Sidebone causing lameness

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Kelpie

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My horse has been diagnosed with Sidebone so I'm on a fact finding mission!

Although he is currently sound, he's been intermittently lame since the spring and I'm desparate not to do anything to send him unsound again if I can help it.

I should add that he is barefoot, so as I understand it, that means that the foot would move side to side a bit more than it would do than if shod and so at the moment (or at least back in the spring) that my be why it was causing intermittant lameness (i.e. so shoes would have masked the problem).

Now, although I'm pro barefoot, if I thought it would rectify a problem I would go back to shoes - but, it seems that the reason the sidebone may have developed is that my horse has a slight conformational default higher up the limb (i.e. so canon bone and pastern are not totally alligned) so the vet that diagnosed the problem (and who is familiar with barefoot) cautioned that while yes shoes would solve the immediate problem the horse would only compensate later on anyway (e.g. develop splints).

The vet reckons that the sidebone would be irritated by the side to side movement caused by uneven/ rocky ground - which would be worse over longer rides. So, we're pretty much good to go on a surface and on nice even fields with a good grass covering. It seems that what may have been the last straw in actually causing lameness (bearing in mind that the sidebones develop over time) would have been the endurance we were doing.

So, fine, I'll knock the endurance on the head but I'd really like to keep him eventing if I can. We can do a lot of fittening work for that on a surface/ go to all weather gallops/ take him to places with nice grass to gallop on, etc, and obviously if the ground is hard in the summer months then I won't event him then.

However, although of course I will be careful, I fear that there may be times when in effect I won't know where the line is until I cross it - i.e. so I'll have to wait for my horse to tell me when he's sore from too much work on ground that is too tough for him to handle.

What I'm looking for, therefore, is experience that any of you may have in working horses with sidebone, particularly if barefoot?

Thanks all
 
my sisters horse has sidebone, and at 16 will still happily jump 1m20 (tho he tends to compete at about 95cm!)

sidebone is generally found in stockier horses, particularly those that have more upright conformation and boxy feet. It can also be caused by trauma, especially hard trotting on tarmac or concrete. Generally once it has formed the lameness subsides and you just have the odd day where they're not quite right.

Tom was on a course of bute for a while when it was settling, but hasn't needed it on a regular basis for quite some time now... think he was 6 or 7 when it started to show up, and he probably hasn't needed a course of bute for 8 or so years. He has more off days in the middle of summer, as they rush about more and the ground is harder, but we put him in a smaller paddock and he has a couple of days on bute. He still events, and he still hacks out etc, including some pretty long hacks, he still show jumps etc. we're just careful about keeping his shoeing right and not running him on really hard ground.

Our vet recommended firing his hooves to help the heels expand and relieve the pressure from the sidebone, but he was hopping lame for about 3 weeks, and really miserable, and 2 years later we're getting abscesses still occuring on the lines from the firing... and our farrier just about went and lamped the vet! So don't do that!

Sidebone is also often linked to bone spavin in the hocks, so keep an eye out for that too, but again, once it's formed it doesn't cause problems, and means that you don't get arthritis in the hocks.
 
sorry... meant to say that our farrier, who specialises in remedial stuff, tells us that the worst thing that you can do for sidebone is to leave them barefoot, as their heels need support and so on to help to stabilise the bony bits and help stop them remaining sore.
 
thanks jenhunt..... blimey, have heard of firing tendons, but didn't know people fired hooves?? (oh, to have a vet and a farrier that agree!....)

That sounds encouraging that your guy's feet settled back down within approx a year then :)

In my guy, the sidebone is in the front - particularly front left - so would that still make sense about the bone spavin in the hocks?

Interesting what your farrier said too..... I'm not wedded to staying barefoot if it's not in my lad's best interests but "touch wood" he's back sound for now so if it is possible to get this right and still be barefoot that would be ideal - tho it's so hard to judge what to do for the best so please please don't take this as a criticism, I'm just curious as often farriers are a bit bias towards shoes - but do you know if your farrier said that about needing the shoes as more of a general belief that remidial shoeing tends to be the way to go or because he's looked at the barefoot alternative and has found it wanting? [I really don't want to turn this into a barefoot vs shoes debate, honest, and I'm totally not trying to cast any disbursions on your farrier, and I appreciate your input on this as I'm struggling to find other people with horses that have sidebone issues but at this stage I'm really just trying to collect all the info I can on side bone and how it works in relation to the whole shoes/ no shoes thing]

thanx for your help
 
Don't worry, I won't take it as a critisicsm, I totally understand where you're coming from!

