Where to look next…any advice welcome ?

I sent mine to a rehab yard in a similar position, largely because I could no longer cope emotionally.
She identified where it looked like my mares discomfort originated & then her vet investigated & treated.
It's not the same issues you are having, but the fresh eyes helped & when she came back to me to continue rehab I was in a much better place. Best bit is the rehab yard was largely covered on insurance.
Could be worth a try
 
ycbm said:
He's had so many things investigated already that it's difficult to know where else to look. If the suspensories have only been blocked, not scanned, then I would do that because my understanding it that PSD can be as much a functional problem as a pain one.

If that shows nothing, then if you aren't insured for loss of use, it sounds as if your best bet would be to turn him away completely for the winter, preferably out 24/7 in a big field in a herd, and see what the situation is in spring. If you are insured, I'd try for the loss of use now and then turn away once it's been paid.
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The suspensories haven’t technically had anything done to them, the hock has been blocked and injected but the vet had said the part of the hock we treated was so close to the suspensories that they could be affected by the nerve blocking/steroid too. But the gait analysis pointed towards bone rather than soft tissue but I know that’s not an exact science.

He’s not insured for loss of use and I don’t mind that. I think the plan would be to turn him away for the winter if we found nothing and try him again in the spring after a long rest. But he certainly has the sort of confirmation where PSD wouldn’t be a surprise


Errin Paddywack said:
Get the hair tests done for PSSM1 and 2 then at least you can rule that out or in.
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I have raised this with both of the vets and I think we all agree that PSSM for him is really unlikely. I will keep it in mind but he is very different to my old horse who I suspected had PSSM and had tied up.
 
OrangeAndLemon said:
Sorry if this comes across as rude but it never hurts to check your own riding and position to make sure you aren't part of the issue, particularly as you've had improvement in other areas.

Do you have an RI or someone who you trust to give him an expert ride (not saying you don't, just saying I'd get someone I know is an excellent rider, but doesn't know him) see what happens with them on board?

I get a 'tune up' every now and again to make sure I'm riding straight and supporting my slightly wonky horse and not making it worse (and everyone rides him better than me :D)
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Not rude at all and definitely something I’ve taken into consideration as I’m definitely not the tidiest of riders, although usually quite effective. Before he went to the vets initially I had a couple of friends sit on him to make sure it wasn’t just my riding but they got the same results.

I’m sure my very capable instructor would come and ride him to see if she can get a canter out of him. I have been wary of that as he can bronc when pushed and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt. He has bronced me off at the vets when the vet was chasing us around on a circle trying to get him to canter. He’d been stabled for 4 days though…not sure what made her think that was a good idea.

Lamehorses said:
I sent mine to a rehab yard in a similar position, largely because I could no longer cope emotionally.
She identified where it looked like my mares discomfort originated & then her vet investigated & treated.
It's not the same issues you are having, but the fresh eyes helped & when she came back to me to continue rehab I was in a much better place. Best bit is the rehab yard was largely covered on insurance.
Could be worth a try
Click to expand...

I do like this idea and I think fresh eyes are good definitely. But I just don’t think I’ll have the money to do this with only 1k left, if we find something else that will also need treating and I’m not sure I can stretch to rehab yard, investigation and treatment sadly ?
 
There was an interesting thread fairly recently about an ?unsound ?unwilling ?PSSM horse

It was suggested by an HHOer who had worked at the AHT that that horse was sent somewhere similar, where an experienced rider works with the vets to try to pinpoint hard to diagnose problems
I wonder if that might be useful for yours?
 
You said stomach inflammation supplement from vets worked quickly in 3 days with him improving. Im wondering if it’s worth going full circle back to that start point as a hint that it may be internal - stomach/intestines/liver - i presume bloods have been done already?

Not sure what the supplement was, but have you tried a full course of excellent quality multi-strain probiotics?

If its gut/internal discomfort it could explain why he’s okay moving under his own weight, but has movement issues with weight of a rider on board. If you imagine yourself with stomach/gut discomfort, you’d manage to get about but if you had to carry 2 bags of heavy shopping requiring your core muscles to work well, you’d find it much harder than unladen.

You’ve done many investigations, so as mentioned in this thread i’d investigate gut - although there’s not any gold standard veterinary test for gut bacteria imbalance - there’s the ‘equibiome’ test available some members have used on here. One member @Tiddlypom has tried it and has seen improvements in her horse. This thread has info:

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...the-equibiome-test-done.796673/#post-14619286

Many Domesticated horses generally get a really limited diet in terms of ingredients and its via variation of foods, aswell as from grass/hay, that enables them to build a very varied gut bacterial colony. Leaves from trees, nibbling on barks, bushes, hedgerows - mine even dig parts of the earth and lick the clays/peat.
Part of my land is deep black peat bog - i dug a drain in an area and left huge piles of peat on the edge of their grazing field. This year i noticed around 2 barrows worth of peat has gone, and see where theyve expertly pawed at the pile with their hooves to ‘mine’ the peat into little chunks and consumed it. This peat is thousands of years old fermented plant matter thats brought to the surface - so contains god knows how much minerals and bacteria aswell as the blackness of carbon aka charcoal. They love it and their gut health is brilliant.
Pat Coleby writes about her experience working at competition yards in the 60’s/70’s where squares of earth were regularly dug up and given to the horses for gut health bacteria /minerals.

I really hope you get to the bottom of your horse’s issues….a lucky horse to have such a diligent owner! ?
 
Hi all, sorry I didn’t get back to some of your suggestions, have been feeling so anxious about the outcome these past few weeks.

Vet came today, PSD and likely not a candidate for surgery.

Not decided what to do just yet, vet is going to talk to a specialist at Newmarket for a second opinion but he doesn’t think the images look good at all. Potentially going to turn him away for the winter as a cheap last shot in the dark to see if the swelling goes down. But I think that may just be delaying the inevitable ☹️

Thanks for being a great sounding board everyone ??
 
Just to say I am very very sorry; this happened to my 6 yo ISH who was in too much difficulty to even be kept as a pet. He was believed to have ESPA/DSLD. I hope you have a better outcome, mine was a few years ago and also not a surgical candidate. At that time there were no other treatment options. There are key features of the condition that you can research which will give you some idea if yours is afflicted. I wish you luck and strength.
 
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