Putting of seeing how my horse is, I'm such a coward.

Nickles1973

Nickles1973

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I have posted this week about my lovely boy being lame in front and how all signs pointed to it being a hoof/shoe/poss abcess issue. However my farrier came out again on Wednesday and took his shoe off and hoof tested and poked and proded and proclamed that he could find not a thing wrong. He watched me lunge him and he was still slightly lame on a circle in trot but fine in a straight line and he strides out fine in walk. My farrier and yo both suggested that as there was no heat or swelling in either foot and he had improved a bit since Monday our vet would most likely recommend continuing with box rest for a few more days and then to check for improvement at the weekend. So this is what I've done. He's been turned out for a while in our outdoor school while I've mucked out and he's actually been quite good till today. Something sparked him off and he was acting like a div! Elevated trot and extended canter with flying changes in the corners like anyone of the worlds best dressage horses! I did manage to catch him quite quickly but now I'm actually feeling sick. I know I really need to check how he is tomorrow morning but I'm terrified of what I'm going to find. I know I'm being a terrible coward and I can't put off calling the vet off any longer if he is lame. I just wish there were some outward signs of what he could possibly have done to himself so that I'd at least have something to go on. Can't believe I'm being such a woos!
 
If only they could talk hey

If he's only a little bit lame and he's happy acting the goat then I wouldn't panic about the morning

If it's bad - suck it up and call the vet

Hope he is ok
 
To be honest, from the sounds of it I would still suspect an abscess. I have had FAR too much experience of these with my horse who can be prone to getting foot sore and sometimes abscesses after being shod. One time it took bloody ages to get to the seat of the issue. We'd had the farrier (who is normally brilliant at getting them out) a couple of times, a vet and I think we even went down the route of going to get a physio as we thought it must be a shoulder injury or something as he too was not lame in a straight line, only when turning.

It STILL turned out to be an abcess. I didn't box rest him though and,, if it is an abscess there's not a lot to be gained from box rest unless you would struggle to keep it clean. If he's turned out then this will help the abscess move and maybe eventually come out. It could be you may need ABs for him if the infection won't shift. Have you check his digital pulse? If he wasn't lame after hooning about in an arena then i doubt it is any sort of tendon issue or anything that is likely to get worse with him being turned out.

I always prefer them to be out if possible but each to their own with this. I would maybe keep at cleaning it out, see if you can find any hole anywhere - hot tub of salty water to see if you can draw the infection to the surface. If it goes on too long then i think you are best to get a vet to have a dig about (although i always think farriers are better at this).
 
Thanks Ladyt25, I'm glad it's not just me that thinks an abcess is still a possibilty! The two days prior to him going lame he'd com in from the field completely clean. (He'd not even got down to roll) and with our fields like a bog there is no way he can have been hooning around to injure himself. So the obvious cause seemed to be that he'd had new shoes and that'd sparked off an abcess or one of his nails had gone in a bit high. That said, I still can't find any digital pulse and although his hoof is still quite warm this in itself isn't that unusual for him. I've been box resting him because our fields have been so wet and muddy I didn't want to risk him injuring himself further if the cause is tendon or soft tissue related. To see him prancing around the arena today though you would have wondered why I am worrying as he looked completely sound in elevated trot!
 
I know how you feel my horse is the same at the moment, only he is slightly lame on hard ground in a straight line, but sound in the school on a small circle. But sometimes when to trot him he's lame then the next day he's sound, very strange. But he did tread on a rock so I'm assuming bruising which my vet agrees with. I've been standing him in warm water which has done nothing. My farrier is coming out on Tuesday & I'm praying he finds bruising as I've only had my horse 7 weeks. Good luck with your horse.
 
