Ongoing Lameness - Also in NL

[Amo]

Apologies for the long post but here goes……………..and before anyone says, yes it does appear I am slowly breaking him or we are jinxed !!


My boy has been on and off lame since I brought him 15 months ago, all slightly different reasons which so far have been easily identifiable and solved. I only had him 1 months before he cut his front right leg, just on the fetlock which was quite deep and took a long time to heal, resulting in him being lame and out of work for 3 to 4 months. Came back into work for 2 weeks before going lame on his front left. It seems due to compensating for his previous injury his other leg took the strain and as a result his hoof wall had separated slightly from the lamini, cue more lameness and off work for another 3 or 4 months. Now has heart bars fitted to prevent any reoccurrence of this issue (touch wood)

A few weeks before he was able to come back into work thought best to have saddle checked as he had changed shape, pretty much got told to never put that saddle back on him, it was way too tight, admittedly I should have had it checked when I first took him on and it was on my list of things to do so to a degree my own fault (I felt bad enough at the time so please be nice) Ordered a lovely new saddle that fitted but took 6 weeks to arrive. By the time we were all kitted out correctly he had been off work for 9 months.

Obviously during this time he lost pretty much all of his muscle do I knew I had to take it really slowly with him. I built him up hacking from literally 10 mins a couple of times a week to 1 hour hacks 6 days a week over a 2 month period (I went very slow to this point) His muscle did start to develop, not as much as I expected to be honest but he wasn’t being worked too hard. After this I then decided to get back on with my lessons, as part of these lessons my instructor was getting the boy to work from behind. I got homework to practise and we started schooling 4/5 a week. All going well until he starting going lame on his back end, only slight ranging from 1/10 through to 3/10 and mainly on left. It is very intermittent and can come and go within a few strides, and I mean he can literally trot up the long side of the school and do a few strides of lame, sound then lame again. I convinced myself at this point that I had pushed him to hard in the school to fast and he had pulled a muscle or something similar. Asked the vet for some bute to make him slightly more comfortable and in case there was any inflammation and vet agreed, also put him on box rest a few days. He was off work for 2 weeks before I got back on. Took him out for a hack and same problem again. He has been like this now for 3 months. (Oh and during this time he has had Lymphangitis as well)

So far the vet has done nerve blocks on both feet, joint blocks on both hocks and xrays on both hocks. The right hock has the start of arthritis so 2 weeks ago he had a steroid injection which does seem to have sorted the right, the left is still a mystery. The next plan of attach is to either send him to Liverpool for Scintigraphy or Thermology. Both of these needs to wait a few weeks before we do anything else to let him have a small break from needles to be honest. I have been instructed to carry on riding him on gentle hacks to keep him moving and he is sound enough for this easily, he even gets his silly pants on quite often so is not in any real pain.

I am waiting for the vet to phone me back to discuss getting a Physio out to see if they are able to assist in diagnosing where the issue is, he hasn’t seemed keen on this idea so far.

Has anyone had anything similar? Can you think of anything else I could do in the meantime?

If anyone made it this far I am very impressed

 

[GoodyGoody]

I'm surprised no-one has replied to this thread but all the signs you mention are very often the result of muscular issues. Regular contributors to the forum will know my philosophy. Soft tissue problems do not show up on x-rays of course. Your problem I am afraid is finding someone who can properly diagnose and then treat. Changing your riding can help: Antoine De Bodt - www.hoefkatrol.be unfortunately his website is all in Dutch) - has excellent results but riding is only part of the story. As you yourself discovered, the saddle is important but so are also the muscles. Correcting the balance of the horse (and perhaps your own ) will certainly help. If you have someone close who practises jack meagher's muscle therapy and/or a well-referenced osteo these would be good places to start. Don't be fobbed off with 'superior' advice. Go with your gut feel. It really isn't that complicated (not that that makes it any easier!). Make sure your horse can do the work you are asking of it. Make sure it is good in its head. Feed it properly. Make sure the muscles and skeleton are in order. Make sure the saddle fits and the horse is well shod. make sure your training and riding are not damaging the horse and take note of small negative changes in your horse's performance as early signs that a problem is starting.

 

[Amo]

Thanks the reply, he is booked in for Thermography on Monday morning and starts Physio next week. Hopefully we will start to get answers soon.

 

[Amo]

Bit of an update in case it sounds similar to anything anyone else has been through.
Just had results back from Thermography and to be honest slightly confusing. It has shown some heat in his back around his lumber muscles I believe, not too bad but needs looking at. Also pretty sure he has a trapped nerve on the sciatic nerve (excuse spelling) only problem is this is on his right but he is lame on his left. They were not happy with the quality of the image of his hock so coming out again in the next week or so to re-do, this may provide more info.
Physio booked for Wednesday so looks as though all my hopes now rest on her shoulders.

Ever feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall. I just want to know what's wrong with my boy :-(

 

[jaye1780]

Hi when he was on the bute did the lameness go or was he still lame?

Know how you feel, spent over a year trying to find out what was wrong with one of mine, had alsorts of physio, chiro, thermal imaging etc to now conclude its very mild stringhalt Keep looking as someone will spot it soon

 

[Amo]

You know what, I can't for the life of me remember if the bute helped, it was a while ago now and so much has happened since, not that I feel any more educated.

Very excited about the Physio coming tomorrow, really hoping she can help. I need to get a life as this is just embarrasing lol

 

[misst]

This may or may not be helpful but he sounds almost like my daughters old dressage boy. He originally had suspensory problems behind, when these were sorted out he was lame in front. When this was sorted out he appeared to have SI problems.

Overall he had navicular syndrome and collateral ligament problems, SI problems and hind suspensory problems. We never did solve everything and he was retired at 10 and was pts aged 12 with very sudden very bad lameness which, as we were out of insurance and he did not have obvious abscesses, laminitis or other easily treated things and had obviously had had enough seemed the right thing to do for him.

Given my time again and knowing what I know now I would firstly have addressed his poor foot balance and probably tried to take his shoes off (though he would have struggled at least for sometime I am sure). However I think he had foot balance issues which impacted on everything else. I would also have tried to ensure there was no mollasses in his diet and perhaps looked at LGL - though actually he had quite a "sensible" diet even though we were not trying to limit sugars. By the time I knew some of what I have learned now it was too late

I think I am trying to say that your horse sounds as if he has lots of "knock on" problems so maybe find the "worst/original" cause and treat that? Sorry that was very long and wooly!