HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Please let me know any ideas as we're running out of options 
.
History is, 11th Jan this year she came in from the field completely none weight-baring, called the farrier as no cuts, bumps, swelling, heat etc. Morning and the farrier came, she presented with a massively swollen hock, was pretty much sound and no abscess to be found. Box-rested her for the next 5-7 days, swelling went down, she remained sound, so she went back out again (she is retired, so no work).
We put it down to messing about in the mud and she'd tweaked something.
Fast forward to 19th March (Thursday) and similar symptoms, brought her in almost none weight-baring and her hock was puffy. This time however, she has pretty much remained severely lame, so on the Saturday morning with no improvement I called the vet who gave her a pain relief shot and left me Danilon and booked her in for x-rays the following Tuesday. His guess was due to her age (27) it was arthritis that had become inflamed.
X-rays showed nothing really, slight evidence of some sort of trauma (can't remember the term the vet used, but it was something like small particles could be seen in the joint space indicating some trauma), but no bone chips, fractures or even much arthritis. They gave her a steroid injection into the joint, which also drained some of the fluid that had accumulated, and she walked away almost sound. Brought her home, the next day she looked worse but gradually looked better again (still on box rest). Instructions were to keep her in a week from the injection and then maybe we could look at moving her to a pen in the field. The following Tuesday, she got herself upset in the stable (had company but I took too long bringing Topaz back to her), and she was back to almost none weight-baring and has been since.
The Vets are stumped, she went back to them on Monday for a joint flush and drain and a course of mega antibiotics, they've also sent samples of the joint fluid for testing (should come in today). Similar as the steroid injection, walked away from the flush much better, yesterday looked ok, but this morning back to none weight-baring. Obviously we're awaiting the test results but I'm not sure what else we can do.
She can flex the joint fine and isn't sore bending it, but it obviously is excruciating to put her weight on it and Danilon + paracetamol makes no difference. Vets have no idea, can't really refer her at this current time and to be honest even with better diagnostics they're not sure what other treatment options there are, I also don't have unlimited money. Plus I am conscious this last episode (March to now) has been going on for nearly a month, and the last downturn has not improved at all in over a week of complete box-rest + pain relief. I just can't help think this might be it, it can't be a good sign that the vets are all stumped as to what the issue is.
I have no wine or chocolate to offer as I've consumed everything sorry. Picture of my most perfect first horse who I want nothing more than to have more time with please.
.History is, 11th Jan this year she came in from the field completely none weight-baring, called the farrier as no cuts, bumps, swelling, heat etc. Morning and the farrier came, she presented with a massively swollen hock, was pretty much sound and no abscess to be found. Box-rested her for the next 5-7 days, swelling went down, she remained sound, so she went back out again (she is retired, so no work).
We put it down to messing about in the mud and she'd tweaked something.
Fast forward to 19th March (Thursday) and similar symptoms, brought her in almost none weight-baring and her hock was puffy. This time however, she has pretty much remained severely lame, so on the Saturday morning with no improvement I called the vet who gave her a pain relief shot and left me Danilon and booked her in for x-rays the following Tuesday. His guess was due to her age (27) it was arthritis that had become inflamed.
X-rays showed nothing really, slight evidence of some sort of trauma (can't remember the term the vet used, but it was something like small particles could be seen in the joint space indicating some trauma), but no bone chips, fractures or even much arthritis. They gave her a steroid injection into the joint, which also drained some of the fluid that had accumulated, and she walked away almost sound. Brought her home, the next day she looked worse but gradually looked better again (still on box rest). Instructions were to keep her in a week from the injection and then maybe we could look at moving her to a pen in the field. The following Tuesday, she got herself upset in the stable (had company but I took too long bringing Topaz back to her), and she was back to almost none weight-baring and has been since.
The Vets are stumped, she went back to them on Monday for a joint flush and drain and a course of mega antibiotics, they've also sent samples of the joint fluid for testing (should come in today). Similar as the steroid injection, walked away from the flush much better, yesterday looked ok, but this morning back to none weight-baring. Obviously we're awaiting the test results but I'm not sure what else we can do
.She can flex the joint fine and isn't sore bending it, but it obviously is excruciating to put her weight on it and Danilon + paracetamol makes no difference. Vets have no idea, can't really refer her at this current time and to be honest even with better diagnostics they're not sure what other treatment options there are, I also don't have unlimited money. Plus I am conscious this last episode (March to now) has been going on for nearly a month, and the last downturn has not improved at all in over a week of complete box-rest + pain relief. I just can't help think this might be it
, it can't be a good sign that the vets are all stumped as to what the issue is.I have no wine or chocolate to offer as I've consumed everything sorry
. Picture of my most perfect first horse who I want nothing more than to have more time with please.
