Horse been lame for 2 months

[picklestheduck]

My mare is being seen by the farrier tomorrow. Prayers would be appreciated. She's been lame for over two months now. I'm pretty concerned about her. We have dealt with cellulitis, an abscess, and bad thrush in the front right. I've treated everything and kind of been doing everything possible for it. She has been seen by the vet several times. At this point I'm at a loss of what's wrong. This thrush is slowly getting better. Hopefully the farrier will be able to see something and figure it out. My horses are barefoot, but if a special shoe will help with her heel crack and soreness, I'm ready to try it. She went on a sand dune ride about a week after she went lame, because I put scoot boots on her, and she was magically no longer lame until I took the boots off her. I have no clue. She also stands with her heel off the ground like mostly on her toe with both front feet. She is also 21 and has been dealing with arthritis for a while now. Hopefully the farrier will have an answer. I have not been able to try the scoot boots since, since they were sent to help a friend in need of them with a horse who needs it much more. Any ideas from yall?

That is the swelling when I first found the cellulitis. It swelled overnight. Its all better now though. She went on oral antibiotics and we put furacin and DMSO on it for like weeks.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

You might get better and faster answers here : https://www.backyardherds.com/

I hope everything turns out well.

 

[picklestheduck]

You might get better and faster answers here : https://www.backyardherds.com/

I hope everything turns out well.

Thanks!!

 

[littledog]

What a nightmare, to deal with thrush, abscesses, cellulitis and arthritis all at the same time or overlapping! No wonder it's so hard to figure out what is the major cause of her lameness, with all that going on.
What I would do is go all out on treating the abscesses and thrush first, since those are simplest to treat and resolve the fastest. Make sure both of those are totally gone, then see what you're left with.
Try to keep her in a dry environment so they don't keep coming back. If she has heel cracks, the same micro-organisms can keep invading her hooves over and over, wasting all your efforts. You might want to use her boots all the time while you're treating these things. Her hooves will be safe from the bacteria and fungi that live in the ground, and you can add anti-microbial and/or anti-fungal treatments to the boots. Every day, take off the boots, clean her feet and the boots with betadine or a similar anti-microbial product, let them dry in a clean environment (like hand-graze her on a non-muddy grass area for 20-30 minutes while the boots dry in a sunny area) then sprinkle inside the boots with Epsom salts before putting them back on.

Cellulitis be really challenging and take a long time to get better - my mare had it a few years ago, and it took 2-3 weeks of daily poulticing, and this was after a week of antibiotics didn't work, so the vet had to come back and give her a huge dose of penicillin, then I continued with another 10 days of oral antibiotics and poulticing. She did completely recover though! She does also have a bit of arthritis too (she's 24) but I manage it with a daily dose of Cosequin, and she's sound enough to ride normally and even jump at a low level.

Once you know for sure that all these crazy infections aren't an issue any more, if she is still lame, you might want to get the vet back and do x-rays. How long have you had her - do you know if she ever foundered in the past? X-rays of her feet can also tell you exactly how bad the arthritis is, too, or if she has other issues going on, like navicular disease or ringbone. Your description of how she stands is suspicious, though laminitic horses usually try to take most of their weight on their back feet, and navicular horses try to take the weight off their toes. But all these are manageable, and the farrier working with your vet can be a big help. X-rays might be expensive, but it can save you money in the long run - knowing exactly what is wrong and getting the vet and farrier on the same page will get her better faster and be less expensive than buying all kinds of products, different shoes, trying this and that, finding out this doesn't work, so you try that...it all adds up.

Good luck to you! And big props to you for your commitment to getting your senior horse better. They've spent their lifetimes carting us around and teaching us everything we know - they deserve a comfortable life in their old age, whether it includes riding or retirement in the pasture. Lots of love to our oldies!

 

[picklestheduck]

What a nightmare, to deal with thrush, abscesses, cellulitis and arthritis all at the same time or overlapping! No wonder it's so hard to figure out what is the major cause of her lameness, with all that going on.
What I would do is go all out on treating the abscesses and thrush first, since those are simplest to treat and resolve the fastest. Make sure both of those are totally gone, then see what you're left with.
Try to keep her in a dry environment so they don't keep coming back. If she has heel cracks, the same micro-organisms can keep invading her hooves over and over, wasting all your efforts. You might want to use her boots all the time while you're treating these things. Her hooves will be safe from the bacteria and fungi that live in the ground, and you can add anti-microbial and/or anti-fungal treatments to the boots. Every day, take off the boots, clean her feet and the boots with betadine or a similar anti-microbial product, let them dry in a clean environment (like hand-graze her on a non-muddy grass area for 20-30 minutes while the boots dry in a sunny area) then sprinkle inside the boots with Epsom salts before putting them back on.

