tendon/windgall/seriously confused?!

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bigben

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Hi,

My six year old gelding has had a swelling at the lower end of his right front leg - fetlock area, tendon sheath, both sides. Before the swelling appeared he was intermittently lame, one or two lame strides when I rode him, but otherwise fine.
I cold hosed, ice bandaged etc and called the vet who said I should have an MRI done as it was either navicular (caudal foot pain) or damage to his deep flexor tendon.
I was still thinking windgalls at this point so it came as quite a shock. I'm not insured for an MRI and it basically cost around 1500 to do all the vet is suggesting and then he says there's no real treatment anyway, but he could have some wedges put under his shoes.
I said could I do this anyway and after some conisderation he agreed it would probably do no harm.
Since the vet has been out I'm resting him and the swelling has gone, but I want to give it several days of it being totally gone before I think about riding again.
Am I doing the right thing? I've arranged for the farrier to come out and do the wedge shoes, but the MRI etc seemed very 'full-on', know what I mean?!
He's not currently lame walking out to the field or when he trots off. It's the hard ground that's caused all this, I think. Couldn't he just have done the equivalent of twisting his ankle? I'm no vet, of course.
The other thing is he has a knobbly bit of additional horn growth on his sole, could this be a corn? And connected?
 
If I was you I would have a MIR scan done for putting your mind to rest ,as this will give you more idea what you will be dealing with as sounds like a guessing game
confused.gif
....I would contact the company as find odd you have no cover for a MIR scan to be done,and then once what ever is diagnosed then treatmant can start!
 
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Is the swelling localised or generally puffy? Rings bells towards a suspensory to me.
It does sound a bit full on. I would be asking for a bog standard scan before any further investigations.

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My thoughts exactly......!
 
It's generally puffy from the windgall area up a few inches and feels spongey. Comes up after exercise, but puffiness disappears overnight or after a day in the field. Hosing every night and putting on tendon gel and giving him time off at the moment. The reason I am not covered for an MRI, or anything, is that there is a history of lameness in the same leg predating my insurance. Not necessarily connected, but he had a nuclear scintigraphy scan last June (for something entirely different on hind leg) and they noticed inflammation on his front leg deep flexor tendon. Vet recommended natural balance shoes and he has not been lame since. Only now, back with the hard ground, has the lameness come back.

As the treatment consists of careful management (not riding on hard ground etc) and wedge shoes I was thinking why not just go ahead with that anyway - as I don't have £1500 lying around to pay for the diagnostics to tell me what the vet already suspects about his tendon.

I don't understand why they can't just ultrasound the tendon, but didn't get a good answer really. I know I should go back to him, but I want to be better armed with info first.
Surely MRIs are not the only way to diagnose tendon problems?

And - major problem - my horse is not a canditate for box rest. He panics when left in, box points to dementia, so I agree with vet there - it kind of defeats the purpose.
 
What was the initial diagnosis on the tendon?
Sounds to me like he has a reoccurance of a tendon injury. No shoes are going to help that - diagnosis and rest are the only treatment.
Your vet sounds like a money grabbing muppet - change and get an ultrasound.
 
There wasn't an initial diagnosis, just that the tendon seemed inflamed. The same day I got the diagnosis that he had a fracture above his stifle and a fractured vertabrae in his back so the vet said, don't worry about it, you've got enough bad news for one day. It was only because he was having the scan anyway that the tendon showed up and he had been lame on that leg but vet wasn't sure if it was related to the hind leg lameness at the time - compensating etc.
The natural balance shoes have worked for a year. I don't know anything about wedges accept that they are supposed to alleviate pressure on the deep flexor tendon.
It's doing my head in, don't know if I should go back to the vet and ask him to investigate based on no insurance money available. I spoke to him today and he said go ahead with the wedge shoes under the 'current circumstances' re insurance.

Just want to do what's best for my lad.
 
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