ongoing un diagnosed lameness-the plot thickens!

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clairefeekerry1

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some of you may have read re my horse only being lame when ridden. Well i saw a specialist today after 2 months of my vets not finding anything. Bone scans, x rays and nerve blocks all inconclusive. Well specialist also thought he was very badly lame but said it was his hind-not his front as first thought. Vet also rode him. Nerve blocks down from hock down with no diff so coming out next week to block higher up. He is now thinking stifle ligament damage or sarcoliac ligament damage-anyone any exp of this?
 
Oh flip yes I have and it presented with wierd foreleg lameness too. I have reported it on other threads but I can't remember if I did on yours or not. I'll kick myself if not.

In the end, after months of on and off lameness in the off fore, I spotted heat and difference in heights in the tuber sacrale - it was his SI joint all along. All my boy needed was a week in his box. He came out for a pick of grass, pulled away from me, jumped the steel 5 bar gate to his field and went completely wild for 10 minutes and was never unsound with the SI joint again! Thinking back, mine was also only ever lame when ridden, though never as badly as yours.

This sounds like progress for your boy to me. I hope you get a good recovery.

Edit, yup, I posted this a couple of days ago on the original thread:

"Have they checked his sacroiliac? Again it should respond to bute, but I know from experience that it can throw up weird front leg lameness as the horse tries to compensate for the unstable joint."

I wonder if it's best if it's the SI, because the stifle is a nasty complicated joint like our knee?
 
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Mine has had weird lameness, vet thought front, I thought shoulder.

Nerve blocks front and back, bone scan blah, blah .... ends up it's her bloody teeth contributing to it. And yes, she had the vet and an EDT look at them. So, riding in a hackamore until she has lower jaw wolf teeth out in November.
I'm following a program to get her fit from the vet, so am going to get to the end of this and then do teeth.
 
cptrayes said:
Oh flip yes I have and it presented with wierd foreleg lameness too. I have reported it on other threads but I can't remember if I did on yours or not. I'll kick myself if not.

In the end, after months of on and off lameness in the off fore, I spotted heat and difference in heights in the tuber sacrale - it was his SI joint all along. All my boy needed was a week in his box. He came out for a pick of grass, pulled away from me, jumped the steel 5 bar gate to his field and went completely wild for 10 minutes and was never unsound with the SI joint again! Thinking back, mine was also only ever lame when ridden, though never as badly as yours.

This sounds like progress for your boy to me. I hope you get a good recovery.

Edit, yup, I posted this a couple of days ago on the original thread:

"Have they checked his sacroiliac? Again it should respond to bute, but I know from experience that it can throw up weird front leg lameness as the horse tries to compensate for the unstable joint."

I wonder if it's best if it's the SI, because the stifle is a nasty complicated joint like our knee?
Click to expand...

hi, well the vet thinks it could be the ligaments around the SI or stifle as absolutely nothing showed on the bone scan. he said it would be better if its the stifle rather than the SI as these can be awfully difficult to diagnose and treat and have a poor prognosis.tho your story shows different!! he has told me to keep lightly hacking as he's okay in straight lines. not sure how i feel about this. at least we are looking at the correct part of him now!!
 
Has he ever to your knowledge "sat down" either with you on him or in the field doing a sliding stop? That's what mine did, and I believe it's a common cause. I think there are plenty of examples of horses that come through an SI strain OK, but yours has been more badly lame than the two I know of personally (though I doubt 8/10 was ever right because at 8/10 it would have been totally obvious which leg was collapsing!).
 
not sure i would say stifle was better than SI - they're both a bit rubbish. my boy was diagnosed with ligament damage in his stifle in April (he had a hot spot show up on bone scan). He had arthroscopy, 6wks box rest and is now on 6mths field rest but with a guarded prognosis for return to any work.
 
I feel for you - a long road so far!

Just a note, the scintigraphy works by detected active bone or soft tissue inflammationbut binding to specific cells...so if that damage has been there a while it may come back as a clean test but the after effects are still causing a problem...:rolleyes: confusing sometimes!!!

SI problems are pretty common and blocking/medication often has spectacular results particularly when ridden...Sue Dyson at the AHT in Newmarket is the guru of this area....I'm sure you'll already be hitting the google button!!;)

Good luck with this
Imogen
 
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