Tom's sidebone is in the front too... apparently its to do with a predisposition towards forming extra bony bits, and especially if the sidebone is caused by trauma, the chances are the hocks have been subject to it too.

I think Tom's case was complicated by the fact that he has a slightly club front left foot, and very concave soles as a result. The only time he's been without front shoes (after the firing) he was lame to the point where if it hadn't been for the vets advice we would have been sending him for xrays! He's a very active horse in the field, but barefoot for 3 days and he never moved more than a shuffle and only 20m from the gate.

Our farrier is really good with the whole barefoot thing... he'll happily admit that barefoot is the right option in some cases. In fact we seriously discussed it for my horse as we were having difficulty adjusting the angle of his front feet when we first had him. But, he was adamant that putting Tom barefoot for any period of time would have made him worse quicker than it would have helped. Instead he wore heartbars/eggbars and pads (with this wierd gel filling between that and his sole) for about 6 months to give the foot more stability, then went back to ordinary shoes with pads for another 6 months. He now has 2 toe clips on all 4 feet, but no pads on.

I suppose it did take about a year, we were maybe a bit cautious about the bute and kept him on a half dose every day for a bit longer than he really needed, but we thought better that he was comfortable and able to work a bit than sore.

feel free to ask any questions you want, I'm more than happy to try to help!
 
We think our horse as developed sidebone, its on his back legs though, a large solid mass on each foot on the coronet band. He has been intermittently lame all summer really, we don't trot on roads and have nice quiet hacks and only recently started jumping although that is now looking out of the question now. Have you heard of it occuring in hind legs before? Our farrier agrees that corrective shoeing should help, he would elevate the heel to help. Any info or advice is greatly received, many thanks.
 
thanx Jenhunt .... ooh, penny has dropped about the connection between sidebone at the front and bone spavin in the hocks - it's the underlying cause that makes the occurance of both to be likely, not that one occurs because of the other, right? ..... tho maybe fingers crossed in my case if it's due to a confromational wonk on a front leg I might not get the bone spavin?? - will run that one by my vet (not that there is much I can do about it at this stage I guess, other than be aware of it to manage it?)

So now your horse's feet have stabalised, do you still need to be very careful on lumpy ground/ is it just a precaution that you stay away from hard ground??

will definately have another discussion with my farrier about the shoes/ barefoot thing - drives me nuts, tho - ask 3 different farriers and you'll get 3 different answers!!

samantha - for your horse, sounds to me like you need an x-ray to confirm, tho could well be sidebone. I'd be tempted to x-ray fronts and backs as it could be they are also in the front but haven't caused a problem yet? (seems odd they'd be in the front but not the back?). Good luck.
 
samantha1973 said:
Have you heard of it occuring in hind legs before? Our farrier agrees that corrective shoeing should help, he would elevate the heel to help. Any info or advice is greatly received, many thanks.
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Hi Samantha. I think it can occur in the hind, but not entirely sure! Your vet will be able to advise. we had xrays done but not nerve blocks as the xrays were so clear. If you read though what's been written above it should help, but if there's anything else you want to know just ask!

Kelpie said:
thanx Jenhunt .... ooh, penny has dropped about the connection between sidebone at the front and bone spavin in the hocks - it's the underlying cause that makes the occurance of both to be likely, not that one occurs because of the other, right? ..... tho maybe fingers crossed in my case if it's due to a confromational wonk on a front leg I might not get the bone spavin?? - will run that one by my vet (not that there is much I can do about it at this stage I guess, other than be aware of it to manage it?)
So now your horse's feet have stabalised, do you still need to be very careful on lumpy ground/ is it just a precaution that you stay away from hard ground??
will definately have another discussion with my farrier about the shoes/ barefoot thing - drives me nuts, tho - ask 3 different farriers and you'll get 3 different answers!!
Click to expand...

you've definitely got the right idea about the sidebone/spavin link! I think you're right about if its a conformational thing too, but definitely keeping in mind. Spavin can take longer to settle and some horses need injections into their hocks to help. Tom didn't fortunately!
Now his feet have stabilised we are just cautious on hard/knobbly ground because we don't want to aggravate it again, but we're just being over cautious I think now!
I know what you mean about farriers, best thing is to speak to lots of people locally, and your vet to see who they'd recommend for 'remedial' shoeing. IT may well be the farrier you have already!
 
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