Shoulder injury?

[Et_equus_]

Right, I've got a wee ex racer coming to live with me due to injury that happend June 2019. He crashed over a hurdle and injured his right foreleg (as diagnosed by on sight vet) - He is sound at walk in the paddock and can have a good hoon and pull up sound (sometimes) and then sometimes he hoons and is very obviously sore. Other times he pulls up sound that day n the next day he is lame at trot or just chooses to not push himself past walk. He has never had any x-rays/scans etc, due to not really knowing what you can do for a shoulder say it broken? Just rest as he has been doing. I'm happy for him to be a pasture pet the rest of his life but I am curious to know if he could come back from it with it being nearly a year since the event I am skeptical. I will add photos of the crash and this is the link to a video of the fall too for reference.

I would get videos of him moving now but unfortunately they are of no use due to him having a bruised foot ?
View attachment 43810

 

[Et_equus_]

Another video

 

[be positive]

Without a proper diagnosis being done the prognosis is just as much of a guess, if something had been broken, unlikely, it may have healed but the surrounding ligaments may have also been damaged as will the muscles, they will heal over time but are not always going to return to how they were previously without veterinary intervention and a careful rehab, just resting can work but will not always allow the injury to heal correctly.

Looking at the fall he probably damaged more than just the shoulder, the front may have been the obvious acute injury but that type of fall will have stretched and possibly damaged other areas which may have improved but being a bite sore in several places may prevent him moving freely and limit his return to full soundness.

My instinct would be, unless you want to spend £££s on a full body scan, to get a good physio in to assess and treat him and see what they think his prognosis is, the caveat is to find one you trust will not tell you they can fix him and then be out every 2 weeks for the next 12 months with no progress being made, they should either tell you it is not something they can treat without a veterinary diagnosis or expect to be able to make a real improvement within a few visits and give you a rehab plan with targeted exercises to do, if they string you along for months making little difference they will not get him right and should be honest by telling you so.

You will need your vet to approve any physio treatment but most are happy enough to allow this, obviously nothing can be done until this crisis is over so for now I would just leave him resting and maybe give him some gentle grooming with a little massage all over so you can get to know how his body feels, you may well find a few stiff or sore areas that benefit from a bit of a massage.

 

[Et_equus_]

Thank you so much for your reply! Definitely will be getting my chiro too look him over as soon as this isolation lifts due to covid, she is fantastic, he will be thrilled to have a lovely massage, hoping for a good result, but completely OK with him being a paddock mate if he is happy ?

 

[Sugar Plum]

I would go with a equine physio to start then followed by a chiro. Chiropractors are good for misalignments which your horse may well have based on the video but I think a physio would be able to assess deep tissue damage to start as this will need to be loosened before the bones will give way to manipulation.