Unexplaned hind limb lameness

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Irishbabygirl

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Hi all,

Haven't posted for so long!

Now, I hope someone may be able to help me - I'll try to keep it brief:

Basically, ponio went lame at the beginning of May this year - I originally thought it to be a foot abscess as he was that lame, but the farrier found nothing so the vet was called...

Cutting a very long story short - over the past six weeks, his whole lame leg (right hind) has been scanned, nerve blocked and x-rayed on several occasions both by my vet and the senior practice vet, which has revealed absolutely nothing.

He did block out to a low four point block on a second go so more xrays and scans were preformed there, showing nothing, but we are thinking it is somewhere round the fetlock.

Horse is still 4/10th lame. He has been treated with bute originally, but we have since weaned him off that, and been pen rested the whole time, as he's not great in a box 24/7.

It has now been suggested that the next course of action is to refer him to another practice for a bone scan.

Has anyone had any experience with anything like this? I'm tempted to turn away for a year and see what happens quite frankly as I have no idea what to do.

I've got mixed feelings about it - on the one hand, I'm glad that that there is no obvious fracture or tendon damage, but on the other hand, I have a lame horse who is not responding to rest.

Any ideas or suggestions most welcome!

Thank you
 
Im dealing with sacroiliac injury/ inflammation that initially showed up as hind leg problem ie lack of impulsion,unable to canter on one rein but sound on lunge on other rein.How is his back ?
 
nerve blocks are normally a good indication so if your vet is confident it has worked (the block) then you know you have some sort of issue in that area at least.
The thing that would bother me for turning it away for a year is if the horse will be comfortable over that time? Or, how sore/how long it will be until it starts healing up/ less painfull. 4/10 is quite a bit and I wouldn't want a horse of mine walking around like that for weeks on end.
 
I don't think it's in his back...he's defiantly not presenting like it's his back...and I keep thinking about him blocking out to the low four point, so it's got to be there somewhere - although he didn't block out to the fetlock joint.

We are taking about re blocking the hoof again just to make sure but he defiantly didn't block out to that last time. It's a real head scratcher.

I'm really undecided on the bone scan though - as if the past two months are anything to go by, that will be inconclusive too! 😔

I agree, turning away a horse that is 4/10ths probably isn't the best move...but I don't know what else to do. Continue on with the pen rest and hope for the best I suppose...?
 
Hind gut ulcers can cause lameness in the right hind leg ,if I remember correctly that is the side that the colon is on.
A friend of mine used a thermal imaging camera on our pony it showed clearly where he was lame which was more than the vet had managed to do.
 
Well, we blocked the foot (again!) yesterday...which worked!

I'm so pleased we've finally managed to locate it, but it's a suspended pedal bone fracture now, which is not so good...more foot X-rays later on today which should show it. Apparently they take a while to show up which is why we didn't see anything on the first set of x-rays.

Anyone had any experience with fractured pedal bones? Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little! I should probably wait and see what the X-rays show...
 
shergar said:
Hind gut ulcers can cause lameness in the right hind leg ,if I remember correctly that is the side that the colon is on.
A friend of mine used a thermal imaging camera on our pony it showed clearly where he was lame which was more than the vet had managed to do.
Click to expand...

Really? I never knew that, that is amazing.
 
Thanks for that - some interesting reading. I'm hoping its not, but on the other hand I really want to put this down to something!!
 
Many years ago my boy went lame behind and despite anything & everything to try and find out the vet said chuck him out. By now he'd been lame several weeks.

To cut a long story short the farrier took all his other shoes off, went round him trimming each foot, got to the lame one. Started rasping and the pus just spurted out from all around the white line. He must have had a massive abscess that hadn't shown in X-rays.

Tub the lame foot as much as you can and it may force the abscess to burst.
 
Well, a million images of the foot later - we found a pedal bone fracture.
Mixed feelings...so happy we've finally found something, but obviously sad it's a fracture!
Still, prognosis is good - just got to get through the next few months of box rest.
 
Irishbabygirl said:
Well, a million images of the foot later - we found a pedal bone fracture.
Mixed feelings...so happy we've finally found something, but obviously sad it's a fracture!
Still, prognosis is good - just got to get through the next few months of box rest.
Click to expand...

A friends horse made a great recovery from a pedal bone fracture. He spent several months on box rest. He's been back competing, sound as a bell
 
Thank you - and yes, the vet has given an excellent prognosis. Just a shame he has to spend the rest of the summer boxed up, poor boy.
 
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