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if a horse has an abcess they are usually really quite lame in any gait. i looked after a horse once that came in lame, i was convinced he had done something serious, he was absolutley hoping lame, he had a thumping pulse and vet just dug his foot out and he was better in a few days.
if i were you, if there is no improvement by monday then call the vet. he doesnt sound like hes in immediate danger or huge amounts of pain to warrant an out of hours call.
 
china said:
if a horse has an abcess they are usually really quite lame in any gait. i looked after a horse once that came in lame, i was convinced he had done something serious, he was absolutley hoping lame, he had a thumping pulse and vet just dug his foot out and he was better in a few days.
if i were you, if there is no improvement by monday then call the vet. he doesnt sound like hes in immediate danger or huge amounts of pain to warrant an out of hours call.
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See, I would slightly disagree with this - yes some horses CAN be very very lame with an abscess but others it's hard to actually spot. in my horses case, if you didn't know him you'd probably have thought he was ok as it was only when he turned he was a little 'footy' on one. Believe me, he is a wuss with his feet but because of where the abscess turned out to be (right on the outside of his foot), this is why he only showed to be lame when he turned to one side (turning in the other direction he was fine).

he had no heat, no raised pulse but eventually the abscess was found and drained and voila - sounds horse!!! They can be very very tricky to find and very frsutrating. In some ways I much prefer those that make the horse very lame, you can find it straight away and release the pressure quickly to see an almost immediate effect.
 
ladyt25 said:
To be honest, from the sounds of it I would still suspect an abscess. I have had FAR too much experience of these with my horse who can be prone to getting foot sore and sometimes abscesses after being shod. One time it took bloody ages to get to the seat of the issue. We'd had the farrier (who is normally brilliant at getting them out) a couple of times, a vet and I think we even went down the route of going to get a physio as we thought it must be a shoulder injury or something as he too was not lame in a straight line, only when turning.

It STILL turned out to be an abcess. I didn't box rest him though and,, if it is an abscess there's not a lot to be gained from box rest unless you would struggle to keep it clean. If he's turned out then this will help the abscess move and maybe eventually come out. It could be you may need ABs for him if the infection won't shift. Have you check his digital pulse? If he wasn't lame after hooning about in an arena then i doubt it is any sort of tendon issue or anything that is likely to get worse with him being turned out.
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Completely agree with this.. my lad gets them quite often too.. was he shod recently? as sometimes this can aggravate them.. i usually just throw an animalintex poultice on, bitta vet wrap over it, tape it up and throw him out.. 2 days later hes back in sound. Hope it turns out well!! i wouldnt be too worried bout seeing him in the morning!
 
OP, my horse is exactly as you have described. In fact I could have written your post for how my horse is. I had the vet and the farrier out and all the farrier could find was a massive bruised sole after two weeks of paring away at the sole. After a week of bute and us expecting the abcess to come out, he has become sound again, albeit only in a straight line - still not happy on circles. So I've turned him out again and he has been hooning around as normal. His hoof is still red hot, the coronet is hot and the pastern is hot, but vet and farrier are still convinced it's an abcess. There's nothing really I can do until it wants to make and appearance, so I'm getting on with things as normal. The farrier even put his shoe back on and told me to get on with hacking him out until further things happen. It's frustrating because I can't school him, can only hack him out, but don't be worried - you might find he's actually improved after having a good buck and leap! Good luck!
 
Thank you everyone for your positive posts! I do feel a little better now. I'm am a dredfull worrier and I can't help myself from looking to the worst possible outlook. Something that doesn't help is that a good friend of mine had her lovely and talented horse (also ex racer) suddenly go lame at the end of last year. She tried everything before calling in the vet and he went in to have a full lameness workup and never came home. He was found to have a massive untreatabe cyst on his stifle and was pts. He was fine all summer and even won a couple of showing championships for style and performance yet must have been suffering all this time just not showing it. I know my boy isn't the same but it is something that I just can't put out of my mind.
 
Just a quick update, I decided to try riding him this morning as I figured after 4 days in lunging might be very exciting! I'd planned that if he felt lame I would put him on the lunge to get a better picture of his movement. And the good news is that he felt absolutely fine on both reins. I wanted to be certain so I asked my yo to watch us in trot on both reins and she agreed that he looked completely sound. I'm still keeping him in for a couple more days as the ground here is just awfull after all the last couple of nights rain.(My farrier commented that his soles were so soft and spongy that I think he needs to keep them dry to harden up a bit.) I'm going to quietly hack him out over the next few days before schooling him again but I'm feeling a lot better about the world today :-)
 
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