[Showjumper28]

This has been on and off since September. Dublin was fine that beautiful Thursday night I rode. Came 7 am Friday morning and was dead lame, left front. No heat, no swelling. Called out the vet. We figured he must have twisted something getting up in his stall over night. Prescribed bute and a few days rest. He was fine the next day, but we of course gave him the five days off.

2 weeks later, go on a hunter pace. He was wonderful. Gave him the following day off. Day after that, he is nqr. Give him a few days off with bute and he was back to normal. 3 weeks later, another hunter pace, he was even better then the last time. Gave him the next day off. Day after that, rode him and he was fine.

Jump to 2 weeks ago. Went for a trail ride since it was 60 degrees a d gorgeous. Person I went with wasn't the best and took us down some really crappy areas. I wasn't thrilled. Lots of slipping and sliding on slate and rocks. Just all around bad footing.

Next day Dublin is gimpy. Left front, worse after right lead canter. I would say a 1 out of 5. Gave him a few days rest. Got on him again. Still lame, same rating. Vet was coming out on Monday, so added lameness exam to the list. Let me point out here that he is pretty much sound in hand. Only shows lameness with rider.

Rode him for the vet. He is very off in right lead canter and worse in trot afterwards. Negative to hoof testers. Vet blocks back if foot and we have 80% soundness. We block front of foot for 100% of foot blocked and Dublin is 100% sound. X-rays come up clean except for tiny bone spur on the coffin joint. Still no heat, swelling or pulse anywhere. We inject the coffin joint on slim chance its the culprit. And also thinking if it is the deep digital or the collatral it will help for a few weeks and give us a little more to go on. Gave him 5 days off. Hopped on and he is still just as lame. Gave him 4 more days 3 of which he was in due to rain. Got on last night s d he is dead lame 4 out of 5.

Vet is having me give him 2 weeks off. Then we are to block the foot again, just to be sure. Next step will be MRI. Im sincerely hoping it is a bruised navicular or the bursa. And not a tear in any of the ligaments.


Feel free to give me you opinions. Sympathy is always welcome.

UPDATE:
MRI results show a 3mm tear in the Deep digital flexor tendon and slight inflammation of the bursa. So it's 6 months off and as of right now, we are trying to work out logistics to get stem cell going. 75% chance of a complete recovery. Here's hoping!

Now I just have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for the next 6 months.

And an FYI... the original lameness, when he went off the very next morning was actually the right front. I looked it up. LOL I just assumed it was the same foot as now. MRI results on that foot are clean. Go figure...

[candyappy]

You have my sympathy.

[Texarkana]

"Guess the mystery lameness" is the worst game ever... just sayin'.

Hope he gets sound soon!

[KentuckyTBs]

At first, I was thinking "Oh he's just muscle sore from lack of work and going out on hunter paces" - then this more recent instance came up - The fact that it is getting progressively worse rather than better is worrisome. I'd put him on stall rest and get more tests done if possible - ultrasound, MRI, nuclear scan - whatever the vet thinks may show something in this case. Hopefully you will figure it out and get him on a rehab plan soon :-)

[Showjumper28]

At first, I was thinking "Oh he's just muscle sore from lack of work and going out on hunter paces" - then this more recent instance came up - The fact that it is getting progressively worse rather than better is worrisome. I'd put him on stall rest and get more tests done if possible - ultrasound, MRI, nuclear scan - whatever the vet thinks may show something in this case. Hopefully you will figure it out and get him on a rehab plan soon :-)

Yeah he has been in full training for the last year, without issue. No worries about muscle soreness. The weirdest part was that he was in his stall for 3 days before I rode him last and he got so much worse. Then for about 30 mins after I got off he didn't want to put weight on that foot. Maybe we will get lucky and it will be an abscess. (A girl can dream.... right?)

[LDavis104]

Well, you will definitely have your answer after the MRI as to what is going on in the foot. My horse had an off and on RF lameness the MRI showed avulsion fractures of both navicular bones and impar ligament damage (ligaments pulled away from the bone taking a chunk of bone with it). When my vet took front feet x-rays before he went lame (and it was just a few weeks prior) for shoeing purposes, all she saw was a very small bone spur on his RF navicular. Navicular view x-rays (had to pull shoes for these a few weeks later when she did the in depth lameness eval), did show some more "stuff" going on (including degeneration in the bone and my horse was diagnosed with navicular disease at that point), but you still couldn't see the fractures.

The very first indication of something wrong was a couple of "off" steps while making a turn. Just that once... fine for a few rides, then a couple of off steps again through a turn. It just got worse and more consistent over the course of a couple of weeks. I spent a few weeks thinking it was stuff stuck up under his pads (farrier would remove the tiny bit of dirt that got up in there and he would be fine again for a few days), the scratches he had on his RF, etc... Looking back now I can see even more clues that something was wrong before he even started head bobbing, stopping at fences when he's not a stopper, things like that. I have come to realize that when there is ANY indication of even one weird step with my horse, it's not that he "tweaked" something (sometimes I cringe when I hear that as a vague diagnosis), but that something is seriously wrong.

Good luck. It stinks, but on the plus side you can afford to get the MRI and get some answers. Fingers crossed is a nice abscess or stone bruise!

[RS]

Thumbs up for going through the proper channels to diagnose! So much easier to block and narrow down the options than guess at nothing.

Most likely soft-tissue in the foot, where he blocks sound. Hopefully you get an answer without too much more hassle!

[Showjumper28]

Just in case anyone wondered what happened...

[deltawave]

Have you considered surgery? Check my blog for a link to a scientific paper on the topic of what sounds like your horse's injury (I had one with this, too).

www.hearthorse.blogspot.com

Look around September 2010 for a post about the surgery, MRI, and the veterinary paper.

[trubandloki]

Jingles for a good quick recovery.

[Ambitious Kate]

Really sorry to hear about his tendon and bursa. I would hope that with time off (maybe even a year, I don't know?) to really heal, he will be good.

Meanwhile, I think you will just have to bit the bullet and...and...get another horse! Yes, I am enabler, and proud of it, too. Heh heh.

[deltawave]

Here is the paper abstract/citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17228590

[Showjumper28]

Oh Kate How I wish I could afford another horse. Or even a lease for that matter. But luckily with a stem cell treatment and 6 months off he should be good to go. Due to the location, he will have an extremely low risk of re-injury.

[ArbGrl]

My guy is finally starting back to light work after tearing his DDF last Feb. it's been a long year, but he's a nice young horse so I hope he will hold up to going back to work. We didn't do any of the new therapies because he has some other issues in the same tendon, but I've heard that people have good success with them.