[big_red_ottb]

My OTTB has been on and off lame on his RF for the last month. He has no other history of lameness prior to January of 2012.

Quick history of the last couple months:
We tried taking his shoes off in early December. He was miserable, put shoes back on after 4 days. No lasting effects from what I could see, he was sound right off the bat with new shoes.

January 15th or so, he feels NQR. No heat, swelling, obvious limping, but he feels off under saddle and looks a bit choppy on his RF. Give him a week and a half off for life reasons, he's fine until yesterday.

He got new shoes last Friday. Did some jumping Saturday, and just ground driving Sunday. He was sound both days.

Yesterday, I go to pull him out of pasture and he's a little reluctant to move. Get him going, he's not lame at walk as far as I can see. Hop on him and at the trot he is noticeably off on RF. I'd say a 2/5 or so. Once again, no heat, swelling, sensitivity, etc.

I'm at a loss. Going to see him this PM to see how he's doing, going to get vet out tomorrow just in case.

Any ideas? People at the barn seem to think abscess, but I'm not sure it's severe enough for that!

[candyappy]

Did you tell your farrier about it at least one of the times he was out? He could have checked for a possible abscess or soreness then. Usually they like to know if your horse has had any issues between visits ( at least mine have). I would think there is an abscess brewing and having your vet out is a good idea.

[savethedate]

Make sure you rule out the little stuff! Just sit and think, does he have a stone sore? It could be something simple as that, so don't forget to think about the little stuff for a second to rule all you can out!

Also, hope it all works out! Let us know what the Vet ends up finding!

[mswillie]

My horse had similar symptoms. NQR, no heat, thought it was an abscess. Had the vet out, he blocked and did a set of xrays. Horse had a fetlock chip in the right front along with some ringbone.

So we had the chip out in September and I put him back into work about a month ago. It's made a big difference. I'm still worried about the ringbone but the issues resulting directly from the chip seem to be gone.

Hope your vet can identify and treat what's wrong.

[Juxtapoze]

My OTTB has been on and off lame on his RF for the last month. He has no other history of lameness prior to January of 2012.

January 15th or so, he feels NQR. No heat, swelling, obvious limping, but he feels off under saddle and looks a bit choppy on his RF. Give him a week and a half off for life reasons, he's fine until yesterday.

Yesterday, I go to pull him out of pasture and he's a little reluctant to move. Get him going, he's not lame at walk as far as I can see. Hop on him and at the trot he is noticeably off on RF. I'd say a 2/5 or so. Once again, no heat, swelling, sensitivity, etc.

People at the barn seem to think abscess, but I'm not sure it's severe enough for that!

My first thought was abscess too. My OTTB was on & off lame last fall/winter. When his abscess finally presented itself (after being missed by my old farrier & another vet), the vet said it had probably been brewing for a month.

I will also share that my OTTB shed his entire right frog 2 weeks ago and was off for a week & a half (tender-footed & choppy strides, only really off at the canter). If your guy has hooves like my horse (mainly thin-sole issues), any little thing can take longer to heal than with another horse with better hoof conformation. Good luck!

[Rick Burten]

Could be an abscess and it could be a deep bruise. But when its remained undiagnosed for this long, radiographs are in order as a part of a full lameness workup.

[merrygoround]

Voting here for a full lameness work up! Maybe I've known more belligerent abscesses but mine just got worse and worse, no vacation time.

I'd be suspicious of soft tissue.

[equinekingdom]

I have a mare that was just like this, sometimes lame, sometimes not, sometimes a little tender, sometimes totally fine. She ended up having a monster abscess come out the back/top of her LH that totally blew out part of her hoof. Poulticed it and kept it wrapped for three days after that and she was totally fine in a week. Good luck!

[big_red_ottb]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I think I might have solved my own problem....I lunged him today in our softer dirt arena and his trot was better than it's looked in a month. Our main riding/jumping arena is unfortunately rather rocky and packed at the moment (BO is working on getting sand out there, it's only just recently been dry enough to do so), and I hadn't thought much of it until he started to get sore. I suspect he probably has some longer lasting bruises stemming from taking his shoes off and the hard surface + rocks have hurt like hell. At least that's what I hope I'll hear tomorrow!

I did mention it to my farrier, he poked around and looked, but said he couldn't find anything.

Vet will be out in the PM, will do a full lameness work up as vet thinks necessary. I'd rather shell out the $$ now than regret not doing it later.

[stargzng386]

My guess is a stone bruise. They are usually on and off and would be much worse on harder footing. Horses are also more likely to get one right after shoes are pulled.

[equinekingdom]

glad the problem is solved!!! Sand makes it so much nicer to ride.

[big_red_ottb]

Just wanted to confirm that it was, in fact, an arena footing issue! Sometimes the simplest answers....vet came out, he told me he didn't need to see anything else when he watched the difference between hard arena and soft arena. Did an examination anyway, and found nothing. Suspects a lingering stone bruise and told me to ride on soft footing and keep an eye on it. And, we got SAND today, so the hard arena problem should be solved.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! I really appreciate it.

[SanJacMonument]

Good news!