My horse can barely walk

My mare has repeated bouts of laminitis. She NEVER reacts to hoof testers. She never stands like a typical laminitic. In fact her symptoms can be as subtle as just not being forward enough off the leg to ride. I now spot the signs before she gets too bad. Both my vet and my farrier missed her first attack of laminitis. I have seen this time and time again. I called my vet out a second time and asked specifically if it was laminitis. He didn't think so as she did not react to hoof testers. It was only when a second vet was called and I actually said that I really thought it was laminitis, that the diagnosis was made. OP, soak her hay and put her on a deep shavings bed until she comes sound. Vets often get it wrong, even the best of them.
 
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well we thought mine might be lame in his shoulder as he wasn't swinging it through correctly. The problem was actually in his foot- that can easily affect the movement higher up.

Hopefully you can get more of a work up done given that in your first post I think horse has been lame since the 3rd week of February so a good couple of months now.

ps I think adrenaline would for a time improve most types of lameness - Im not aware of the specifically not improving lami.
 
ester said:
ps I think adrenaline would for a time improve most types of lameness - Im not aware of the specifically not improving lami.
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Yes, even laminitis providing it isn't really severe. My pony can be a bit footy one minute and having a mad session the next, galloping and bucking round the yard with the others. :rolleyes:
 
As ester said, foot lameness can look like other things. Mine looked lame from her shoulder or back but it was her feet. The odd presentation was because she was sore in more than one foot.
 
PrettyLittleLiar said:
In the field she still canters around etc, but she's lame. She lets you touch it without flackering. The more work she does, the worse she gets.
It started 5 weeks ago, she was a little bit lame on her right front leg but we just thought a few days rest would do her good. 3 weeks later, she was still the same, no better, no worse, so we took her too the vets. The vet said that she was lame on the left front leg, which she was quite badly, she had her shoe took off and a nerve block in her pastern, after that she was quite a bit better but still lame so she had an x-ray, it showed nothing, other than sitting quite far back on her heels nothing was wrong. That was the 27th March. She got bute, twice a day for five days, and she has too keep her shoes off for two to three weeks, but she needs shoes on.
Today when I went down to walk her around and have a look at her, at the beginning she was fine but the more she did, she got completely lame, i think she is over compensating on her good leg and is now sore on that one also.
The woman who owns the yard she is on thinks it has something to with her shoulder.
Please help, it's really complicated and I have no idea whats wrong with her :(. She is a 9yr old connemara, who has had a lot of time off due to her rider being ill.
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I would rule out
Lami
puncture
abscess first

Check for heat and pulse , then move on to another region
 
Leviathan said:
I would rule out
Lami
puncture
abscess first

Check for heat and pulse , then move on to another region
Click to expand...

Just came back from the vets where she had a nerve block in her coffin joint, made no difference, so she had around eight xrays and on two of them it showed a line on the back of her pastern. So the vet isn't sure whether she's got a stress fracture on the back of her pastern or if it was just a line on the xray, either way she's going for a mri scan in a few weeks.
Honestly, it's such a good thing she's well behaved the amount she's poked and prodded
 
Thanks for the update. I'm sorry that it's not a happier one. I hope that everything goes well with the MRI and that she gets better soon.
 
Just a quick reply, I wanted to say what it is just incase anyone else has this problem.
FINALLY! we have found out the problem! Because she sits back on her heels, that isn't great to start with but she tore her tendons and they started to heal, but have healed wrong, causing the lesions to press on her navicular bursa which caused the pain. It was starting to happen in the other foot but we've caught it in time. She's having an operation on Thursday (16th May) to take away the scar tissue etc, and will have remedial shoeing after that.
We're not sure if shell return to her normal self after or even if it'll work at all but we are keeping everything crossed that even if the operation doesn't work completely, the other options will help her be pain free.
If anything changes I'll update.
 
So glad you've found out what it is!

I was reading through this post and lami. rated pretty highly in my book, which just goes to show that you can't rely on on-line diagnosis.

Hope she comes sound.
 
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