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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
   
Location: North Dakota | Just kind of curious if you guys have any ideas.
Took my 4-year-old to the vet on June 9th for his very first lameness evaluation. I was NOT suspecting any problems but just wanted to be proactive with him since I was loping a good pattern on him. Well it's a good thing I did because the vet found a little fluid in a ligament in his right front foot. He was absolutely lame on flexion from it. In order to let it heal, he has been in a confined area since then, basically so he can't run around and make the injury worse. Not sure what he did, but probably just over-strained or stretched it.
Also on the same day, she also found a little sore spot medial to the frog on the same foot. Of course, the two things don't really seem to be related. He did just have his feet trimmed about 2 weeks earlier by a different farrier than I usually use (he had a helped that day, and the helped trimmed him) and he was a little sore on gravel afterward, when he's normally not after a trim. We chaulked it up to the trim job and figured it would resolve on its own. On a side note, x-rays were clean and ultrasound only showed the small area of fluid in the ligament.
My mother has been keeping him for me for the time being (since I board) and she could better manage his need to be confined. Just kinda happened with her schedule, that her farrier came out about 2 weeks before his follow-up with the vet on August 4th. The fluid is his ligament is improved (via ultrasound) so we will continue with confined rest, but that sore spot was still present beside his frog via hoof testers. We did repeat x-rays and everything still looks good on that.
If it were an abcess, it would have blown by now.
I would think that if it were a stone bruise or something of the sort, it would have healed by now.
It was a different farrier who trimmed him the second time. And his feet appeared good to me. I can't imagine the trim is at fault?
The vet doesn't have a good answer for what it could be either but suggested that if it remains there, that I should shoe his front feet. He has always been barefoot.
He has his next follow up appointment on Sept 23rd. I will make sure he doesn't have a trim before then, just to see what happens with that spot if his foot is a little bit long.
Any ideas on what it could be?
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| I have seen some abscesses that were high take a year to actually come out.
Had one who abscessed, took her to the vet, dug it out, antibiotics, etc and a year later the same abscess blew out the top.
If the abscess is confined some xrays will not pick it up, best thing to do is soak the foot in iodine for a week then xrays, all the abscesses, air pockets, and sinus tracts light up like a lightbulb
Also had a different horse bruise, we could see the bruise, but couldn't penetrate the sole to release the pressure, it was like a human blister and the knife couldn't cut it. It took a month to finally pop the blister, and it took another month for it to quit draining fluid. |
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Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | cheryl makofka - 2015-08-21 12:17 PM I have seen some abscesses that were high take a year to actually come out.
That's very interesting. I've never heard of one taking that long. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | I've seen horses that will flinch under hoof testers in places and never be sore otherwise. |
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Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | komet. - 2015-08-21 1:27 PM I've seen horses that will flinch under hoof testers in places and never be sore otherwise.
Yeah I'm really curious to see how he does once the fluid is completely resolved in his ligament. Right now, it's hard to tell what is what, because they are both occurring in the same foot near the same area.
I'm assuming it doesn't really bother him, because I've never had a problem otherwise with him. So who knows.
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  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | You can treat him for an abscess and see if your successful. If he doesn't have one I would say he has torn a ligament that runs down into the hoof and your already doing stall rest so your one step ahead of the game. Good luck in finding the cause. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 477
Location: Lost in the swamps | My horse tested positive to hoof testers all the time had brusing and deep sub solar abscesses that would last a while . I tried hoof hardeners hoof suppliments, eventually(after hundreds of dollars) something one day made me take a closer look, I pulled off his shoes and he was literally a 1/2 off from left to right at the heels. Went to the vet and found out all due to poor farrier practices: imbalanced feet, he was also very thin soled he was and 11mm when he sould have been around 14mm. I was in shock!i literally cried and beat myself up for this! So I fired my farrier got a new one and he now tests negative to testers!! X rays show no deep brusing! And soles are gettin better! |
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 Life Saver
Posts: 10477
Location: MT | Sometimes there is old sole that is retained and hasn't shed that can cause a spot where there is extra pressure which can make for a small sore or bruised spot. It could be that the trimmer took that extra sole off and he is still a little sore where it was. I had to remove a thing like that off of my old gelding that I trimmed today.
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Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | CowPie: I don't think it's likely that he has a torn ligament. We've done an ultrasound of the ligaments, as I stated in my OP. Some fluid was found but nothing is torn. My vet said two separate issues, that and the sore spot on his hoof.
imturnin3: Now it could be possible he's had this sore spot for a long time and I just never knew it. This was the first time we did a hoof testers on him (with the lameness eval). However, I have complete confidence in my farrier as he is the best in the area as many on BHW can vouch for. Of course, his "helper" trimmed him that day but even if he did so a less-than-perfect trim (although it looked pretty good to me), I doubt he could have caused any major imbalance in one single trim. He gets trimmed every 5 weeks.
Ruggedchica: Hmm, I've never heard of anything like that before. Could be possible. But would it last THIS long?
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