sue has suggested that there appears to be a different problem in each leg and that the hinds are probably due to a suspensory issue.she is going to scan all legs today.I'm now caught in a huge whirlwind as my horse that had a sore back is now considered lame in all 4 legs with unrelated issues, I cant see this being likely. There has been no significant incident to cause injury to my knowledge and he passed a 5 stage vetting last year.I stood and watched the examination on Tuesday and although I am no expert he didn't look lame other then the odd short stride in his right hind. and very obviously on the flexsions in front.Has anybody has anything similar? The lameness seems to swap and change in severity and legs?Could it be caused by something central? nerves? back? psychological?nobody can tell me what is wrong with him let alone if it can be fixed. he is only 5 :-(Any ideas?

 

[toomanyhorses26]

Mymare ended up on lame on three out of four legs but due to a catalogue ofthings - navicular,arthritc change in her hocks,hind uspensory damage,kssing spines,si issues and damage to her supraspinious ligament. Any of these were potentially sortable as an individual ailment but as an altogether led o a very lame horse

 

[Erin]

Ulcers is a real possibility, especially if there is something else going on & he's had some sort of pain over a period of time.

What are his feet like?

 

[Birker2020]

No idea other than to say that SD is meant to be the 'best' in this sort of thing and you are in good hands from what I have heard. I hope you get some answers today. Even if they are not the ones you want to hear, they will help you make some decisions about what to do next.

 

[TarrSteps]

Unfortunately compensatory, related, circumstantial, and knock on effects in other parts of the body are very common. So a horse may have one or more sub clinical issues which it copes will well enough, then something changes - an acute injury happens or one of the chronic conditions develops to a significant degree or the demands are increased past the level at which the horse can cope - and the whole balance is upset. Despite what some people seem to want to think horses, being still prey animals at heart, are hugely stoic, even if they are also very fragile.

If more than one leg is affected diagnosis becomes more difficult as the horse doesn't "limp" as. Blocking the "lamer" leg will obviously "move" the problem to the next most lame and so on. Loss of performance work ups often turn up multiple issues.

The other complication is that all the tests will show up is where the problems are, they won't necessarily tell you which problems are causing the most problem, if that makes sense. So a horse could have had a spavin, say, for some time but been jumping fine for the level it's at, until a front end issue makes it start stopping. So the vet does flexions, as hock problems are a likely cause of refusing, the tests show up an issue and it's assumed that is the cause of the stopping.

Another factor is workload and rest. An acute issue may improve with rest while a degenerative issue may seem to improve until the horse hits the level of work it can cope with. So the horse apparently goes "suddenly" lame, gets laid off for a bit, comes back and goes lame at the same point but not necessarily for the same reason.

I have a horse standing in a field who was "sound" despite known SI issues and arthritic changes in his pastern joints. But he's never really "recovered" from a fractured pedal bone as, despite a good radiographic outcome on the fracture, the box rest, special shoeing etc tipped his other issues out of balance. (Plus he's another year older - it might have been the critical year no matter what.)

I would say the vast majority of older competition horses I know have a few "niggles" and would not pass a Sue Dyson work up. Hasn't she said herself she figures about 80% of the horses she sees have clinical signs of lameness to some degree? This is not meant as a criticism, just a reality that I think many horsemen would support through their own experience.

Now you've started, see what she comes up with and go from there. I may be more than one of the problems is minor and will respond when the horse is more comfortable over all.