Trimming issues coming from nowhere...any ideas?

Parksmum3

Parksmum3

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I'll try to keep this brief but will go into more detail if needed. So my cob that I have owned since 2010 has now developed a problem. A few months ago he was suffering with itchy legs and a few sore bits (nothing bad all healed now) so I decided to clip his legs, which had made him loads more comfortable.

Didn't nick him with the clippers or anything, been clipped again since and is fine. I washed his legs as instructed with feather mite shampoo, done worm count so all up to date. Itchy legs have gone..but now there is another problem.

Between 3/5 days after he started being a bit of a monkey to pick up his front near side hoof to be picked out. He would sort of snatch it towards and away. He carried on doing this for a day or to then it got worse. When I would lift his hoof up he would straight away push down through his shoulder,.felt like he was going to fall over and hop away. He had the farrier the next day and for the first time in all these years he was that bad the farrier couldn't actually finish trimming him, we were there 2 hours trying all sorts.

I got the vet to come and have a look, cant see anything obviously wrong the only thing is he has the start of mild cpl. Vet suggested Bute trial until next trim see what happens. So on Bute, farrier came yesterday and he was better but still wasnt great, but also played up a bit with his back hooves which he never has done before. Got to phone vet this afternoon to talk about his trim yesterday and what happens now. Farrier said nothing he can see wrong with his hooves, vet says not lame, maybe slight arthritis. Any thoughts anyone? We are all finding it a bit strange
 
I'm not sure, would the vet or farrier have picked up if an abscess brewing? I've only had a horse with an abscess once and he went from fine to hopping lame very very quickly. Could an abscess take a month or so to show?
 
I'd probably think about X raying his hocks for arthritis. Often when they don't want to pick up a front it's because they don't want to load the backs.
 
My money would be on a bit arthritic all round. It can make keeping limbs held up quite uncomfortable for them.

My old retired one is a little bit the same. She has a sachet of bute a day and every few days I run a hand rasp around, so she has little and often - means the farrier doesn’t have to do too much.
 
I'd look at the opposite front as if he doesn't want to hold one foot up chances are the issue is in the one taking the weight on the ground.
 
Baggs my lad is arthritic in his hocks and occasionally struggles with his fronts for trimming.

We do plenty of breaks and in the colder months I do give him a small amount of bute beforehand x
 
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