Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi all, 
 
Well, the vet was out again today - it's been 3 weeks since I first  noticed
Shahtahr's lameness.  We put him on the lunge line and he's  still grade
2 lame in the right front. 
 
1 1/2 weeks ago, my farrier noticed a very small hardened area right  above
the coronary band on the inside of the affected foot (right  front).  He
thought maybe he was landing heavier on the inside causing  the area to bulge,
so he rasped that side of the wall down more (which  makes the hoof now look
imbalanced side-to-side) in hopes of relieving  the pressure there. 
 
Well, the bulge has become significantly bigger over the last week.  It's
not sensitive to palpation at all and does not feel warm.  It's  just there. 
 
The vet is now thinking we may be dealing with early onset ringbone.  He
 did an intra-articular nerve block to the pastern joint and Shahtahr  showed
maybe a 50% improvement with it.  We were hoping for NO  improvement, so
as to rule out intra-articular high ringbone.  Well, he  wasn't sound with
the nerve block, but he was a little better.  Vet said  he was down to about
a grade 1 lameness with the nerve block. 
 
X-rays tasken three weeks ago showed no real indication of ringbone, so  we
are now going to wait a month and x-ray again and see if boney  changes are
present at that time. 
 
I am, to say the least, devastated.  Ringbone is a horrible diagnosis.  I'm
hoping it's not what we're dealing with, but I don't know what else  it could
be.  What else could cause a bulge above the hairline like  that?  And why
would it get so much bigger in a week?  That seems  odd...I would think even
ringbone would advance more slowly than that. 
 
Well, that's it for now.  I'm a depressed, nervous wreck.

Man, I WISH this was a stone bruise....we're kinda ruling that out now. 
 
Jennifer