MRI scans

Tiffany

Tiffany

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I been given two or three options for my mare regards her lameness issue. I was preparing to go down the MRI route although my vet has said the reason for her lameness could still be inconclusive after an MRI. Just wondered what your experiences scans.

She seems to have bilateral lameness, x rays are clean and nerve block in heel of worst leg made her sound. All of above would suggest soft tissue damage wouldn't it so, I was hoping an MRI would find the problem?

I'm totally confused and don't know what to do.

My farrier thinks it could be the impar ligament so he's put wedges and a sort of silicone in her hooves after speaking with vet. She's really improved, not lying down all the time and actually bucking and galloping round field which she's not done for a while. Everyone now thinks she looks sound although I can tell she's still not moving as she did before this started.

I just want to know what's wrong so I can make the best decisions on treatment for her.

Large glass of wine for anyone getting this far.
 
No experience yet - but my horse is booked in next tuesday.

He has been lame on and off since end of January, mainly in the left, initial nerve blocks in the heel led to an improvement and x rays showed broken back hoof pastern axis so he is having remedial shoeing, and has improved but not quite sound (but down to 1 or 2/10 rather than 4 or 5/10.)

However when we reintroduced work he went lame again - he then went back to have the navicular bursar blocked and this again led to imrpovement - so indicating navicular type issue. The vets were happy just to treat him (Tildren) but I persisted and am having MRI scan to check out any tissue damage and get a better prognosis and hopefully rehab plan.

I can let you know what i find out if you like, and whether its helpful?
 
I think it is the only way of getting a definitive diagnosis of any soft tissues within the hoof.

Many years ago my daughters TB was diagnosed with navicular after going lame suddenly the day after a successful round cross country. When he did not come sound with navilox etc and a 2nd opinion thought his xrays looked fine we MRI'd him under general anaesthetic (they did not do standing MRIs then)and found a ruptured collateral ligament.

The second horse we had MRI'd (standing) had collateral wear and tear which had not shown on xrays etc but nerve blocked sound to the foot/coffin joint.

I think if you can afford it, it is a good thing to get a diagnosis even if it does not change the outcome.
 
If you actually know where you're looking, MRI is apparently the next best thing to slicing the horse's leg open and taking a look..! It's too time-consuming to do large areas though (eg whole leg). My mare had "navicular syndrome" until her MRI showed a large hole in her deep flexor tendon. Vets knew it was somewhere around the navicular area (obviously) so just imaged that area on the one leg and bingo, we knew what we were dealing with. I wish I was made of money and could afford to have her done again to see if / how it's improved.

I think MRI can be very useful, but also very expensive. You may find your insurance company won't pay for it unless your vet is fully committed, though. IIRC mine had to write a letter to the insurance company before she was referred, saying that he recommended MRI as a method of diagnosis in her case, otherwise insurance company wouldn't have paid.
 
not sure this is a particularly encouraging story (!) but i had a gelding with bilateral lameness, x rays inconclusive and nerve blocks made him sound. tried a few things, box rest etc but he got progressively worse and worse and i had an MRI done which unfortunately then showed conclusively he had terrible navicular in both. He was only a baby (5yr old), had been bought over from the Netherlands and vets conclusion was that he must have been hammered as a youngster, tildren'ed up and sold on, and as the tildren wore off the lameless started to show through. Obviously not the same situation as yours and i really hope yours has a much happier ending!
 
nic83 said:
No experience yet - but my horse is booked in next tuesday.

He has been lame on and off since end of January, mainly in the left, initial nerve blocks in the heel led to an improvement and x rays showed broken back hoof pastern axis so he is having remedial shoeing, and has improved but not quite sound (but down to 1 or 2/10 rather than 4 or 5/10.)

However when we reintroduced work he went lame again - he then went back to have the navicular bursar blocked and this again led to imrpovement - so indicating navicular type issue. The vets were happy just to treat him (Tildren) but I persisted and am having MRI scan to check out any tissue damage and get a better prognosis and hopefully rehab plan.

I can let you know what i find out if you like, and whether its helpful?
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you're having similar problems and yes I would be interested in the results. Fingers crossed you get a definitive prognosis. I've also been offered nerve block of navicular bursa and tildren.
I've been offered nerve block of navicular bursa and tildren.
 
Thanks for replying Misst, Silmarillion and amycamycamyc.

I know my insurers will only pay 50% although if MRI is the best chance of getting a prognosis I think I owe it to her.

I'm going to ring vet and farrier again tomorrow.
 
My mare was MRI'd twice last year and my insurance paid for both luckily. (I take it your insured with nfu who only pay half). She had been on off with very slight lamness on soft ground/ school surfaces. Sound with nerve block and timw off only fixed it for a week or two before unsound again.

the 1st scan showed inflammation of the collateral ligament so box rest for her. :( 10 weeks later she was re scanned and it showed much improvement BUT she was still lame but on the other leg. Apparently this was stiffness due to the BOX REST. GRRHH.

She was put in foal as I had intended and then when infoal I slowly hacked her out. Still a tiny bit wobbly so I got her a joint supplement and this helped massively. Last time I rode her was Jan 11 and she was sound. She'll be having a foal anytime soon.
 
Fab Fern - can I ask which joint supp you put your mare on?

Tiffany, if you can afford it I would def go down the route of having an MRI scan. My lad was intermittently lame for over a year, we'd rest him, bring him back into work and he'd go again after a few months. After this time we had him MRI'd and it showed collateral ligament damage. I wish I'd had it done sooner so i didn't waste my time (and 12mth insurance time) trying to rectify something that we weren't quite sure what it was. After some aggressive treatment, extensive rest and gradual bringing him back into work I've paid out to have him reMRI'd to see if the ligament has healed (mainly for my piece of mind). The damaged ligament only showed slightly on the ultrasound (due to its location) - have you had an ultrasound done at all? Have the MRI done, its like looking into your horses leg, but a very simple procedure.
 
Had my mare MRI scanned 2yrs ago and it was the only way her tear in her ddft within her hoof was found. Very simple procedure and very accurate. Its a pity its so expensive as so many other costly diagnostic procedures could be avoided if it was cheaper and more widely available. Was interesting to watch too.
 
Lobiepoo - is the collateral ligament in the knee?

The fact she went sound when heel nerve blocked suggests problem is in feet so MRI scan would be of her feet. Presume I could request whole leg be MRI'd if I wanted.
 
No, the collateral ligaments start just above the coronet band and travel down into the hoof. There are two ligaments either side of the leg, medial and lateral and I believe they connect the coffin bone to the pedal bone. I'm sure I read somewhere that a damaged collateral ligament in a horse is similar to a severely sprained ankle in a human and that the prognosis for recovery will depend on the severity of the injury and the aggresiveness of the treatment.

I believe the majority of lameness stems from below the pastern and the MRI machine seemed to be aimed at this area. It can be carried out with the horse standing and heavily sedated.
 
Loobielou is correct but in my case he had swollen right up to the knee as he was so bad and had to be nerve blocked from knee to be sound collatral ligaments are so close to the navicular that why so many mistakes are made would never have know without mri scan i also had shoes gell pads on front they crippled him even more
 
I am in a similar situation with my mare and trying to decide on whether or not to go for an MRI. she has had bilateral forelimb lameness that improved with corrective farriery and coffin joint injections. however I still feel she is struggling with work that was previously easy even though she is not obviously lame.
I would be really interested to hear how you get on Tiffany, and wish you the best of luck!
 
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