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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
 
Location: GA | So my mare came up lame at the end of 2013. Had a great running year, kept getting faster and faster at her nice age of 21.
Trying to make a long story short - she came up lame at the beginning of December and would go back and forth from sound and lame. I got the vet out in June when she came up lame again and he did a lameness exam and x-rays. X-rays looked normal, no navicular. Well, the vet recommended 3 months of stall rest.
He said that she may be staying lame because every time she starts to feel/look sound, I ride her. He said he sees a lot of performance horses who have torn their tissue around their navicular bone and the only way for it to heal is the prolonged stall rest. And the only way to TRULY tell what it is is to get an MRI. I don't have that kind of money so taking the gamble on the stall rest was my best bet.
Well, it's been 3 months. She is still lame. Any suggestions on what else to have checked? I don't know what else to do. This mare is everything to me and she was nowhere near done running. I just feel like it can't be fixed and maybe it's time to retire her.
Plain and simple, I don't know. Like always, we all wish they could just tell us what's wrong. Any suggestions would be really appreciated! |
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 Party Girl
Posts: 12293
 
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | Where do you think she is lame? What is she doing to make you think she is lame? You were kind of vague in your post.
I would personally take her to another vet. One that deals with equine lameness. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: GA | UTAHCANCHASER - 2014-09-30 4:43 PM Where do you think she is lame? What is she doing to make you think she is lame? You were kind of vague in your post.
I would personally take her to another vet. One that deals with equine lameness.
He says front right foot that she tore tissue around her navicular bone. |
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 Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | kgraham38 - 2014-09-30 3:52 PM UTAHCANCHASER - 2014-09-30 4:43 PM Where do you think she is lame? What is she doing to make you think she is lame? You were kind of vague in your post.
I would personally take her to another vet. One that deals with equine lameness. He says front right foot that she tore tissue around her navicular bone.
Has it been xrayed recently? If she tore tissue around her navicular bone she could now have developed a bone spur in that area. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: GA | Just Bring It - 2014-09-30 5:07 PM kgraham38 - 2014-09-30 3:52 PM UTAHCANCHASER - 2014-09-30 4:43 PM Where do you think she is lame? What is she doing to make you think she is lame? You were kind of vague in your post.
I would personally take her to another vet. One that deals with equine lameness. He says front right foot that she tore tissue around her navicular bone.
He x-rayed it 3 months ago when he came out to look at her. |
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 Pork Fat is my Favorite
Posts: 3791
 
Location: The Oklahoma plains. | At 21 I would let it rest, JMO. It is very likely, as your vet says, soft tissue. I have dealt with it in the past. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: GA | TurnLane - 2014-09-30 5:32 PM At 21 I would let it rest, JMO. It is very likely, as your vet says, soft tissue. I have dealt with it in the past.
So should I also leave her on longer stall rest? |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | kgraham38 - 2014-09-30 4:03 PM TurnLane - 2014-09-30 5:32 PM At 21 I would let it rest, JMO. It is very likely, as your vet says, soft tissue. I have dealt with it in the past. So should I also leave her on longer stall rest?
I think she means retire her. |
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Pork Fat is my Favorite
Posts: 3791
Location: The Oklahoma plains. | UTAHCANCHASER - 2014-09-30 6:03 PM kgraham38 - 2014-09-30 4:03 PM TurnLane - 2014-09-30 5:32 PM At 21 I would let it rest, JMO. It is very likely, as your vet says, soft tissue. I have dealt with it in the past. So should I also leave her on longer stall rest?
Yes, I would retire her. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: GA | I have no problem retiring her. It's the fact that I don't know what's wrong with her. I mean, I don't want to leave my horse lame for the rest of her life. |
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  Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | Have you tried corrective shoeing? Pads? Different shoes? Have her vetted again?
Went through something similar with my mare. Only she wasn't lame. She was just not "right".
Had her xrayed three times over two years with nothing.
The last time we had her xrayed (4th time actually) was on a whim. I had already said screw it and decided to retire her to be a broodmare. She had a very very swollen hock once morning and was dead lame. Hauled her to Oak Ridge to have it ultrasounded (found a torn ligament). While we were there I had her front feet xrayed yet again.
The vet very loosely diagnosed her with navicular, which is what we were using as a diagnosis all along since nothing else showed up. But she doesn't really have any changes to the navicular bone. You could see a very very tiny spur on the bottom of one bone, just no changes to the rest of the bone.
So his diagnosis was soft tissue damage to the deep digital flexor tendon. He said the only way to truly diagnose is an MRI, but that for me it was a waste of 2500 dollars since it wouldn't change the treatment, I was still going to give her a year off.
She has been off for 14 months now. Has been sound the entire time. Is barefoot and still very very sound. After we wean her LSOF baby next year, if she is still sound at that point, then I will revist getting her vetted to see if I can ever compete on here again.
Your mare is 21, just retire her. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: GA | missroselee - 2014-10-02 11:41 AM Have you tried corrective shoeing? Pads? Different shoes? Have her vetted again?
Went through something similar with my mare. Only she wasn't lame. She was just not "right".
Had her xrayed three times over two years with nothing.
The last time we had her xrayed (4th time actually) was on a whim. I had already said screw it and decided to retire her to be a broodmare. She had a very very swollen hock once morning and was dead lame. Hauled her to Oak Ridge to have it ultrasounded (found a torn ligament). While we were there I had her front feet xrayed yet again.
The vet very loosely diagnosed her with navicular, which is what we were using as a diagnosis all along since nothing else showed up. But she doesn't really have any changes to the navicular bone. You could see a very very tiny spur on the bottom of one bone, just no changes to the rest of the bone.
So his diagnosis was soft tissue damage to the deep digital flexor tendon. He said the only way to truly diagnose is an MRI, but that for me it was a waste of 2500 dollars since it wouldn't change the treatment, I was still going to give her a year off.
She has been off for 14 months now. Has been sound the entire time. Is barefoot and still very very sound. After we wean her LSOF baby next year, if she is still sound at that point, then I will revist getting her vetted to see if I can ever compete on here again.
Your mare is 21, just retire her.
I just got a call from my farrier, literally 5 minutes ago. He went out this morning.
He put different shoes on her that help her heels. Turns out the previous farrier may have been the reason she was off. Something was causing bruising and she now looks sound. They trotted her in the round pen, made her do a couple of turns and everything looks great. We will be keeping an eye on her to see if she will need pads. |
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