Where would you go next?

atropa

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 September 2012
Messages
1,277
Visit site
Have a mare who since September has shown some objections to being groomed/feet worked with/saddled/worked. She received a kick to her left flank just before the issues started. She pins her ears and threatens to bite just as you're picking up her front legs, but does not continue to react once the legs are off the ground. She dislikes being touched or groomed anywhere on her main body..pretty much the only place safe to groom is her neck and face, she will pin her ears, swish her tail and look round at you. When being girthed, she will kick at her stomach with her hind legs. She sometimes pins her ears and swishes her tail when you put the leg on when she's ridden. She's currently only in light work with a bit of lungeing and hacking, as she's so unhappy I don't have the heart to work her hard. Previous to September, she had never shown any of these behaviours, and was a lamb to be worked with.

I have tried:
Physical vet examination which found nothing.
Ultrasound scan of her ovaries, no cysts found.
Gastroscopy which revealed a picture perfect stomach and start of her small intestine.
An equine chiro/physio, who found a healed pectoral tear which she felt shouldn't be causing her any pain but that she might have remembered the pain. She gave me a massage and stretching programme to follow, which did not seem to help.
Equine dentist who said her teeth were in fantastic condition.
Saddle fitter who found no saddle issues.
Ignoring unwanted behaviour and praising good.
Verbally reprimanding unwanted behaviour and praising good.

She is currently 4 days into a 2 week bute trial to see if her behaviour improves, if it does the vet wants to do a lameness workup on her. If it doesn't, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do next.

Should I turn away for a few months and restart her?
Repeat saddle and physio checks with different practitioners?
Try her on Regumate to see if this makes any difference?
Insist the vet does some kind of scan on her pectoral area and the flank where she was kicked? If so, what is best?

I'm desperate to have her happy and healthy for her own sake as well as mine but just feel like I keep hitting brick walls.
 

PorkChop

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 June 2010
Messages
10,646
Location
Scotland
Visit site
Assuming she does not respond to the bute trial - though I have to say I think a bute trial can be a bit hit and miss - then I would try getting both/either/or Roger Meacock and Rob Jackson out to look at her.

All the information about them is on their respective websites.

Or I would get some x-rays done of her back.
 

Goldenstar

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 March 2011
Messages
46,016
Visit site
If she gets better on Bute you know she has pain but when a horse does not show improvement you cannot rule out pain as some issues do not improve on Bute .
I think if I were you I would have a workup done what ever result you get from the Bute trial.
 

ycbm

Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
Joined
30 January 2015
Messages
56,533
Visit site
I'd either go for a gamma ray scintigraph ('bone scan') or a lameness workup with back x rays and a full blood analysis (looking for muscle damage enzymes, kidney and liver function, infection, viral attack).

I hope you find an answer.
 

Asha

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 February 2012
Messages
5,883
Location
Cheshire
Visit site
She's rising 8, so just at the right age for serious hormones and teenage tantrums to be rearing their head, just to add another confounding factor into the mix.

Id just go straight for the lameness check, plus an xray of the back. A friend of mine had a mare very similar to yours, in that she was awful to do anything with, would bite/kick when doing rugs etc. She had a back problem.

Its lovely to see someone doing everything possible to find an answer too, hope you get to the bottom of it.
 

Tangaroo

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 December 2005
Messages
2,534
Visit site
I would say its a pain problem. My boy had all those symptoms. He did have ulcers but after many months and a change of vet we discovered he had bilateral PSD. You are doing the right think listening to your horse. They dont generally behave that way without a reason. Good luck finding out the problem
 

atropa

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 September 2012
Messages
1,277
Visit site
Thank you all for your suggestions, it's looking like a lameness workup and back xray are on the cards as they're a sensible next step. Tangaroo she does go disunited in canter sometimes and I wasn't sure if that might be an issue or simply due to her greenness, as she was only backed in Aug 2015 and really hasn't had a chance to crack on with much schooling.

She's my horse and her health and wellbeing are my responsibility, I too believe that horses don't act like that for no reason especially when it's a sudden personality change, so I will continue to try and get to the bottom of it to the best of my ability despite most other people thinking I'm being a hypochondriac
 

ossy

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 August 2010
Messages
952
Visit site
Has the bute made any difference so far if been on for 4 days already? As your on this id just continue the trial and get that boxed ticked you can't really do lameness work up on Bute. On the lameness work up, im assuming the horse has been checked for standard lameness and isnt obviously lame? Pectoral muscle pain is a common reason for "girthy" horses so i wont rule that out as being an old injury. I go for xrays in particular the the back from the top of the withers, thermal imaging and regimate trial.
 

atropa

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 September 2012
Messages
1,277
Visit site
Has the bute made any difference so far if been on for 4 days already? As your on this id just continue the trial and get that boxed ticked you can't really do lameness work up on Bute. On the lameness work up, im assuming the horse has been checked for standard lameness and isnt obviously lame? Pectoral muscle pain is a common reason for "girthy" horses so i wont rule that out as being an old injury. I go for xrays in particular the the back from the top of the withers, thermal imaging and regimate trial.

No noticeable different as of yet, and the lameness workup wouldn't be until after we had evaluated the effects of the bute.
No, my vets have not yet looked at her being trotted up or lunged, I'm guessing due to the fact that the symptoms appeared to center more around her stomach and chest area and they thought ulcers or hormones to be a more obvious cause at first. I do actually think she sometimes looks slightly off in front when trotting in a way that isn't screamingly obvious and seems to disappear with the more work she is in, so it's definitely worth looking in to.
The strange thing is about the pec injury, no vet that has looked at her has been able to pick anything up about her chest area - it was only the physio/chiro I used that mentioned it. Thank you for your input, it's very useful
 

Beausmate

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 May 2008
Messages
2,821
Location
Endor
Visit site
If the behaviour changed immediately after the kick and there were no other real changes at the time, then I would start by looking in more detail at the site of the original injury and go from there.
 

Slightlyconfused

Go away, I'm reading
Joined
18 December 2010
Messages
10,826
Visit site
I'd either go for a gamma ray scintigraph ('bone scan') or a lameness workup with back x rays and a full blood analysis (looking for muscle damage enzymes, kidney and liver function, infection, viral attack).

I hope you find an answer.

This is what I would do.
 
Top