pootleperkin
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
My lovely big WB mare (coloured in my sig) went lame back in May. She had a month in April off after a winter of learning to jump and lightly competing at indoor workers and unaff SJ shows (very lightly), then I brought her back into work with a bit of hacking and then into the school. During a canter in the school, I felt her falter and she pulled up lame on her right fore. Vet's diagnosis was difficult, as after a few weeks out in the field, she was sound on the road, but still slightly lame on the soft, so she was x rayed in June just in case and was clean and then US scanned to look for soft tissue injury. The vet discovered what looked like a plausible slight bit of damage to the collateral ligament in her right fore, so she was treated conservatively.
She was put in a very small paddock, then later in the summer on box rest still with shoes on. She got towards being sound in September and the vet said she wasn't right but wasn't lame so chuck her out and see what happens. At this point, her shoes had been off for a bit (she had only ever been shod in front), as I didn't see the point in shoeing on box rest. She was out for a month, came completely sound, had a full set of shoes back on (unfortunately, very badly fitted, I should have done something then, but you should be able to trust your professionals really and stupidly I thought we were over the lameness and that too small shoes not really supporting the heel wouldn't matter that much - shoot me now). She worked for a month and a half, gradually starting trot work and eventually had the odd canter out hacking, but then suddenly starting dropping on her right fore in the school again. This time she was lame on the road and in the school, so different from the primary lameness.
Vet came out and said to pop some eggbars on, just to see if made a difference before we did another work up, given that her heels hadn't had any support in the old shoes, but after three weeks, if anything she was getting worse, so they came off and she was x-rayed again where the vet saw changes to the navicular bone. There appeared to be some calcification on the top where one of the ligmaents inserted onto the bone and also the bone looked 'spiky' at the bottom. Vet was a bit doom and gloom and said she probably wouldn't compete again at a reasonable level, but we would see how she went. He wanted the eggbars to go back on for another month, but in the time it took before the new blacksmith could get back out, she came sound barefoot and has been sound ever since.
What is interesting is that she is not bilaterally lame on fore leg nerve block, which indicates that she doesn't have an innate degenerative navicular. I feel that everything stemmed from that original soft tissue injury, as indicated by the presentation of the lameness (sound on hard, lame on soft) and ultrasound back then and what has now happened to the navicular bone in terms of changes, is probably due to ligament or tendon irritation in the hind foot - does that make sense?
I suggested to Vet that we now MRI, so we could try and ID the primary problem, but he said that there would probably be so many red herrings on the scan that it wasn't worth it unless she was lame.
What I would like to know though is are we looking at a navicular pain problem alone now or some soft tissue damage too? It would be useful to know in terms of working out a plan to bring her back into work.....vet is out next week, so will discuss with him then. Given she is unshod, I would like to start some school work with her in walk and trot rather than just walking on the roads (she has been walking out sound under saddle for about 2 weeks now), but obviously don't want to upset a damaged DDFT for example........
I'm happy for her to remain barefoot - she is already on a low sugar, high fibre diet (sure grow balancer - recommended to me as a good general balancer by a Spillers nutritionist - molichaff calmer, micronised linseed, goof hay and haylage), and she has quite good feet, but I'm not sure how she will cope hacking over rough ground. She's my jumper but husband's hack and he is relatively heavy at 6'5''. I now have a very good, proactive farrier, who has all sorts of ideas to help us manage her if barefoot doesn't suit.
She also has a sidebone on that foot, thought both vet and farrier are unconcerned as it appears old and settled - where she has got these problems from I don't know, as she is a very low mileage 8 year who has been given time to grow and mature.
Has anyone else had a similar case? Any thoughts?
My lovely big WB mare (coloured in my sig) went lame back in May. She had a month in April off after a winter of learning to jump and lightly competing at indoor workers and unaff SJ shows (very lightly), then I brought her back into work with a bit of hacking and then into the school. During a canter in the school, I felt her falter and she pulled up lame on her right fore. Vet's diagnosis was difficult, as after a few weeks out in the field, she was sound on the road, but still slightly lame on the soft, so she was x rayed in June just in case and was clean and then US scanned to look for soft tissue injury. The vet discovered what looked like a plausible slight bit of damage to the collateral ligament in her right fore, so she was treated conservatively.
She was put in a very small paddock, then later in the summer on box rest still with shoes on. She got towards being sound in September and the vet said she wasn't right but wasn't lame so chuck her out and see what happens. At this point, her shoes had been off for a bit (she had only ever been shod in front), as I didn't see the point in shoeing on box rest. She was out for a month, came completely sound, had a full set of shoes back on (unfortunately, very badly fitted, I should have done something then, but you should be able to trust your professionals really and stupidly I thought we were over the lameness and that too small shoes not really supporting the heel wouldn't matter that much - shoot me now). She worked for a month and a half, gradually starting trot work and eventually had the odd canter out hacking, but then suddenly starting dropping on her right fore in the school again. This time she was lame on the road and in the school, so different from the primary lameness.
Vet came out and said to pop some eggbars on, just to see if made a difference before we did another work up, given that her heels hadn't had any support in the old shoes, but after three weeks, if anything she was getting worse, so they came off and she was x-rayed again where the vet saw changes to the navicular bone. There appeared to be some calcification on the top where one of the ligmaents inserted onto the bone and also the bone looked 'spiky' at the bottom. Vet was a bit doom and gloom and said she probably wouldn't compete again at a reasonable level, but we would see how she went. He wanted the eggbars to go back on for another month, but in the time it took before the new blacksmith could get back out, she came sound barefoot and has been sound ever since.
What is interesting is that she is not bilaterally lame on fore leg nerve block, which indicates that she doesn't have an innate degenerative navicular. I feel that everything stemmed from that original soft tissue injury, as indicated by the presentation of the lameness (sound on hard, lame on soft) and ultrasound back then and what has now happened to the navicular bone in terms of changes, is probably due to ligament or tendon irritation in the hind foot - does that make sense?
I suggested to Vet that we now MRI, so we could try and ID the primary problem, but he said that there would probably be so many red herrings on the scan that it wasn't worth it unless she was lame.
What I would like to know though is are we looking at a navicular pain problem alone now or some soft tissue damage too? It would be useful to know in terms of working out a plan to bring her back into work.....vet is out next week, so will discuss with him then. Given she is unshod, I would like to start some school work with her in walk and trot rather than just walking on the roads (she has been walking out sound under saddle for about 2 weeks now), but obviously don't want to upset a damaged DDFT for example........
I'm happy for her to remain barefoot - she is already on a low sugar, high fibre diet (sure grow balancer - recommended to me as a good general balancer by a Spillers nutritionist - molichaff calmer, micronised linseed, goof hay and haylage), and she has quite good feet, but I'm not sure how she will cope hacking over rough ground. She's my jumper but husband's hack and he is relatively heavy at 6'5''. I now have a very good, proactive farrier, who has all sorts of ideas to help us manage her if barefoot doesn't suit.
She also has a sidebone on that foot, thought both vet and farrier are unconcerned as it appears old and settled - where she has got these problems from I don't know, as she is a very low mileage 8 year who has been given time to grow and mature.
Has anyone else had a similar case? Any thoughts?
. 
. I'm still on the first pair I bought 2.5 years ago when we first went bare and they haven't worn out yet though only go on occasionally now. 
