Suspensory or colateral ligament (in the
hoof) injury would be my WAG. If she were mine, I’d take her in for full
lameness exam including blocks and ultrasound.
From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kathie Ford Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
2:07 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] horse lamness
question
Hi there all, I hope everybody is
well and happy.
I have a question I'd like to ask anybody, but especially Heidi and Susan about
my daughters 22 y/o mare.
Last December my daughter took her mare out for a short ride. I had warned
her a bit as it had been wet and slippery. She said she'd be
careful. But her horse had other ideas that day. She is a pretty spunky
mare with a mind of her own sometimes.
History on her mare Dolly is that she was a broodmare for the first 10 or so
years of her life, had 5 babies I think, and was also broke and lightly ridden.
My daughter got her at 12 and started training her and conditioning her. We've
had her 11 years and she'd never been lame or even ill in any way. She's
suffered one minor cut in the past, had been close to a tendon but she was
lucky and healed properly w/no issues.
She's done a little LD w/my oldest and my youngest daughters, Pony Club, (some
eventing, jumping, dressage, and hunt seat), and lots of trails. She has always
been a fit, tough little spitfire. She has always been a good eater,
drinker, and camper and always loved going places. A really good all
around little mare. (but don't tell her she's little! She doesn't think
so!)
Fast forward to now. When my daughter took her for her ride last December
they were just walking, a little trotting and doing just fine. Then, Dolly got
a burr up her rear (not literally) and decided, as she was known to do
"sometimes" decided she wanted to do things her way. She
suddenly decided to gallop. My daughter is a very good rider and she stopped
her, however at that time, there was a small creek to cross. My daughter had
planned to have her walk across it as it had a steep uphill slope on the other side.
The creek wasn't even a creek really just a stream. BUT, it was slippery and
her horse just decided to "launch" over it. She slipped, as my
daughter figured and was concerned about, and the mares front hooves slipped,
causing her to scramble. This is a local trail section in our
neighborhood by the way. Dolly seemed okay but my daughter brought her
home via a shortcut walking. She was fine at home, but the next day she
was off slightly.
After a 2 week rest she seemed on the mend so we took her down to play w/some
of our other horses at a neighbors pasture. We didn't stay there as we
usually leave them for a few hours. They love it down there. They usually just
eat and some of them run around. We were actually careful which horses we selected
to be w/her that day.
When we were walking home, Dolly was walking okay BUT when we got home, on her
left side her forearm, the muscle there, which we didn't notice
immediately, was very swollen. Again, she didn't seem off but it was
huge. There was also some hyde off in a square shaped pattern. Only thing we
could think of was that she may have been "squeezed" by the the
others maybe near a fence if they were playing.
Next day, took her out she was dead lame. She got worse and worse.
The swelling on the forearm disappeared completely and never seemed to
really bother her. It was on the right side. She was off on the left.
We gave her more rest but this time she got worse. We took her to the vet, paid
a large bill doing nerve blocks, full examination, x-rays w/no diagnosis and
all of us scratching our heads. Ironically, her coffin bone, navicular bone,
and all other bones, in her hooves and leg looked really great for a 22 y/o
they said. There was never any swelling of legs upper or lower. We declined an
ultrasound as there seemed to be nothing pointing to a tendon injury via the
vet and we didn't want to waste $. We had NO clue what she had done. We thought
abccess, then found nothing. Then muscle tear? Then possibly tendon/ligament??
No logical symptoms. Just a mystery lameness.
Only thing I could find were some spasms by both forearms, mainly left
side..humm.I was able to release w/some t-touch and massage. So we just
gave her time. Had her have a prof. massage, had body work done, etc.
It's been 11 months now and this is my question. Dolly is very sound at the
walk and almost at the trot. She's moved back up in pecking order (she'd been
depressed for a bit and allowed herself to lower herself in the herd so we knew
she wasn't feeling right), is cantering and playing in the pasture etc.
HOWEVER, and this is my question:
She trots sound on hard pavement (our driveway) and in the pasture looks okay.
BUT, when we have her trot in the sand arena she is slightly off. Not bad but
it's still there. Strangely, it shows itself more when she is trotted
with the supposidly bad leg on the outside. Scratching my head here
folks.
Also, I can't remember where or when I read this, but I did read something that
mentioned that if you are trotting out a horse on sand vs. hard ground it would
be a clue to either an injury to a tendon or a bone or something. One or
the other. I cannot for the life of me remember which is which or completely
what I read. Just remembered "something" in that regard...
So, anybody out there have any clues or experience w/something strange like
this? It did take a lot of time to heal. She is under saddle at the WALK
only and that seems to be helping. She also looks completely sound if we trot
her just a few steps going uphill. ( we do this to assess her progress)
Downhill (on smooth ground only) it shows just a tad.
We were never able to even know what she had done to herself so has been hard
to figure out.
To date her attitude is very good and normal, weight good, wants to go. But we
are being very careful w/her still and one step at a time.
Any good detectives out there?
Again, thanks in advance,
kathie
(a perplexed "horsey" grandma! :) )
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