lameness / loss of performance investigation

[Austen123]

hi all,

positive vibes needed .
over the 12/13th june took my mare competing . she felt very flat in the warm up and when i started jumping so was ok over small but anything over 1m she put on the breaks . this is very, very, out of character for her . i retired from the class and came home and straight on phone to vet . took her in for lameness invest as when i put her on the lunge when i got home she looked very slightly short on right hind . vet couldn’t nerve block as not lame enough . xrayed her hocks and noted some slight changes and injected them .
he said give her 4 weeks build up to normal work . 4th week , jumped again and again put the breaks on on anything over 1m . got the vet back out as i was thinking KS or SI issues in relation to hocks . he said work her hard and get my pro friend on her to see if it’s me or her . he saw her under saddle and without and said noticed no issues .

pro friend got on yesterday and she also stopped with her . sent videos to vet who said she’s changing a lot behind and doesn’t look comfortable. she’s now booked in for bone scan and ultrasound of suspensories , if needed, on monday to get to bottom or what’s going on.


my gut is telling me suspensory but we will see . positive vibes needed .

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Good luck. I hope that they find the issue and that it is fixable.

 

[Annagain]

Well done for listening to her. Hope you find something fixable and you've nipped it in the bud by being so proactive.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Good luck. Hope that you've caught whatever it is early and that it can be fixed.

As above, well done for listening to your horse.

 

[Austen123]

do you think i should be ruling out ulcers or similar before scans?

 

[Austen123]

and anyone interested i can send a vid to look at

 

[Tiddlypom]

Scanning the suspensories is quick and easy to do, and might well give answers.

Bone scan I'm not so sure about at this stage. It was thought to be the wonder diagnostic tool, but opinions are more guarded on how useful it is now.

Ulcers, possibly, but more likely as a sequel to pain elswhere.

SI issues I've had found by the chiro vet, who recommended medicating which has worked very well in both horses.

 

[SEL]

Scanning the suspensories isn't expensive and is quite quick - just make sure its a decent vet who looks at the scans because they missed the damage first time round with mine. Fortunately I wasn't convinced by the all clear, didn't work her and insisted in a rescan with a different vet.

For my mare her ulcers rumble when something else is causing a problem. If she is physically comfortable then her stomach is manageable but as soon as something flares up then the stomach does too.

 

[greenbean10]

My horse has an almost identical story to this and sadly in this case it was suspensories, SI and ulcers. We are going down the surgical route and hoping that fixes the other issues!

 

[Austen123]

i’m just wondering if there was a flare up in correlation to the hocks . but she’s had 3-4 easy weeks . so would make me think if ulcers had flared with the hocks they would have settled ? but the hock changes were so minor on the xray

 

[Austen123]

My horse has an almost identical story to this and sadly in this case it was suspensories, SI and ulcers. We are going down the surgical route and hoping that fixes the other issues!

thanks green bean.. this is my gut feeling too . i know hocks and si go hand in hand . but just feel something rumbling with suspensories with her behaviour

 

[Austen123]

My horse has an almost identical story to this and sadly in this case it was suspensories, SI and ulcers. We are going down the surgical route and hoping that fixes the other issues!

what was was the long term outlook for yours ?

 

[AandK]

I had similar with my horse back in 2008 age 11, he started stopping jumping. His was a suspensory branch injury behind. It was treated (shockwave, adequan and box rest with controlled exercise) and was never an issue again until he retired 2 years ago.

 

[skint1]

I've been told that ulcers can sometimes be secondary to physical issues for horses, I don't know if others will agree as I have only my own experience and those of friends to fall back on. So maybe worth checking that she's not got any. I hope you get to the bottom of it anyway, good luck.

 

[Goldenstar]

IME ulcers are always a secondary issue .My guess is that it’s suspensories they present exactly like that .
What freaks me that’s vets will still do a problems with performance work up with out scanning them when very mild lameness and the flat tyre feeling is present .

 

[greenbean10]

what was was the long term outlook for yours ?

The vet is relatively positive but we won't know until the surgery is done! Mine presented the same as yours - stopping at jumps, chipping in and switching legs behind.

They said it was an 80% success rate operating on the hind legs. Could you block her suspenories and see if you feel a change? My horses suspensories didn't look too bad on the scan but blocking made a huge difference to his way of going. It may stop the changing behind when you block them.

ETA. PM me if it's easier and I can send you a video of mine x

 

[Austen123]

The vet is relatively positive but we won't know until the surgery is done! Mine presented the same as yours - stopping at jumps, chipping in and switching legs behind.

They said it was an 80% success rate operating on the hind legs. Could you block her suspenories and see if you feel a change? My horses suspensories didn't look too bad on the scan but blocking made a huge difference to his way of going. It may stop the changing behind when you block them.

ETA. PM me if it's easier and I can send you a video of mine x

your PMs are blocked for some reason . pm me and ill send you vid

 

[Sail_away]

Good luck - sounds very similar to my gelding. Like you we found mild changes in the hocks so had them injected, plus cartrophen, then was back to square 1 after 3 weeks. We did then find a slightly iffy suspensory - our vet said it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t perfect. Due to it not being an injury as such we agreed it wouldn’t be worth putting him through shockwave or surgery as it was unlikely to solve much. He’s currently on field rest, coming up to six months so fingers crossed he’s done some healing in that time.
From my experience I’d scan the suspensories before the scintigraphy - we did it the other way and the scintigraphy not only didn’t find anything but used a fair bit of insurance money and he had to stay in hospital for three days. Ultrasound is cheaper and easily done at the yard.