Cellulitis be really challenging and take a long time to get better - my mare had it a few years ago, and it took 2-3 weeks of daily poulticing, and this was after a week of antibiotics didn't work, so the vet had to come back and give her a huge dose of penicillin, then I continued with another 10 days of oral antibiotics and poulticing. She did completely recover though! She does also have a bit of arthritis too (she's 24) but I manage it with a daily dose of Cosequin, and she's sound enough to ride normally and even jump at a low level.

Once you know for sure that all these crazy infections aren't an issue any more, if she is still lame, you might want to get the vet back and do x-rays. How long have you had her - do you know if she ever foundered in the past? X-rays of her feet can also tell you exactly how bad the arthritis is, too, or if she has other issues going on, like navicular disease or ringbone. Your description of how she stands is suspicious, though laminitic horses usually try to take most of their weight on their back feet, and navicular horses try to take the weight off their toes. But all these are manageable, and the farrier working with your vet can be a big help. X-rays might be expensive, but it can save you money in the long run - knowing exactly what is wrong and getting the vet and farrier on the same page will get her better faster and be less expensive than buying all kinds of products, different shoes, trying this and that, finding out this doesn't work, so you try that...it all adds up.

Good luck to you! And big props to you for your commitment to getting your senior horse better. They've spent their lifetimes carting us around and teaching us everything we know - they deserve a comfortable life in their old age, whether it includes riding or retirement in the pasture. Lots of love to our oldies!

Thank you very much! Yes, we got all her infections under control finally and she healed from those. Its been a long haul, trying to make her comfortable. We took her to the vet, and they did flexion tests ans all sorts of tests. They checked for sore spots in her hooves, found nothing, and then figured it was her knee. It ended up being her left leg that was the issue. When they did the flexion test, she became so lame she was hobbling on only three legs. They did X-rays of her knee but found nothing. They said her cartilage, tendons, and joint looked amazing for a 21 year old horse. They put her on bute for two weeks and we went back a second time. They were so stumped by this issue they actually had two vets work with her. They did more flexion tests, and the same results came up. They ended up doing X-rays of her elbow next. The new vet that came in as another helper thought we would have to sedate her to do them, but the vet that had worked with her before said she did awesome before and would probably be fine. They ended up having three vets total to help with the X-rays, and they stretched her leg at a ton of angles. I'm sure it had to hurt, but she didn't move and was very calm. They found some bad arthritis I barrel raced with her and trail rode a lot, and they retired her from barrel racing, and any jumping or anything hard like that. They said if she did recover enough to be ridden she would not be able to canter up hills, and do anything difficult. We ended up going back in a month or so for a joint injection. Its been five weeks since her injection, and she still seems slightly lame on and off. I have ridden her a few times for like 10-20 minutes. I've found she can't really do saddles, as the cinch seems to bother her elbow. She does have a hay belly, so that does push her cinch forward, but I even used my shoulder relief cinch and it still really bothered her. Just about a week ago, I rode her for a longer ride since she looked really good. I went with our friend who boards her horse at our house. I put a bareback pad on her, and we took off. She had so much energy it was crazy, she ended up getting upset when the other horse turned away from us and reared up and imid bucked wildly when her front feet landed. I ended up flying off of her but never let go of the reins. The rest of the ride consisted of lots of prancing. (she was VERY mad I would not let her gallop) I did let her do a slow canter at one point because she clearly felt amazing, and she just bucked. The energy she had built up was crazy. I don't have an arena so we went into our woods to ride. I guess right now we just need to wait more and see how she does.

 

[picklestheduck]

This is her enjoying life, even if it means not riding like we used to.

shes such a goofball, and although it really sucks to not ride like we used to, and its been hard on us both since I've been training and showing with my other mare for barrel racing, I'm just still so happy to love on her and see her everyday. Someone asked me if I was going to re home her, and I thought they were crazy! My horses will stay with me for the rest of their lives. I cant understand how people re home an animal just because they are aging.

 

[cassie]

This probably isn't it, but since the farrier is coming out anyway, see if he can check her for navicular.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Hello! I'm sorry to hear you've been going through so much with your girl. That's crazy and weird that you've never been able to pin-point the problem. Were the vets certain it was in her elbow? Or do you know?

I'm just curious and finally posting on this thread (I saw it when you first posted) because it sounds very, very similar to a problem we have with one of our horses at the barn I work at. Nearly the exact same thing has happened. Completely lame, although we pin-pointed it to the right front, and nothing we did for it worked. (She was on at least a month stall rest) Had the vet look at it and finally determined it might be navicular or something wrong with her front foot/heel. She was keeping weight completely off her heel.

We talked with the farrier and determined we'd try bar shoes. Suddenly, she was nearly completely sound after them. Granted, the angle at her foot was kind of bad/flat too, so that was a more individual problem. We thought managing her feet and keeping those bar shoes on would work. But then it started up again after she had been on stall rest for another unrelated injury a few months later. Nearly dead lame one day, then suddenly she'd be fine the next. Yours is more constant, right? Or wrong?

So our cases are not completely similar, but I thought I'd mention something to see if it'd help you at all. Apparently there is another kind of special shoe as well, although we personally haven't gone there yet for Ginger (the horse, who I work with personally).

