Sudden lameness - not abscess - any ideas?

[Pleasedontdothat]

DD’s 12 year old mare has gone suddenly very lame on her right hind. She was absolutely fine last Saturday afternoon but that evening we noticed she had a very minor scrape along the inside of her right hind - she didn’t seem bothered by it and as she’d literally just taken the hair off we didn’t think much of it. However the next day as soon as DD picked up trot she was obviously very lame. The vet came out, did flexions (very very lame after whole leg flexion but not bothered by fetlock flexion), no signs of abscess, no heat, no swelling, she’s fine with the leg being handled just doing this really odd gait on that leg in trot. The vet thought she’d probably just tweaked it during a field hooley and to give her a couple of weeks off then reassess. However she’s no better at all after a week and dd is beside herself with worry - she’s booked in to see the specialists on Thursday but I was wondering if anyone had had something similar so that we could try to narrow down what to investigate. For background dmare is an eventer and occasional showjumper - since coming back from her winter holiday she’s been going brilliantly - she did her first event this season last month and felt fabulous (good dressage and double clear) and they were supposed to be stepping up to intermediate this weekend.

She’s out of surgery and it’s really good news 😅. The reason she’s been so severely lame is that as well as tearing a hole in the cartilage she’d also bruised the bone underneath but there’s nothing there that she can’t recover from. As long as her rehab goes well the surgeon said her prognosis is really good and he’d be aiming for her to get back to full work. I’m so relieved! And very glad we opted for surgery even though we thought it was just to get her comfortable enough to be retired.

Yay! That's brilliant news! So happy for you and your daughter 😃

Excellent news , does she have to stay in or will she be coming home soon ? Your daughter must be thrilled .

She is beyond thrilled! She knows rehab isn’t going to be easy - it’s 4 weeks of strict box rest followed by 2 weeks hand walking then 2 weeks small pen turnout. We’re going to keep her at horse hospital for at least the first couple of weeks as she’s much more settled there than at home. But considering we were first told it could be up to 4 months box rest it’s much less daunting. I shudder to think what the final bill is going to be but it’ll be worth it to have DD’s lovely horse back home and healthy.

@Pleasedontdothat the aftercare is always the worst thing , it’s been very hard with my friends mare as she won’t stay in on her own and equally won’t stay out sensibly unless she can see people and on a very small yard it means everyone has to go into a degree of recovery 🤣, the hay bill has been astronomical . Hope it all goes well .

Might be worth getting the chiro out - problem could actually be much higher up

Er @spicemaiden we’ve had every single diagnostic test that our vets could offer 🤷‍♀️ the lameness is caused by a bone bruise and tear in the cartilage on her fetlock after a field accident. Not sure a chiro would add much at this point ..

I missed your updates.

How is she doing @Pleasedontdothat ? hope the post op recovery has been uneventful .

All good so far @tinyspiny - thank you for asking 😊. She’s still pretty settled and all was looking good when her bandage was changed yesterday.

Just over a week since the surgery and she’s doing really well - the wound’s healing nicely and she’s incredibly settled despite being on strict box rest. I’m wondering if we should send her to rehab livery for a few weeks - there’s a very good one about an hour away (vet hospital is two hours away so visiting is tricky). Last time she was on box rest she was a bit of a nightmare whereas apparently she’s being a model patient - all the staff keep commenting on how easy she is to deal with 🫣. Rehab livery won’t be cheap but to be honest I’ve spent so much on her already and for the sake of a few hundred more I really don’t want to run the risk of her injuring herself again because she’s frustrated her friends are all out without her 🧐

I think rehab livery is an excellent idea .

If you can afford it sensibly, then rehab livery sounds great!

Stitches come out on Wednesday - all looking really good. She’s being such a patient patient and bestowing kisses on all the vets, nurses and grooms 😌

She’s beautiful , glad it’s going well .

@tinyspiny updating here so as not to derail the other thread further 😳

She’s doing really well actually - coping much better with box rest than we thought. Hand walking starts tomorrow 😬 - we have some sedalin just in case but so far she’s been very calm and sensible

That is excellent news , she is very beautiful .

even with bedding in her mane 😂

Somehow she’s re-injured herself. She’s really sore on the leg and this time it’s warm. No idea how she’s managed this because she has been being so good firstly on box rest and latterly on small paddock turnout. The vets say there’s nothing more they can do - it’s still possible that time will heal her but there isn’t any more treatment they can offer. She’s too lame to be out - just walking across the field to her paddock is hard enough - so we’ve brought her in and put her on bute for now but I think we’re going to have to make the call sooner rather than later.

Oh no. I’m really sorry. 😢

I’m so sorry @Pleasedontdothat , it’s so disappointing for you all and the poor horse . Have you had her re xrayed / scanned as in view of her never having gone sound it does sound like the procedure has broken down in some way .

I wouldn't be too quick to despair. My lesson horse at the riding school has an old tendon injury. They couldn't do the surgery for several reasons. He was given a 10% chance of recovery and re-injured it twice.

He ended up on 12 months of box rest (was NOT impressed) and now a few years on, is back at work, terrorising the ponies, stealing children's hat silks and raiding the feed shed with what I can only describe as pure glee.

He'll never jump again or even do proper cavaletti as he has to be so careful but he's solid in walk, trot, canter, and teaches a handful of lessons a week and goes hacking. He's happy and mostly sound. Occasionally he goes lame and does a couple weeks of rest and bute which sorts him out.

A friend of ours' pony was on box rest for 2 whole years and came back to full work SJ placing at Blue Chip and at Hickstead. Have everything crossed for you 🤞🏻

I know people mean well but she’s already had a miserable summer, she hates winter at the best of times, I will not do months and months of box rest or even much more small paddock rest. Our vet says he suspects either that the original surgery hasn’t worked or that she’s re-injured the fetlock. At this point post-surgery she should be getting much better, not worse. It’s not a common injury so although they have had cases of horses with similar injuries going back to full work, equally they don’t have a large body of evidence on which to base a prognosis. At this point we’ve resigned ourselves to her ridden career being over, we will not put her in foal as the extra weight on that joint would make it unethical so at the moment our hope is that she recovers enough in the next couple of weeks to be able to go back out with her friends and be a very beautiful (and very expensive) field ornament.

I wouldn’t be prepared to do that though , I’d happily keep an unsound but not in pain ( even if that meant regular Bute) horse as a field ornament( been there , done it ) but I wouldn’t subject a horse to two years box rest .