My Horse has a mysterious lameness

[Pink Dog]

My Shire horse has a strange lameness that just seemed to appear over the last weekend. he is not worked at present so i know its not that. his left front leg is causing him some grief, he is not favouring the leg when stood still, and weight bears evenly when stood still, but when he moves, there are signs of lameness and more so in trot, but canter seems to be ok. he is happy to run about quite the thing in the field but once he has, he starts to show lameness again. i have inspected his leg and can see no signs of heat or inflamation, i am hosing it with cold water twice daily. the farrier is due in a couple of days so he will rule out foot issues (which i suspect it isnt a foot issue anyway) has anyone got any ideas??? he's not in agony, just a bit iffy sometimes, almost like if i were to twist my ankle, it would be sore but not agonising. we are both losing our marbles with this!!!

 

[bluebirdfarm]

if it is not a hoof issue , maybe he did just twist his leg .my donkey did this last yr. She must have either slipped in the mud or got caught in a hole or on a rock.
her leg was a tiny bit swollen and the vet made me put on a wrap with a freezing gel , it seemed to help.
maybe after the farrier looks , u should get a vet if not any better?

 

[Wildsky]

My horse has an issue similar but at the back - I'm getting a chiropractor out to check her back and hips - I think thats where the issue is.
In fact, the farrier was here last week and he suggested a chiropractor.

 

[Pink Dog]

if he is not better by the time the farrier has been and ruled out his feet 100% i will call the vet. its just an odd lameness, he has no swelling or heat, i have examined him thoroughly from shoulder to toe and he seems quite happy stomping about the yard to escape the cold hose!!!

 

[Pink Dog]

Wildsky
i had the back man out a couple of weeks ago so im sure its not that, but he could have stumbled and twisted it i guess

 

[Wolf-Kim]

It may be the start of an abcess. Our big gelding got one recently. It started off as a small, barely noticeable limp. I simply thought he had stepped wrong on a stone out in the pasture, so I gave him a few days. Which he seemed to be improving so I didn't think any more about it.

Well about a week later he acts as though he can't even make it across the pasture to eat. We call the vet out, because now he won't put any pressure on the leg at all(Front left). Vet says she can't get there for another hour or two, so we grab a big bucket and soak his foot in cold water.

Vet shows up and mashes on different spots on the bottom of his feet, she hits one spot and he jerks his hoof out of her hand. She pulls out a knife and starts digging. Turns out he had abcessed his hoof. After she dug it out and we flushed it for about a week, he was right as rain.

You farrier should be able to help you out when he/she shows up to do feet.

-Kim

 

[Pink Dog]

My big fella has had abcesses before, in his hind feet, one so severe that he lost 2/3 of soft tissue completely and 1/2 of his hard sole to expose his digital cushion bone. he is permanatly shod for this, to stop his white line seperatingand allowing dirt in to cause abcesses. my farrier comes every 6-8 weeks and keeps a very close eye on this to stop it reoccuring

 

[patandchickens]

Definitely I'd have the vet out, since what you describe could be approximately a million and a half different possible things

(It's awfully hard to detect lameness at the canter, btw)

An abscess is not impossible -- and statistically speaking that's the likeliest -- but it could also be a tendon or ligament strain, arthritis such as ringbone or higher joints, a chiropractic issue, etc etc etc.

Since many of these things, you'd want to know what it is and do the appropriate thing (or at least NOT do INappropriate things), it seems like a diagnosis is in order. Preferably from a vet who is good at, and enjoys, figuring out subtle lamenesses (as opposed to the kind that aren't good at lameness at all, or prefer to do $1000 worth of tests rather than rely on experience and intelligence -- IME it is not easy to find a good lameness vet

)

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Pink Dog]

the issue i have with finding a vet that is good with lameness is the fact that there is only one vet in the Highlands that deals with horses!!! the rest are small animal vets!!! kinda limited for choice!!

i'm hanging on until the farrier has seen him first, he does have a history of bad feet so thats always my first port of call (i do not trust any vet with horses feet, i have had a bad experience with more than one vet misdiagnosing his feet and the farrier had to pick up the pieces, thankfully he's a very good farrier)

 

[Florida chick]

My vote is most likely an abcess, BUT did you check under all the feathering really well for Scratches or mites? That could be causing him pain.. I would hate to do it, but maybe clip him? I have a big Draftie girl too and I clipped her and she had scratches badly when we 1st got her, I never would have know. Goodluck