Pectoral Tears and Lameness

atropa

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Has anyone had any experience of pectoral tears causing lameness?

My mare has been out of work for a couple of months while I investigated unusual behaviour for her, which I believed to be related to pain. Whilst a vet didn't find anything after two physical examinations, a physio seen her and told me that she had at some point had a tear in her right pectoral muscle. The physio said that this had now healed without any scar tissue, but the mare still seemed to be reactive in the area so was probably experiencing some remembered pain.

I have been shown a massage/stretch routine to try and help her and have decided to start bringing her gently back into work. Last night I did a bit of lungeing with her, and she looked sound in walk and trot on the right rein, but there was a visible lameness around the right shoulder area when trotting on the left rein.

Do we think that left rein lameness in trot could correlate to pain/tightness in the right pec muscle, or is this likely to be another issues altogether?
 

atropa

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I hadn't noticed the lameness at that point so the vet only examined her in her stable. I don't think it's her hind at the minute, my other mare frequently can look sore in front due to a mechanical restriction behind so I'm quite good at picking that up, but I will be keeping it in mind if I can't find anything to sort in front. Thanks :)
 

PorkChop

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Are you absolutely sure there is nothing going on with her front feet, for example shearing? This would definitely effect the pecs and might have been the root of the problem.
 

atropa

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Are you absolutely sure there is nothing going on with her front feet, for example shearing? This would definitely effect the pecs and might have been the root of the problem.

Hmm, I never thought of that. I will have a good look at the shape of her feet tonight. The past two times she's been shod she has been a nightmare, nipping at farrier when he picks her fronts up and waving her hinds about. My farrier is excellent and I trust him but the last shoeing session before her issues started, her toes were rolled to try and help with her overreaching so you might actually be on to something, thank you.
 

PorkChop

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Hmm, I never thought of that. I will have a good look at the shape of her feet tonight. The past two times she's been shod she has been a nightmare, nipping at farrier when he picks her fronts up and waving her hinds about. My farrier is excellent and I trust him but the last shoeing session before her issues started, her toes were rolled to try and help with her overreaching so you might actually be on to something, thank you.

I would, I have a horse here that is currently being a walking Vet bill. Now that we have cleared all her various problems up she has gone lame in her front feet because of shearing. It wouldn't surprise me if it was this imbalance that has caused all the other problems. I don't blame my farrier, neither does my Vet, it has just been a culmination of many things, hopefully we are on our last hurdle!
 

atropa

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I would, I have a horse here that is currently being a walking Vet bill. Now that we have cleared all her various problems up she has gone lame in her front feet because of shearing. It wouldn't surprise me if it was this imbalance that has caused all the other problems. I don't blame my farrier, neither does my Vet, it has just been a culmination of many things, hopefully we are on our last hurdle!

Haha, both of mine have been walking vet bills this year, I'm just a bit stumped on this one as nothing is really seeming to help so far! Thanks for the pointer
 

PorkChop

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Haha, both of mine have been walking vet bills this year, I'm just a bit stumped on this one as nothing is really seeming to help so far! Thanks for the pointer

Welcome to my world :) might not be that, but its never a bad thing if you start with the hooves then work your way up!
 

fawaz

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I had a mare with a torn pec muscle. She was inconsistently lame and only about a 1/5.
She would be fine one day and then slightly off the next and then fine again the day after! Took two vets and two different muscle people before anyone worked it out.
Vet advised paddock rest for eight weeks but this didn't seem to help as the mare was rather clumsy and if she tripped/slipped/stumbled she would aggravate it again and be back at square one.
Apparently it's a really hard injury to heal due to how much the area is used and the range of motion.
In the end I put her on box rest with weekly/biweekly myofunctional therapy treatments as required and played it by ear.
It took about six months to resolve on complete box rest but she never had an issue there again.
 

atropa

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I had a mare with a torn pec muscle. She was inconsistently lame and only about a 1/5.
She would be fine one day and then slightly off the next and then fine again the day after! Took two vets and two different muscle people before anyone worked it out.
Vet advised paddock rest for eight weeks but this didn't seem to help as the mare was rather clumsy and if she tripped/slipped/stumbled she would aggravate it again and be back at square one.
Apparently it's a really hard injury to heal due to how much the area is used and the range of motion.
In the end I put her on box rest with weekly/biweekly myofunctional therapy treatments as required and played it by ear.
It took about six months to resolve on complete box rest but she never had an issue there again.

Oh dear :\ see I have no idea of when she actually might have did it so therefore she has just been turned out normally, albeit not worked since early October. Her symptoms started mid September and the physio claimed the tear has already healed but from the severity of her reaction to being worked around the area and from what you've said I wonder if this isn't the case. Did you notice any difficulties in picking your horses feet up when she had the tear?
 

fawaz

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Oh dear :\ see I have no idea of when she actually might have did it so therefore she has just been turned out normally, albeit not worked since early October. Her symptoms started mid September and the physio claimed the tear has already healed but from the severity of her reaction to being worked around the area and from what you've said I wonder if this isn't the case. Did you notice any difficulties in picking your horses feet up when she had the tear?

I don't know exactly when my mare torn her pec either! She was never very lame and didn't start playing up or not wanting to work BUT she was a very dumb kind girl so possibly didn't think of trying to tell me or to kick up about it. She was always fine to pick her feet up but as I said above she was very dumb and very kind and willing.
 

Jnhuk

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Symptoms - swelling and sore when touched. We caught it very early on as was told if old, the swelling wouldn't have been present.

Regular physio, initially cold therapy for 5 mins until swelling subsided and now we are on hot therapy for 10 mins coupled with walk in hand and to start very gentle stepping over poles. Horse is still on 24/7 turnout but advised not to let him go out in deep mud or on ice.

When the hair has been wetted with gel for the ultrasound you can see the tear as well as feel it with your fingers if you are gentle.
 
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Bessi

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Mine had a nasty tear in his pectoral muscle about 18 months ago, you could feel the probably hole in his muscle and it felt huge to me, when he did it he was very lame in a straight line. I was advised he could continue to go out as is generally quit in the field but was told if he would have been silly in the field would have had to stay in.When this didn't improve and in fact he got better on the straight and worse on the turn he then also got diagnosed with navicular changes in his feet due to poor hoof pastern axis so we took his shoes off and turned him away for 8 months, he started in hand work again in march and undersaddle in may and so far we aren't seeing any longterm problems as a result - he is totally sound and jumping again.
 
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