Stifle Injury

[Cruiseonamiro]

My horse has been off work for a while with an injury to his stifle. We took him to oakham vets where he had nerve blocks, an xray and an ultrasound scan done. He was only very slightly lame - say 1 in 5 times, but it had got progressively worse as we began to do things - such as hunt - at the start of this season. With his stifle nerve blocked there was an 80% improvement in his way of going on hard ground, when lunged. The vet gave him a steroid injection, said two weeks of box rest and two weeks bringing gently back into work. I am now walk and trot, and have noticed that there is still a degree of unlevelness - on the soft, he feels totally sound to me, but when trotted up, there is still only say, an 80% improvement. Could this be due to just lack of muscle development on one side, potentially being responsible for the injury in the first place, and should I keep working him, or get the vet again? Sorry long!

 

[Bubbles]

A difficult one, mine has had something similar going on and just kept coming out unlevel every 4 weeks or so, x rays last year showed a tiny amount of damage which looked like OCD, but not serious. After another bout of lameness 6 weeks ago I opted for arthroscopy and we've found he's got quite a lot of damage to the cartilage on the left (end of femur). Horse should have been lamer than he was with what has been going on, and there are no guarantees that he's going to be sound enough to compete.

In your case it sounds like the steroids have not had that much impact: they made my boy so much better, but then oddly so did lots of work, it was when he was rested or used the horse walker that it flared up. In your shoes I'd keep working him, the vets prob won't want to do anything until 6 weeks after the steroids were given. Then reassess once he's a bit further along... ?

Good luck.

 

[Booboos]

Similar story here in that arthroscopy showed up a lot more damage than was previously thought. Fingers crossed for your boy!

 

[zimboro]

Can I suggest temperature therapy (I am at risk here of being told off by forum admin) in my experince use of temperature is very good!!

 

[lochpearl]

My boy had the same, and the injections didn't help at all. Arthroscopy showed major tears to the ligaments and a lot of cartilage damage, they then had to scrape the cartilage back to the bone. This was back in November and unfortunately I lost him today.

One vet I had said there was nothing wrong with him, but I knew there was, took him to another vets and he was diagnosed. From working the horse under instruction from the previous vet, it actually made things a lot worse for him and now he isn't here anymore. Please listen to your horse and badger the vet to have another look at him.

p.s. sorry to put a downer on this and I'm sure your horse is ok but after going through the pain of losing mine today I would always badger the vet at all costs!!

 

[Madcow]

Definately get the vet...my boy was lame. 1st Vet said he wasn't lame...not happy with this I went for a second opinion. Long and the short of it was he had arthroscopy, they found cartilage damage and some ligament damage. After the op he had box rest, the walking in hand, then the joint medicated. That was last August and, touch wood, he is still sound. So I would say badger the vet, or go to another one, before it's too late.