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  Discussion on Update on localizing lameness
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Member:
equinkel

Posted on Thursday, Dec 24, 2009 - 9:02 am:

I posted back in May about my 6 yr old Tb Lameness. It's been over 9 months now and my horse is still showing signs of LF lameness. In oct I had a new vet come out and spend lots of time doing blocks and xrays. He blocked out in the left foot doing a pdn block and Nb block. The xrays showed some navicular changes but the vet thought most of his problems were from the horrific farrier work that had been done. He thought with correct balancing of the hoof and a coffin joint inject he would improve greatly. I had a very good farrier come out and decided to wait on the injection. His lameness got significantly better with the new farrier but then he got an absess shortly after and pulled his shoe off and with each occurance he would go to right back to same lameness. I decided to do the coffin joint injection last week to see if that would help. I would say he improved about 20% but the vet was thinking he should improved much more. Dr, O, is there anything else that you would sugguest? I can't do an MRI b/c it's too expensive. I tried to keep him turned out for the winter and it just makes him more lame b/c the ground is frozen. The couple times he was sound in the last 9 months gave me hope, but he always goes back to square one.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Dec 25, 2009 - 12:09 pm:

Hello equinekel,
Many of the undiagnosed foot lameness problems have with better imaging modalities turned out to be soft tissue injury, often flexor tendonitis or strain of one of the many ligaments in this region (desmitis). Being able to image the problem has led veterinarians and owners to giving horses far longer enforced rest management, sometimes up to 6 months to allow the structure to heal. Retrospective reviews of these cases has found improved prognosis using this technique. If you are looking for other treatment modalities without further diagnosis, this would probably hold the most promise.
DrO
Member:
equinkel

Posted on Sunday, Dec 27, 2009 - 10:15 am:

It's now been 10 days since the coffin joint injection and my horse does seem to be moving much better. The farrier saw him playing in the pasture (something I have not seen him do in a long time)and said he looked 100% better then he did 3 weeks ago. I did some light trotting and he did feel much better then before. The ground is now frozen so I will have to wait a few days to see if he continues to get better. My horse had almost 9 months off so you would think anything soft tissue wise would have healed by now. I'll keep you posted on his progress.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Dec 28, 2009 - 7:07 am:

Good luck equinekel.
DrO
Member:
equinkel

Posted on Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 - 9:23 am:

It's been about 2 months since I gave the coffin joint injection and I'm still having great success. Because it's been so cold and the ground is frozen I've only been riding him up and down the road. He's starting to look a lot more fit and his energy is much better. The gently rolling hills have helped with the fitness. Once the ground is no longer frozen I will be able to test him in the arena with slightly deeper footing and circles. Then I'll really know how sound he is. Another thing that really helped his recovery is not allowing him to go out in pasture. The frozen mud created holes that were irritating his injury. I only give him limited turnout in the limestone lot and that helped alot too. He went from walking with a chronic limp and now he's full of energy. I wish I would have given him the injection much sooner instead of waiting for him to turn the corner on his own.
Member:
vickiann

Posted on Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 - 2:13 pm:

Great news!

Thanks for the update and I hope that he will continue to do well as you increase the exercise time.
Member:
paul303

Posted on Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 - 7:46 pm:

equinkel: So glad that you're seeing some improvement. I started the coffin joint injection 2 years ago. My 30 yr old QH navicular, retired pleasure/reiner mare did wonderful. We were contemplating nerving, but tried this first. She's been injected twice, now, and I've never seen her head-bob re-emerge. I'll take these injections as far as they can get my old girl!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Feb 28, 2010 - 11:11 am:

Thanks for the update equinkel.
DrO
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