Time for vet?

[tallulahturtle]

Was riding a good few weeks back and she got a stone wedged while cantering and she went lame we were behind another horse so took a while to pull up as my horse would not stop when her friend was merrily carrying on ahead.

Anyway got stone out and carried on, she seemed fine. Her routine physio lady a week after said she seemed footy- it was then i realised the stone was maybe more significant and i started noticing her pointing that foot sometimes when in the field.

Did tubbing as advised by physio (she is also bhsai and teaches stable management to pony club so as i am a fairly new owner i tend to go to her for general advice/things i am not sure of). I gave her a week off , farrier was due so mentioned it to him. He said they often get bruises and its nothing to worry about, he couldnt feel any heat or pulses so said that as she had a week off she was probably find to start riding again.
I rode her that weekend and all was fine, seemed sound and no toe pointing.

The following week i had car trouble so she ended up having four days off as car had to keep going back and fourth to garage. Spent plenty of time observing her and no toe pointing at all.

Rode her friday just gone in school, she hates the school anyway but she just seemed off. Trotted her up, no lameness i could see, lunged her, again fine. No heat, pulse, swelling. No toe pointing.

Hacked this morning and she was keen as mustard but kept it to walk with a little bit of trot.
Turned out and about an hour later noticed the toe pointing was back :(. Its not constant but its there and its bugging me so i have requested vet for monday morning.

Any ideas from anyone as to what i should be asking vet, anything further i can look for this weekend that may help vet when we see him next week? Sorry for questions but im still pretty new to this and just want to get it right.

Husband says give her another week off as could be bruising still, i also think it may still be bruising but i am scared that if it is something else it may get to a much more worse place if i leave it any longer.

[tallulahturtle]

Ps well done if you read all that!!

Almost wish i could fast forward a few years and become an experienced horse owner!

Forgot to add, horse is 16 and an ex polo pony, crillo x tb. Stopped playing polo at 11, due to son giving up, don't think she was worked majorly hard as was pony club polo from what i understand.
I am so nervous about this as even though her future is secure in that if it transpired she needs to be retired she is staying with me and will be a very very pampered field ornament. I am only in my second year with her and she loves being ridden and we still have so many adventures to go on.

[villainousbroodmare]

I'm an equine vet. Relax. It sounds like a stone bruise.

[tallulahturtle]

:) I did read they can take weeks to heal so am hoping it is nothing more than that. Thanks for calming me down a bit :) x

[villainousbroodmare]

A horse stepping on a stone may simply bruise the sole, or if they really give it welly, infection can get in through tiny cracks and create an abscess. This is very sore but not serious. It tends to cause severe lameness; the horse will barely want to place their foot on the ground. The vet or farrier will check by walking and trotting up the horse to establish which leg they are lame on, and applying hoof testers which are simple "pinchers" which apply pressure to the foot. If the horse reacts, they will then look for the sorest spot and search with a hoof knife for a black spot which will mark the entry point. They will then try to follow that track, paring away with the knife, to get to the abscess. A trickle of pus is the jackpot. They will widen the hole and probably apply a poultice to the foot to draw out any more pus. If it's the vet who attends, they will make sure the horse is up to date for tetanus and maybe give a few days of bute or similar painkiller to encourage the horse to stand down reasonably comfortably on the foot and squeeze out the pus. Abscesses in hind feet tend to drag on longer than in front feet, as the horse can rest the foot more easily and so it takes much longer to come to a head. The longer it's been going on, the easier to find a formed abscess iykwim, as opposed to a diffusely sore area that you can do nothing about. A lot of people use the farrier for this job rather than the vet, as their knife skills are better, but the vet has the medication you might need.

Anyway that's assuming that's what's wrong.

It doesn't sound too serious, so don't fret.

[tallulahturtle]

Hey,

Had vet out this week, she had no pulses, no heat, she didnt react to hoof testers. She trotted up sound but was a bit off in a circle and rather off after the flexion thing.
Vet thinks it is arthritis, especially as she is ex polo . She was pretty positive that we can probably still do all the stuff we do (happy hacking and the odd sponsored ride, but just to read how she feels that day and adapt her routine to it, and be a bit choosy about the ground) , so I felt pretty upbeat about going forward.

Decided on a couple of weeks off and a course of bute to calm any inflammation and then to start gentle riding and build her up again. If required i will pretty much throw everything at her to get a definitive diagnosis and to treat, but at this stage i am reluctant to go in heavy handed until I have done some research.
But now as I am researching it, i am getting a bit worried about how much negative discussion there is about it.
Sorry for odd post, guess i am looking for a bit of reassurance.

[Shizzlestix]

Join the Turmeric user group on FB, I swear it has kept my lad with arthritis sound for the past few years. The vet was loathe to start regular bute as he's only 13. You might want to use some keratex to harden her soles. Only x rays will confirm arthritic changes.

[Shizzlestix]

Meant to say, depending on location of arthritis, lungeing may not be at all a good idea. Do ask your vet.

[tallulahturtle]

Yeah im not going to lunge anymore. Not sure as to location but think fetlocks are involved. I was going to ask how you find out where it is as I want to know. Can you just go straight to x ray?
Tumeric, how do you feed it and how much roughly?