More disasters with poor pony

[Nativelover]

Some of you may remember my thread of woe when my poor native pony came down with a virus, well I'm happy (ish) to say that he's definately over that and back to his cheeky, bossy self!
However, he's been intermittently lame since this happened at beginning of December and it's getting worse not better.
He has an old injury, a ligament that flares up slightly every now and then. Once a year and I just rest him, a bit of danilon and he's back sound within a couple of weeks.
Well since the virus, he has been lame on his foreleg on the same side as back leg. He's been box rested, on danilon has had X-rays and scans. Nothing showing other than inflamed tendon sheath in the fetlocks.
Some days he's hopping lame, others he's very mobile but lame. It just feels like we are getting nowhere. I'm assuming that he's pulled his front leg because he's lame on his back leg.
Vet has mentioned denerving but I'm really not wanting to go down that route. YO is going to give him a go on the hydro spa for lower leg therapy. But im a bit lost with what to do, is it too early to expect a consistent improvement???

 

[be positive]

2 months is nothing really for either a ligament or tendon injury to fully recover, especially if the two injuries are linked, denerving seems rather a drastic suggestion, has no other option been considered, steroid injections may be more appropriate as would resting fully for 6 months to allow nature to do it's job, the old injury may be changing now and require more than a short rest and bute to allow it to settle, has that been scanned recently?

 

[Nativelover]

Thank you, I did wonder if I was expecting too much too soon. Yes the scans and Xrays are recent and showed very little. I think it's the difference in him that has flummoxed me, one day he's hopping lame on both legs, next he's walking well but still unsound, then another day back hopping again. Yes I thought denerving drastic, just feel helpless for the poor thing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the spa helps him.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I wouldn't be that happy with that diagnosis and I would wonder if something else is going on, has the vet recommended box rest? This is a normal thing for tendon or soft tissue damage so it allows the area to heal, because you say his lameness is so up and down it seems like his re injuring the area and not giving it a chance to repair.

I also know that when there is swelling in a tendon sheath it doesn't always mean the injury is in that area, my horse had a swollen tendon sheath but she had actually torn her deep digital flexor tendon in the back of the pastern. and the extent of the damage was only really clear after an mri scan.

 

[3OldPonies]

I wouldn't be that happy with that diagnosis and I would wonder if something else is going on, has the vet recommended box rest? This is a normal thing for tendon or soft tissue damage so it allows the area to heal, because you say his lameness is so up and down it seems like his re injuring the area and not giving it a chance to repair.

I also know that when there is swelling in a tendon sheath it doesn't always mean the injury is in that area, my horse had a swollen tendon sheath but she had actually torn her deep digital flexor tendon in the back of the pastern. and the extent of the damage was only really clear after an mri scan.

Me too. My mini shetland strained his median ligament (sorry if spelt wrong) and he was like your pony OP - one day fine and the next hopping again. We put him on box rest for about 3 months (might even have been longer, but it was ages ago and I can't remember properly how long it was). He only had a little stable, specially built for him; but as it was summer he got so hot that we made a similar sized 'fort knox' pen at the front of it about the same size so he could come out and have some fresh air without enough room to damage the healing process. Then when he started to be more consistent in his movement, it was steady walking in-hand for a while, then back in the box, it took a long time of gradually making the pen bigger before he was allowed out to play properly with his big friends. Probably about 8 - 9 months in total before we were sure that he was right.