 

[Birker2020]

I had similar with my horse back in 2008 age 11, he started stopping jumping. His was a suspensory branch injury behind. It was treated (shockwave, adequan and box rest with controlled exercise) and was never an issue again until he retired 2 years ago.

Suspensory branches can be sometimes to diagnose as lameness can be barely existent to hopping depending on how severe they are and sometimes there can be minimal filling which comes and goes. This is the danger as people will think the horse is okay and ride and can cause long term damage.

Mine had a suspensory branch injury, I rehabbed and although the outcome was initially good it got reinjured in a traumatic accident to the point of being unrepairable and it was never 100% again.

The vet said that this can be really common in some horses especially those that jump and if they have one on one leg, they quite often go on to get another injury on the opposite leg. PRP solved the problem at the time as shockwave did little to help. Ice at the start of the rehab really proved beneficial, I had ice vibe boots and used ice cups as well and remedial shoeing.

 

[scats]

Suspensories would be my initial thought.

 

[chocolategirl]

hi all,

positive vibes needed .
over the 12/13th june took my mare competing . she felt very flat in the warm up and when i started jumping so was ok over small but anything over 1m she put on the breaks . this is very, very, out of character for her . i retired from the class and came home and straight on phone to vet . took her in for lameness invest as when i put her on the lunge when i got home she looked very slightly short on right hind . vet couldn’t nerve block as not lame enough . xrayed her hocks and noted some slight changes and injected them .
he said give her 4 weeks build up to normal work . 4th week , jumped again and again put the breaks on on anything over 1m . got the vet back out as i was thinking KS or SI issues in relation to hocks . he said work her hard and get my pro friend on her to see if it’s me or her . he saw her under saddle and without and said noticed no issues .

pro friend got on yesterday and she also stopped with her . sent videos to vet who said she’s changing a lot behind and doesn’t look comfortable. she’s now booked in for bone scan and ultrasound of suspensories , if needed, on monday to get to bottom or what’s going on.


my gut is telling me suspensory but we will see . positive vibes needed .

I wish everyone would listen to what their horse is trying to tell them as you have? good luck finding out what the problem is, and getting it successfully treated ????

 

[Austen123]

hi all, just an update ..
sadly she’s got PSD to both her hind suspensories. vet said this is “rehabbable” .. however the bone scan also flagged her SI . he is going to ultrasound it tomorrow to investigate further and he said that may change the treatment and what we do . fingers crossed SI isn’t too bad .
my understanding is SI needs work but psd needs rest to heal

 

[greenbean10]

hi all, just an update ..
sadly she’s got PSD to both her hind suspensories. vet said this is “rehabbable” .. however the bone scan also flagged her SI . he is going to ultrasound it tomorrow to investigate further and he said that may change the treatment and what we do . fingers crossed SI isn’t too bad .
my understanding is SI needs work but psd needs rest to heal

Really sorry to hear this. Did the vet mention surgery for the PSD or is that not an option for you?

 

[Melody Grey]

Hind PSD and SI are a common combo. Fingers crossed it’s all fixable. My current horse had both, alongside a nasty recurrent case of ulcers. 12 months on, he’s looking the best he’s ever looked in terms of muscle and topline and is back in the same work as before (although admittedly, just a fit happy hacker).

 

[Melody Grey]

Really sorry to hear this. Did the vet mention surgery for the PSD or is that not an option for you?

Mine didn’t have surgery, but I found vets to be in two opposing camps re it; my own was very much along the lines, he didn’t think the problems were enough of the PSD and stemmed more from the ulcers and SI and surgery would be his last choice. Another vet I know very much advocates the surgery if there’s even a possibility it will help whilst covered by insurance. Just food for thought?

 

[greenbean10]

Mine didn’t have surgery, but I found vets to be in two opposing camps re it; my own was very much along the lines, he didn’t think the problems were enough of the PSD and stemmed more from the ulcers and SI and surgery would be his last choice. Another vet I know very much advocates the surgery if there’s even a possibility it will help whilst covered by insurance. Just food for thought?

Interesting! Good to here yours has recovered. My vet was very much in the surgery camp - we have been battling this issue for a long time now with no improvement even after a lot of rest.

 

[Austen123]

mine has said that he would most likely go down the surgery route for her . however depending on how catastrophic her SI is, he may say don’t bother

 

[Melody Grey]

Interesting! Good to here yours has recovered. My vet was very much in the surgery camp - we have been battling this issue for a long time now with no improvement even after a lot of rest.

I can see why vets would opt for the surgery if it’s viable- I must admit I was nervous in not doing it, being conscious that it can take some time to see if rehabbing is working and you can easily end up outside your insurance window by waiting. So far so good, but I think if the vet had been more convinced the suspensories were the main issue, I’d have pushed for it.....and infact did push hard for it to be proven otherwise.

 

[Melody Grey]

mine has said that he would most likely go down the surgery route for her . however depending on how catastrophic her SI is, he may say don’t bother

Mine had one lot of SI steroids I think, had the hocks medicated to help reduce PSD and allow strengthening. The ulcers seemed to be the main issue. Like everything it’s all a bit chicken and egg though! He was also remedially shod all round which helped but is now back barefoot with hoof boots for work.

 

[Melody Grey]

mine has said that he would most likely go down the surgery route for her . however depending on how catastrophic her SI is, he may say don’t bother

Medicating the SI isn’t expensive, so I’d be inclined to give that a go!