Lameness - Opinions Please!

[Natalie_H]

Hi All. My boy was shod last Tuesday morning - I have recently got a new farrier via vet referral who is FWCF qualified - & who is great. Horse was sound until Friday afternoon, then when I went up to feed in the evening he was lame on his near fore. I thought I could feel a little heat in his knee, but am rubbish at diagnosing lameness. This isn't helped by the fact he has a bit of a club foot so one knee is a lot straighter than the other, so it is hard to use symmetry as a guide. The lameness is less pronounced the more he walks so I thought it might be muscular (slipped over in the mud maybe), but 4 days later there is no improvement at all.

He doesn't really seem quite himself either. I have scheduled the vet to come up on Thursday, but wondered what your opinions were on recovery times for sprains, strains & knocks, or whether you think it is more deep rooted, or to do with just being shod etc? All opinions / experience greatly appreciated!

 

[serena2005]

i think if it had to do with shoeing he would have come up lame sooner. he could have quite easily tripped in the field and hurt his knee, if u say it gets better the more he walks, them i would walk him (gently)

my boy goes lame all the time with no heat any where in his leg of hoof, i usually slap a load of cooling clay on his legs and bandage them up for a night and see how he is in the morning, 9 times out of 10 hes usually better. failing that i turn him out and he usually comes in sound.

have you got a horse walker, see if he walks it off?

 

[Natalie_H]

I'm glad you said that about the shoeing as I thought the same thing - I'm sure he would have been lame much sooner if that were the reason.

Unfortunately I don't have a horse walker, but he is on 24hr turnout. He has recently been put in another section of the field which has more grass. He has a tendancy to stuff himself full of grass (walk gets better) then puts himself in the field shelter to have a doze & when he wakes up he has stiffened up again - most frustrating as we have our first ever walk & trot test (for both of us) on Sunday week & we have had no practice.

Thanks for your advice - greatly appreciated!

 

[Peanot]

Hi, Years ago, I had a mare who had a slight twist at the knee. The first time that my farrier shod her, he did a little remedial shoeing, but after a couple of days, she went lame. I phoned the previous owner who told me that I was best just to shoe her as normal as his farrier also decided to try the remedial shoeing and she had gone lame and it is putting pressure on her knee. So the farrier came out and shod her traditionally, and level as normal, and within a couple of days she was sound again. She never had any problems after that so sometimes remedial shoeing to make something look better puts unnesscary pressure as they have got used to going in a certain way to accommodate over years. Did the farrier do something different? It is well worth asking?
I hope this has helped.

 

[Natalie_H]

Hi There - I was wondering if that might have something to do with it. My instructor actually admitted to me once I got the referral that she had never been very impressed with the way he had been shod. When my new farrier shod him, his feet actually looked correct for the first time in ages & his shoes actually looked like they fitted him properly. I thought that possibly he was going through a period of adaptation to the shoeing & from what you have said - although he has not got remedial shoes, he might be struggling to get used to having proper feet!! The different thing my farrier said he was doing was to put different sized shoes on the front feet because they are a different size & that trying to make them look the same is not always best for the horse. I'll see what the vet says tomorrow - very helpful advice - thanks very much!

 

[Peanot]

My farrier only put normal shoes on, but he rasped her foot in a different way to the other one to make the knee not look so twisted with the different action. But it didn`t work.