undiagnosed lameness and confused vet. Opinions welcome! Long post.

georgie0

georgie0

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The subject is.... 17.2 13yr old mare. ID X Hann. Has 1 slightly club front foot, and 1 boxy front foot, otherwise good confirmation. Has jumped to foxhunter & dressage to Elm. Has been at stud for 2 1/2 years having foals, has been back with us for 9 weeks now. I've got her on loan from my friend, who has had her since a 3 year old. She hasn't ever been lame in all that time, but returned from stud with an abcsess in her OF hoof. the farrier the stud used had left her feet very long and had attempted to dig out said abcsess. She was then turned out with a dry(!?) poltice on and left to hooley around when the local hunt came through....
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Anyhow, we cleaned & polticed when she arrived and my angel of a farrier came out. He had a look & said since nothing was happening poltice wise, no heat etc, he would put shoes on & see how it went. Cue sound pony!!

Until...

Last week!! Still doing trot work as i'm taking it slowly with her. I rode her last Sunday and had to trot on the road for a few strides (which i never really do) and thought she was a bit short on it. Then went to turn her out on Tuesday and cue one very definately lame pony (but sound in walk!) I have thought over the past 4ish weeks i have seen her not 100% on it, but thought it was just my vivid imagination as she has always trotted up sound.

Nothing whatsoever to see on the leg, cold and hard etc, so thought it might be the foot again. My farrier came out and had a good look and a dig, but no heat or tenderness. He said there is no chance its in her foot.

soo...

Vet!
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He came out, trotted up etc, did some very thorough 'oh God there has to be SOMETHING here' examining and a flexion test (which didn't make 1 iota of difference! Still lame, but no change at all) Then HE dug round and practically took her foot apart (while she attempted to eat his head, bless her!) then declared it MUST be her shoulder. Box rest and a hefty course of bute to follow for a week.

Well...

it is now a week later! She has been on bute, kick started by an intra. injection and on box rest and there is no change whatsoever. No better, no worse. nothing!! Mr. Vet. is a bit confused by this, as the levels of pain killers she has been on is enough to drop a small rhino. so... any thoughts!?! Anything welcome!!

A nice glass of Merlot and Ben & Jerrys for wading through that essay!
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I sound a bit like a stuck record - but, Xray the feet. Farrier can't possibly announce there's nothing wrong with the feet without an x-ray.

Good luck.

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Ask for a nerve block first. A lot cheaper than x-rays and then if that confirms where pain is you can x-ray the right bit.
 
You need a full lameness work-up with a lameness specialist. If your practice doesn't have a vet who specializes in lameness investigations, either change vets or ask your vets for a referral to a horspital for proper investigations.

Foot x-rays don't actually tell you very much, but nerve blocks would probably at least let you know where the problem is.
 
is there a possibility it could be the shoulder? my reasoning would be that it sound slike until this mare went to stud she was kept pretty fit. I wonder whether the club foot affects her more when she has not got the muscling there. if bute made no difference and there is nothing evident maybe it may be a mechanical unsoundness that could improve once she builds up some appropriate muscling :-) ?
 
Would echo other posts and get her to an equine lameness specialist. Had similar problem with my mare and nerve blocks pinpointed the area of lameness. She then had an MRI as previous xrays showed nothing. Turned out to be a tear in her DDFT deep within her hoof. Difficult to diagnose without MRI but was well worth it to get to the root of the matter.
 
Has she always had a club foot? They can dveelop as a result of chronic lameness/unsoundness.
As suggested above, ask for a referral to a practice that will do full lameness investigations. The least you will require is a nerve block to confirm the problem is in the foot - if its not then further nerve blocks would be required to isolate the problem.
 
I think the answer will be in the one club foot and one flat foot.
Which leg is she lame on? Often the reason a horse grows a club foot in the first place (which amounts to excessive heel growth) is that they have been born with slightly different length fore limbs; sound bizarre I know but it's the horses' way of trying to even them up. Farrier needs to shoe so the shoulder blades are level using pads as necessary, often it's the club foot that needs pads!
Imagine how you walk with one stiletto and one flat shoe on, you'd look lame..... and no amount of pain relief is going to make you any sounder!
 
Go and get the foot xrayed first off as that will rule in or out foot problems and make it easier to find the real problem. My lad was lame on his LF and the vet and farrier were convinced it was an abcess and I ended up polticing for 3 weeks until the vet said enough is enough lets have him xrayed. It turned out to be laminitis in one foot with 12% rotation and we had been messing about for 3 weeks polticing an ascess that was not there! Always best to check rather than let it linger on I think...if that happens again I will have him straight in on box rest off the grass just in case. I also picked his lameness up when ridden on the roads, he was a little short, not right on un-level camber and just not right..but fine in the field trotting about. Good luck, hope you get to the bottom of it.
 
Echo above posters, get a lameness workup from the vet before casting around for suggestions. A short period of rest and anti-inflammatories hasn't worked so you need to be looking at nerve blocks and x-rays or scans if appropriate to find out what is going on. Vet would most likely suggest nerve block first to find out where the lameness is coming from, then imaging can be used if necessary to find the precise cause.

Edited to add - if your vet isn't suggesting this as a next step and is seriously confused then I would look to changing my vet...
 
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