Lameness any ideas?

[helena]

:(:(Hi

A new horse at our yard is lame on his off-fore. We can't find any swelling or heat in the leg or foot.

His brief history is as follows:

6 year old heavy weight gypsy cob, same owner since 6 months old, but went out on loan from age 4 to 6. Came back 2 weeks ago from loaner due to financial reasons, allegedly sound.

As soon as he arrived at our yard he's been lame obviously so at a walk. He rests his off fore on its toe, in the same way a normal horse would rest a hind leg.

Farrier has been and trimmed his feet which were a bit tatty, he can't find anything wrong with his hoof.

He is more lame on grass/soft surfaces than on flat concrete.
He has not improved in the last 2 weeks, vet is coming on thursday, but wondered if any of you had any thoughts on this.:(

[Luis!]

I would be worried about a tendon problem or something, because on grass it takes more strength to lift there legs up as they sink compared to on concrete where the ground is solid.
Hope you find out the probem.

[CityLights]

how odd its usually a very bad thing to see a horse resting a front leg, hopefully the vet can shed some light on it though, but i would be thinking along the lines of tendons although often there is heat involved or a problem realting to his shoulder

[Betseyboo]

As above really. Hope its something minor though xx

[helena]

We did wonder about shoulder. I've seen loads of tendon injuries and there's always heat, swelling or both. However the only other horse I've seen point a toe like this had done it's tendons, so pretty confusing.

Thanks for your thoughts

[Partner]

If your farrier found no signs of laminitis then I would agree with Shaz and get the vet to check for navicular.

[My Crazy Clan]

I hope you find you find out, poor boy.

[CityLights]

If they "point" their toe as you've described him resting it isnt that a navicular sympton?

Also my vet told me the following about lameness

Worse on Hard surfaces...feet
Worse on soft surfaces...joints

thats interesting, i always thought horses with navicular would slump back

that also may help work out what is wrong with the horse i ride at work, i always assume she has hoof problems or there is something wrong with her knee, but as she is worse on the soft surface maybe it is her knee

[helena]

Well the owner's vet came last night. Totally useless, couldn't even do a flexion test properly. She diagnosed him as being lame on the leg that he's sound on, and simply prescribed 1 weeks bute and a months box rest as she thought 'he'd strained something'.

My vet is coming next week to do my horse's teeth and vaccs in a week so we're going to ask him to have a look as he is a well known equine specialist.

[AndyL]

definately worth waiting for your vet to come out ^ ^ out of interest who is it?

[CityLights]

Well the owner's vet came last night. Totally useless, couldn't even do a flexion test properly. She diagnosed him as being lame on the leg that he's sound on, and simply prescribed 1 weeks bute and a months box rest as she thought 'he'd strained something'.

My vet is coming next week to do my horse's teeth and vaccs in a week so we're going to ask him to have a look as he is a well known equine specialist.

silly vet, why do people not have good horse vets come see thier horses,

[AndyL]

its even more surprising how many people manage to get themselves qualified to be a vet or doctor...i've often educated THEM on health, and promptly went to another :p but then the world is full of average professionals =/

[amandaco]

sounds like it could be in the foot- any digital pulses?
or a tendon/ligament issue. often they have heat and some swelling but sometimes if the injury isnt in the acute phase, it could have gone down and look normal but the horse is still lame with a big hole in its tendon.
when he walks/trots does he have restricted movement anywhere in the leg?

[Loony]

Have no wisdom to share but I hope it's nothing serious!!

[helena]

Andy L, my vet is Mike Davis from Dalehead vets.
Amandaco we can't find any pronounced pulse, that said it's quite hard when the horse has as much feather as a shire! He was still lame tonight on bute, although less so.
If anything I am still leaning to it being his shoulder, can't see anything on the leg/hoof.

[sparkey]

We were taught in anatomy that usually lameness on soft surface = soft tissue and hard surface = bone or joints.
The pointing was always the classic symptom of "navicular syndrome" however MRI has now done away with the notion of this as a syndrome becase we can tell with MRI whether it's disease of the navicular bone, the ligaments surrounding it or the coffin joint itself. Will be interested to see what your vet says.

[mandy5775]

I'd be inclined to have a back man/woman come and see this horse. I had a horse years ago that rested it's toe on a front fore and it turned out that she had a trapped nerve in her shoulder. We did about 4 sessions with the back man and eventually it came ok.