After a week or two of this lameness again, we had the farrier redo her feet (She was due for a trim anyways) and suddenly ever since then she has been completely sound. It's baffled us. We didn't get as many tests nor X rays yet like you have (I'd rather not get into reasons because it's personal, but trust me that we were planning on it until she got sound again. And we take very good care of our horses. I just don't want to talk about other peoples' business on here, since she's not mine).

Anyhow, we thought perhaps navicular, but we aren't certain on that anymore. It could just be an old injury, too, or something caused by an old injury. (In Ginger's case, she has quite a bit of a mysterious background--and scars on that foot) The farrier mentioned as well that it could be some kind of nerve that gets pressure put on it (or pinched) and causes pain, leading to lameness.

Anyhow, I suppose the tests and X rays would help rule out different options, but I thought I'd post anyways.

I have no clue if that helps at all, but those are ideas that we have explored and considered. Perhaps it can be of help to you.

I wish you and your girl all the best! I'm glad she's lovin' life despite the lameness. She looks like such a character.

 

[picklestheduck]

Hello! I'm sorry to hear you've been going through so much with your girl. That's crazy and weird that you've never been able to pin-point the problem. Were the vets certain it was in her elbow? Or do you know?

I'm just curious and finally posting on this thread (I saw it when you first posted) because it sounds very, very similar to a problem we have with one of our horses at the barn I work at. Nearly the exact same thing has happened. Completely lame, although we pin-pointed it to the right front, and nothing we did for it worked. (She was on at least a month stall rest) Had the vet look at it and finally determined it might be navicular or something wrong with her front foot/heel. She was keeping weight completely off her heel.

We talked with the farrier and determined we'd try bar shoes. Suddenly, she was nearly completely sound after them. Granted, the angle at her foot was kind of bad/flat too, so that was a more individual problem. We thought managing her feet and keeping those bar shoes on would work. But then it started up again after she had been on stall rest for another unrelated injury a few months later. Nearly dead lame one day, then suddenly she'd be fine the next. Yours is more constant, right? Or wrong?

So our cases are not completely similar, but I thought I'd mention something to see if it'd help you at all. Apparently there is another kind of special shoe as well, although we personally haven't gone there yet for Ginger (the horse, who I work with personally).

After a week or two of this lameness again, we had the farrier redo her feet (She was due for a trim anyways) and suddenly ever since then she has been completely sound. It's baffled us. We didn't get as many tests nor X rays yet like you have (I'd rather not get into reasons because it's personal, but trust me that we were planning on it until she got sound again. And we take very good care of our horses. I just don't want to talk about other peoples' business on here, since she's not mine).

Anyhow, we thought perhaps navicular, but we aren't certain on that anymore. It could just be an old injury, too, or something caused by an old injury. (In Ginger's case, she has quite a bit of a mysterious background--and scars on that foot) The farrier mentioned as well that it could be some kind of nerve that gets pressure put on it (or pinched) and causes pain, leading to lameness.

Anyhow, I suppose the tests and X rays would help rule out different options, but I thought I'd post anyways.

I have no clue if that helps at all, but those are ideas that we have explored and considered. Perhaps it can be of help to you.

I wish you and your girl all the best! I'm glad she's lovin' life despite the lameness. She looks like such a character.

Thanks so much! We are pretty sure its just the arthritis in her elbow since its pretty severe. The X-rays showed her bones to be jagged and rough instead of smooth like they should be. There are several factors that I'm sure can make it worse, cold weather, kicking at other horses, standing in a weird position to eat hay etc. She also figured out how to stick her leg (of course the bad one) through the gate and lift the big heavy gate off the hinges with only her leg. Shes on the top of the totem pole so she bosses everyone around. Her favorite thing to do when playing or fighting or while someone is riding her is to rear....and I'm sure the landings are rough on her leg. She'll do what she wants......I can try to help where I can but I can't stop her from being a horse. lol. I've worked with horses with navicular before and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have it. This seems different. Thanks so much for the imput!

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

Thanks so much! We are pretty sure its just the arthritis in her elbow since its pretty severe. The X-rays showed her bones to be jagged and rough instead of smooth like they should be. There are several factors that I'm sure can make it worse, cold weather, kicking at other horses, standing in a weird position to eat hay etc. She also figured out how to stick her leg (of course the bad one) through the gate and lift the big heavy gate off the hinges with only her leg. Shes on the top of the totem pole so she bosses everyone around. Her favorite thing to do when playing or fighting or while someone is riding her is to rear....and I'm sure the landings are rough on her leg. She'll do what she wants......I can try to help where I can but I can't stop her from being a horse. lol. I've worked with horses with navicular before and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have it. This seems different. Thanks so much for the imput!

Poor horse...I have 3 and there all old I have a 33 28 and 31 year old and I only have one thats in perfect shape....they just get old and arthritis gets them hopefully you can just make her comfortable and give time!
Slow and steady wind the race