RE: [RC] horse lamness question - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
The general rule of thumb is that soft tissue injuries get worse
in soft footing, while dense (bony) tissue injuries get worse on hard
footing. It sounds to me like the forearm injury was incidental and not a
current issue.
I’d also lean towards a lateral collateral ligament
injury, though there are a whole slew of them down low that could be
contributing to the issue. It ‘fits’ that she would look
worse with the bad leg to the outside, especially if the structure involved is
also on the ‘outside’. However, your vet should have been
able to block the injury at least to the region, if not to a specific
ligament. Ultrasound may or may not give you anything meaningful at this
point, as collaterals can be tricky to visualize well, and might well look
perfectly normal if the injury is 90% resolved. You could always take her
to a referral center that does nuclear scintigraphy, which would probably not
run more than another round of lameness exams, block, xrays and ultrasound.
Scintigraphy is the IV injection of a radioisotope that has greater uptake in
inflamed tissue than it does in normal tissue, so after a few hours, they take
a ‘picture’ of the suspect area with a camera that gives you an
image of lots of pinpoint dots. The inflamed area shows up brighter, and
it can be pretty specific and informative. Still might not be SO specific
as to identify exactly the structure involved, but it’ll be pretty darn
close. Very illuminating technique, no pun intended. They keep the
horse overnight to flush out the isotopes, and now, they don’t glow in
the dark and no adverse side effects.
Adequan injections would be helpful, and continuing what you’re
doing---lots of walking, be careful in deep footing and don’t trot
downhills. It’s really important to keep her feet very well
balanced, especially side to side, and keep her in good supportive shoes, I
wouldn’t try barefoot (I will undoubtedly be flamed for suggesting
putting a horse in shoes, oh, the horror), so definitely work with a good
shoer/farrier/equine podiatry supervisor <g>, as that will do you as much
or more good than anything at this point.
