Lameness issue

[DENMAN03]

Hi,

My horse has been lame for the last 12 weeks. It started when he pulled a shoe off in the mud and its fluctuated between being dead lame in walk to being 9/10 sound. I have had the vet out several times and my horse has been nerve blocked and x-rayed and its definately in the hoof. I use an equissage on him every night to try and increase blood flow, and use glucosamene supplement but nothing seems to be working.

Nothing untoward has shown up on the xray and now the only real suggestion to get a diagnosis is an MRI. I haven't called the insurance company yet but they will only contribute half, thats assuming they agree to it! The vet came out today and couldn't get near him. I think he is freaked by the last nerve block. He was striking out, rearing etc even with a chifney ( he is 17.3 so a big lad!)

My vet and farrier think its a ligament injury. Has anyone else had anything similar with their horse? Im guessing that if the MRI confirms this he will need a fair amount of time off work.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience of this and what happened.

thanks.

[chocolatecakeystuff]

This is going to sound reaaally daft... but have you tried poulticing to see what happens? My mare went unsound with heat in the foot - farrier couldn't find an abcess - vets were baffled. Poulticed and lone behold gunk started comimg out the hoof, three days of poulticing the farrier finally found the bugger. But took a few days to find it.

Did all the nails come out the foot properly... never know?

[froubylou]

Have they scanned the fetlock joint? Or the soft tissues or just done xrays? My mare did her annular ligament and presented as unlevel some days and crippled on others.

Id also echo poulticing. It wont hurt anything to try.

[horseylady]

I'd want ultrasound if possible before MRI. MRI very detailed but ultra expensive. Ltrasound imaging may show ligament/tendon damage. Not as well but it is a good piece of imaging kit.

[Booboostoo]

The MRI is most likely to give you an answer if the problem is in the hoof. Ultrasound is very limited in that area and only covers a really small number of possible problems.

Speak to your insurance, they will need to know either way and the sooner you tell them the easier it will be to sort things out.