Lameness switching legs - any ideas? (also in vets)

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saddlesore

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Hey guys, this is quite a long story - sorry! My horse went lame around 11 weeks ago and was taken to the vets where nerve blocks isolated the lameness to the foot and x-rays showed that nails had penetrated the white line and there was visible bruising of the foot. His lameness improved around 50% over the following week but for the past ten weeks he has not continued to improve and is still around 1 or 2 out of ten lame. On a circle the lameness shifts to the inside on both reins. He is going back to the vet for more tests next week but i am sh***ing myself at the moment worrying about what could be wrong
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anyone have any ideas or had a similar experience??
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Thats what i was worried about
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THey charged me for a pile of x-rays so i hope so! Sorry this is a bit numpyish but they said that there was no rotation of the pedal bone - is that near the navicular bursa? Do you think that would show up? He was totaly sound before he was shod and now he's lame in both front legs!! Having said that, he is consistently lame on the foot with the bruising on a straight line and only swaps legs when on a circle
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I have no idea what's going on, arrrrggghhhhh
 
if he only swaps legs when on a circle it sounds to me as if he's trying to find a way to move to make it hurt less. he's lame most of the time on the bruised foot, and only lame on the other one when that one's on the outside or inside?
if he's been slightly wrong for 11 weeks now his other leg has been moving slightly differently to compensate so he could, say, have some shoulder pain in it. i wouldn't panic yet.
 
Phew, thanks Kerilli! I'll try not to panic too soon then! To answer your question, if the bruised foot is on the inside of the circle then he is lame on that one. If the bruised foot is on the outisde of the circle then he starts off lame to the outside, then the lameness shifts to the inside
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Vet said what you said too that maybe he is maybe just trying to find the most comfortable way of going, i'm just really worried
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First thought are navicular, arthritis, problems with coffin joint etc - maybe i'm overreacting.........
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i'd stop testing it for a few weeks, just keep him on whatever quiet regime you have him on, walking, resting, whatever, no lameness tests at all if he was mine.
thinking about it, i think he sounds lame on the bruised one all the time, but looks weird when trying to alleviate the pain when it's on the outside of a circle.
give it time, is the only thing i can say. best of luck.
 
He's on 24 hour turnout, box rest makes him too stressy. Ground nice and soft though (ie soaking wet and muddy) Ho exercise whatsoever, just tubbing his foot and giving him arnica. He was shod recently and my farrier said that there was still some evidence of bruising in the foot but not enough to be causing the degree of lameness and recommended i phone the vet and they said it has gone on too long now and there may be a secondary issue so more tests etc...... I really hope it is just his foot and he is just being a (very!) woosy TB lol
 
Our horse was lame and it kept swapping legs. Vet decided that he had bruised both of his front feet soles and was actually lame on both of them.

He had pads put on and was fine after that.
 
Fingers crossed its something like that
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What kind of pads did you get on? I'd heard great things about equipac but i read a post on here a week or so ago and someone said they kind of disintegrate in wet weather?
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Well..... he actually had a hospital plate put on, which looks like the top of a ring pull can, it can be removed without the shoe being taken off and he had Eculyptus (sp) oil (I think)applied on the sole and then the plate is put back on for a few days.

But after that he had a normal plastic pad with silicon underneath it

The farrier was taking his next set of exams and all of our horses ended up with quite exotic shoes - otherwise I'm sure that they would have just gone for pads straight away.
 
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