Older mare hopping lame... worried...

Switcheroo

Switcheroo

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My horse is kept locally at a family member's farm, shared by her old riding mare who's age is 24. Due to the wet weather I had to bring them in last thursday.

Pigging weather meant the horses were kept in till the following tuesday, five days later. The sun was shining so I hopped on my own horse for a hack; he was grand, happy to get out. However I went in to see my family member's mare, to groom, and take her out on a short walk as I didn't have enough time to go out on another ride.

I've never seen such a change.... five days ago she had been sporting in the field with the other horse, happy, healthy and most importantly, sound as a pound. Now she can barely walk. The vet was called and an anti inflammatory injection administered. It seems to be in the ankle joint of one of her back legs. She rests it on the toe like they might do when resting, but does put weight on it when she goes to move.... the joint seems very stiff and it looks difficult for her to lay the hoof flat.

For a bit of background, the mare is a heavy cob type, not overweight, shoed, and has had the winter off but is usually used for hacking.

I'm unsure as to where to go from here; I've never delt with lameness of this kind. She is not my horse but I care for her deeply and wanted to hear if anyone had any similar stories. How could she have gotten so lame in 5 days? Could the joint have seized from lack of movement?

Very worried for this old mare...
 
Maybe an abcess? I had a TB who had an abcess in a hind hoof. Rested it constantly and was hopping lame on it. The vet came out, drained it, poulticed it and he was fine within a week. It is amazing once drained how they go from hopping lame to sound.

It only takes a couple of days for an abcess to get very painful. Did your vet check the hoof for heat/abcess? Maybe your farrier could take a look?

Good luck
 
Thanks for the replies. The heat is in the joint but when prompted to lift her leg to check the hoof, the mare would not lift, or threatened to kick.

Will ring the farrier and see what he says. : /
 
Has the lameness come on slowly or did it suddenly occur on day 5?

What was she like when she was taken out of her stable on days 1 - 4 to stretch her legs?

Are there any marks in the stable indicating that she has kicked the wall or even been cast?
 
Always start at the foot! Our old TB, think he was 26 at the time maybe, went hopping lame (and I mean 3 legs!) suddenly. We actually had to separate him from the others as they started attacking him. Turned out he had a nasty abscess - he actually ended up with one in each foot because he was compensating so much with the other leg. Honestly, he was doing the whole "I am going to die" type horse act and, to be honest at one stage we did wonder! Tubbing and poulticing two front feet was pretty funny!

We used hoof boots to help him recover as he doesn't have shoes for half the year (he has fronts on in summer as his feet can crack otherwise - he's a TB)

My other pony had an abscess once as well in a hind leg. We actually thought he had done something horrendous to himself (ie fractured it) as he would not put it on the floor. Nope, still jan abscess!
 
I don't want to worry you but

Our 31 yr old retired cob mare went lame suddenly, walking in her left hind toe, got vet out, then farrier both suspected abscess but could find nothing so on day 5 vet x-rayed, still nothing obvious, then the snow came and she had to stay in for a week. Farrier came back through the snow to look again, still couldn't find anything. Tubbing and poulticing sometimes seemed to produce a small amount of smelly discharge. She was on a high dose of bute throughout. Then she progressively got more sound but had massive muscle wastage on the left hind-quarters. In week 6 we gave her bute for the next scheduled farrier visit, on the Monday and it seemed to sedate her, she could barely stand for him to trim her front feet and we decided to leave the backs alone. Vet came out the next day and couldn't really find anything, mare improved a bit. Then on the Friday she suddenly deteriorated and the vet said she thought it was a tumour, mare was pts that afternoon.
The trouble is that when they are old they seem to almost 'fall apart' before our eyes. I do hope your horse is ok.
 
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