Lammy
Well-Known Member
Posting this to see if anyone out there has any good ideas of where to look and what to try next on a horse who has almost exhausted all the diagnostics on offer ?
I’ll timeline it to try and make it easy to read;
March 2021
Horse scoped after displaying signs of ulcers, girthy, difficult to tack up and bucking when the leg went on, even for walk to trot, couldn’t even get trot. Only did 3 rides before calling the vet. No ulcers but stomach inflammation, supplement from the vets showed improvement as quick as 3 days so he was put on it for a month.
April-May
Horse was better but not working like he had in Jan/Feb, found it difficult to work long and low and was not searching for the bit. Saddle checked and bit lady out both seemed to improve things for a week until things slowly started going in reverse (still on gut supplement).
Began tripping on the hind left leg in trot and canter, also lost ability to get correct canter lead on the right rein. Each ridden session got worse, right rein canter faded first from a lap of the school to half a circle to barely getting a stride. Couldn’t maintain canter, same then happened to the left rein canter.
June
Vet came out best one at the practice. No reaction to flexions, said he would pass a 5* bet on the ground/lunge. Then rode for the vet, said he looks like he’s going around with handbrake on. He’s trying but really can’t maintain the canter and the trot is a struggle. More shuffle than anything. Referred for bone scan.
Bone scan showed tiny tiny hot spots on neck and back and a slightly bigger one on left hock. X-rays of neck and back were clean as a whistle, best back X-rays I’ve ever seen on a horse! Hocks showed the start of osteoarthritis but first vet didn’t think this was significant enough.
Went back to the referring hospital for gait analysis and nerve blocking. All pointed towards hocks so injected with steroids and sent home with a plan.
July - Present
Started bringing horse back into work, was brilliant out hacking in walk (tripping stopped) but as soon as was asked for a trot got the same shuffly ears back trot as before deffo not happy. Same in the school and couldn’t even get canter. Back to vets.
Nerve blocked the suspensories 3 weeks ago and no response so they’re ruled out now at least. Referral vet thinks he is pretty much orthopaedicly clean. They want to scope but I’ve said I’m not sure on that since his scope was so recent and the symptoms are very different. They’ve sent us home on a bute trial which we are almost at a close of.
Horse is much better on a bute trial happy to walk trot and canter out hacking, due to try a canter in the school this week but his trotting is much better, still tense but I think this is more due to pain remembrance than anything else. He hasn’t tripped once now though since the hock injections so they’ve definitely done something. I rang my original vet and caught him up on everything and he said to him bute says orthopaedic not stomach, he was quite assured bute would make any kind of ulcers or inflammation worse.
The only thing is where do we look next??
Both vets agree it’s not lower down the leg, referral vet remarked last time we were there when lunged on concrete he marches around more confidently than most horses with shoes on so he’s pretty certain there’s nothing lower down in the foot or anything.
But both vets (and me) seem to be stumped of what to look at next. And as you can imagine we’ve burned through quite a bit of the insurance money ? He’s only 8 and relatively low mileage, I really don’t know if we’re going to find the issue ?
If you got this far thank you and if you have any ideas thank you!
I’ll timeline it to try and make it easy to read;
March 2021
Horse scoped after displaying signs of ulcers, girthy, difficult to tack up and bucking when the leg went on, even for walk to trot, couldn’t even get trot. Only did 3 rides before calling the vet. No ulcers but stomach inflammation, supplement from the vets showed improvement as quick as 3 days so he was put on it for a month.
April-May
Horse was better but not working like he had in Jan/Feb, found it difficult to work long and low and was not searching for the bit. Saddle checked and bit lady out both seemed to improve things for a week until things slowly started going in reverse (still on gut supplement).
Began tripping on the hind left leg in trot and canter, also lost ability to get correct canter lead on the right rein. Each ridden session got worse, right rein canter faded first from a lap of the school to half a circle to barely getting a stride. Couldn’t maintain canter, same then happened to the left rein canter.
June
Vet came out best one at the practice. No reaction to flexions, said he would pass a 5* bet on the ground/lunge. Then rode for the vet, said he looks like he’s going around with handbrake on. He’s trying but really can’t maintain the canter and the trot is a struggle. More shuffle than anything. Referred for bone scan.
Bone scan showed tiny tiny hot spots on neck and back and a slightly bigger one on left hock. X-rays of neck and back were clean as a whistle, best back X-rays I’ve ever seen on a horse! Hocks showed the start of osteoarthritis but first vet didn’t think this was significant enough.
Went back to the referring hospital for gait analysis and nerve blocking. All pointed towards hocks so injected with steroids and sent home with a plan.
July - Present
Started bringing horse back into work, was brilliant out hacking in walk (tripping stopped) but as soon as was asked for a trot got the same shuffly ears back trot as before deffo not happy. Same in the school and couldn’t even get canter. Back to vets.
Nerve blocked the suspensories 3 weeks ago and no response so they’re ruled out now at least. Referral vet thinks he is pretty much orthopaedicly clean. They want to scope but I’ve said I’m not sure on that since his scope was so recent and the symptoms are very different. They’ve sent us home on a bute trial which we are almost at a close of.
Horse is much better on a bute trial happy to walk trot and canter out hacking, due to try a canter in the school this week but his trotting is much better, still tense but I think this is more due to pain remembrance than anything else. He hasn’t tripped once now though since the hock injections so they’ve definitely done something. I rang my original vet and caught him up on everything and he said to him bute says orthopaedic not stomach, he was quite assured bute would make any kind of ulcers or inflammation worse.
The only thing is where do we look next??
Both vets agree it’s not lower down the leg, referral vet remarked last time we were there when lunged on concrete he marches around more confidently than most horses with shoes on so he’s pretty certain there’s nothing lower down in the foot or anything.
But both vets (and me) seem to be stumped of what to look at next. And as you can imagine we’ve burned through quite a bit of the insurance money ? He’s only 8 and relatively low mileage, I really don’t know if we’re going to find the issue ?
If you got this far thank you and if you have any ideas thank you!
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