Murphy’s Gauntlet
Member
Hi All, I am at my wits end to be honest… so this is going to be a long post… hoping someone has been through similar as I have already had advice and professionals in.
So my eventer and I were at a show jumping comp (sand arena) when an injury occurred. Second to last fence I felt him lose balance, I rebalanced and finished our class, as I circled to finish he was hopping lame… I got off quickly to him throwing his left leg at me telling me it was hurting. I did a quick investigation and nothing was obviously as he was already in pads. He walked away fairly lame I would say grade 4. We got him home, rested him and I called my physio to get her next free appointment. 2 days later he was slowly improving but still quite visible in trot. Physio found him very sore and tight in the thoracic and chest area as well as the shoulder and opposite SI. I rested him for a further week, waiting for chiropractor to pay a visit. ( I add I have always had good results speaking to these professionals before vets)
Chiropractor came out, found nothing sinister in the SI, but did find his sternum out of place by a couple of inches
By this point we still had the other indication of swelling or heat… although in the near side hoof temperature was the same as the off side , which is abnormal due to an older problem in the off side (subsolar abscess)… it has been like this for years, so always aware it is generally hotter. But the temperature in both is similar. Due to whatever reason his hooves were growing quicker than normal and I did notice he was reactive to me pressing at the heel of his hoof. The chiropractor also found this. Luckily we had the farrier that day and he removed the pads and rebalanced his hooves. He thoroughly checked his hooves and found nothing… his recent corns had subsided (sorry forgot to mention that!) his hooves were clearly in good health.
For the next 3 days he rested and then I lunges him to show a video to the chiropractor, there was only a slight nod, and fairly hard to see. We left him a further few days until he lunged sound and trotted up and slightly down hill on hard ground sound. I was given the all clear to continue to hack, in straight lines on as flat a surface as possible. We did so. We continued for a few days, then as we came down a hill he went short in his stride.
I called the vet, spoke to him and he advised to give him a few days rest and then pick up again… as I explained when we went on the level again him came sound.
This did improve but there was still a niggle for me…
We arrange a lameness work up and rested until then.
We got to the vets, covered him in gadgets and proceeded in trotting in straight lines, indicating complete soundness, via eye and computer… we did flexion tests, still clear. Trotted on the left rein and nodded slightly… sound on the right. We nerve blocked his heel, and he came sound, via computer again. Vet did say it could be to do with the pidgeon toe (near side) …. (Another thing I forgot to mention!) anyway we had x rays and the vet seemed pretty pleased as nothing really bad came up. He has shadowing developing as side bones on the inside of both fronts, but he did highlight that his pedal done is on the flatter side and would like to see it more of the normal angle… which is also a bit strange as he has one flat hoof and one boxy hoof
but with reference to the x ray the pedal bones look like a pair.
We were sent home, with 8 days of bute and my vet contacting my farrier. Farrier is due out this week. We also got told we could work him, which we’ve done lots of pole work in hand etc etc…
My concerns are the niggle on off lameness is not going to be corrected with shoeing… I still think the muscles have something to do with it, even though I have had proof the computer indicates he was sound after the nerve block.
Could it be the pidgeon toe?
Could it be the side bone?
Could it be the pedal bone?
Could it be the shoulder or muscles?
What I did notice today was his breast/chest area he isn’t symmetrical… he also has an inward dent in the left breast area by the inside of the leg… could this be something?
Oh I wish they could talk!!
So my eventer and I were at a show jumping comp (sand arena) when an injury occurred. Second to last fence I felt him lose balance, I rebalanced and finished our class, as I circled to finish he was hopping lame… I got off quickly to him throwing his left leg at me telling me it was hurting. I did a quick investigation and nothing was obviously as he was already in pads. He walked away fairly lame I would say grade 4. We got him home, rested him and I called my physio to get her next free appointment. 2 days later he was slowly improving but still quite visible in trot. Physio found him very sore and tight in the thoracic and chest area as well as the shoulder and opposite SI. I rested him for a further week, waiting for chiropractor to pay a visit. ( I add I have always had good results speaking to these professionals before vets)
Chiropractor came out, found nothing sinister in the SI, but did find his sternum out of place by a couple of inches
By this point we still had the other indication of swelling or heat… although in the near side hoof temperature was the same as the off side , which is abnormal due to an older problem in the off side (subsolar abscess)… it has been like this for years, so always aware it is generally hotter. But the temperature in both is similar. Due to whatever reason his hooves were growing quicker than normal and I did notice he was reactive to me pressing at the heel of his hoof. The chiropractor also found this. Luckily we had the farrier that day and he removed the pads and rebalanced his hooves. He thoroughly checked his hooves and found nothing… his recent corns had subsided (sorry forgot to mention that!) his hooves were clearly in good health.
For the next 3 days he rested and then I lunges him to show a video to the chiropractor, there was only a slight nod, and fairly hard to see. We left him a further few days until he lunged sound and trotted up and slightly down hill on hard ground sound. I was given the all clear to continue to hack, in straight lines on as flat a surface as possible. We did so. We continued for a few days, then as we came down a hill he went short in his stride.
I called the vet, spoke to him and he advised to give him a few days rest and then pick up again… as I explained when we went on the level again him came sound.
This did improve but there was still a niggle for me…
We arrange a lameness work up and rested until then.
We got to the vets, covered him in gadgets and proceeded in trotting in straight lines, indicating complete soundness, via eye and computer… we did flexion tests, still clear. Trotted on the left rein and nodded slightly… sound on the right. We nerve blocked his heel, and he came sound, via computer again. Vet did say it could be to do with the pidgeon toe (near side) …. (Another thing I forgot to mention!) anyway we had x rays and the vet seemed pretty pleased as nothing really bad came up. He has shadowing developing as side bones on the inside of both fronts, but he did highlight that his pedal done is on the flatter side and would like to see it more of the normal angle… which is also a bit strange as he has one flat hoof and one boxy hoof
but with reference to the x ray the pedal bones look like a pair. We were sent home, with 8 days of bute and my vet contacting my farrier. Farrier is due out this week. We also got told we could work him, which we’ve done lots of pole work in hand etc etc…
My concerns are the niggle on off lameness is not going to be corrected with shoeing… I still think the muscles have something to do with it, even though I have had proof the computer indicates he was sound after the nerve block.
Could it be the pidgeon toe?
Could it be the side bone?
Could it be the pedal bone?
Could it be the shoulder or muscles?
What I did notice today was his breast/chest area he isn’t symmetrical… he also has an inward dent in the left breast area by the inside of the leg… could this be something?
Oh I wish they could talk!!
