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| Do not tear me apart on this because I have had the vet out to do a lameness and flexion test and she passed.
With that being said...I have a 13 year old mare who SOMETIMES is a head bobber going in circles to the right (the tighter the circle, the worse the bob; hardly any bob in a straight line) showing slight lameness on the right front and also SOMETIMES stands with her right toe pointed forward. 9/10 she rides out of it, meaning she'll do it right from the start and get better as she "loosens up". She does have little to no heel, due to crappy farrier work before I bought her and we do have pads on her, but farrier cannot find any other foot related issues. She lays down, gets up, runs, plays, is not sour, does not act like she's in pain, has never refused to do what I ask...I ran her last weekend without any issues. I just have this "mystery lameness" that appears that drives me nutso!
Any insight would be appreciated! |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
 
Location: Arkansas | Bump |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | Did you get X-rays? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 615
Location: Wyoming | I have on with a mystery lameness on her left front. I spent thousands trying to get it diagnosed and finally had one of the top lameness vets in Texas tell me that she has a gimp. He told me as long as she has a good attitude and is clocking to not worry about it |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| Get her to a good lameness vet and get an exam done. X-rays and ultrasound once you determine where its coming from. My horse did the same thing for over a year until he started to get worse and worse. Of course it was navicular that two different vets missed. Ended up breaking his leg in the pasture because he was a ticking time bomb. Not saying that she has navicular but what you described could be a million different things. |
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | I have come across some articles and you might look up thrush I am gonna try on my mystery lameness. In the couple articles I found last night talks bout thrush or fungus infection does not always smell. The frog can be healthy looking but it can have thrush deep down where we cant see. It also talks bout how painful it can be and how lameness can some and go. Sometimes when we treat we don't treat long enough thinking that we got it. Also when you treat you want to change your treatment bout every two weeks because there is different bacteria that causes thrush and or fungus. Good luck and how frustrating! My horse is barefoot and doesn't have pads on like yours but if she does have thrush I am sure that is keeping it trapped. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | shoulder issues can cause that as well.. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Is she on green pasture? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| jake16 - 2017-04-19 6:13 PM
Did you get X-rays?
No, I haven't gotten x-rays, but that may be the next step. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| Southtxponygirl - 2017-04-19 9:54 PM
Is she on green pasture?
She is not on green pasture. Just a dry lot with free choice grass hay. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| perfectturns - 2017-04-19 6:35 PM
I have on with a mystery lameness on her left front. I spent thousands trying to get it diagnosed and finally had one of the top lameness vets in Texas tell me that she has a gimp. He told me as long as she has a good attitude and is clocking to not worry about it
This is pretty much what my vet said...I am not sure I am satisfied with that answer just yet. I think there are more avenues to explore... |
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 Veteran
Posts: 206
Location: Downsouth | Before you continue to dish out money, spend $25.00 on a hair analysis with Heather Benson. After $5200 in vet bills trying to find a mystery lameness issue, injected everything that we could get a needle in, some twice, treated for EPM, PSSM, too many chiro visits to count, she had an inflamed bursa sac on the front right. Heather also asked if she had experienced sweating issues and she had. I'm a believer. Mare has now been sound for 2 years. What's another $25.00? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| lazytdickens - 2017-04-20 7:54 AM
Before you continue to dish out money, spend $25.00 on a hair analysis with Heather Benson. After $5200 in vet bills trying to find a mystery lameness issue, injected everything that we could get a needle in, some twice, treated for EPM, PSSM, too many chiro visits to count, she had an inflamed bursa sac on the front right. Heather also asked if she had experienced sweating issues and she had. I'm a believer. Mare has now been sound for 2 years. What's another $25.00?
Well, for $25 I don't have much to lose. I read up on her and she seems to have a pretty good success rate. |
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Veteran
Posts: 206
Location: Downsouth | I had 7 different vets try to solve the mystery. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | X-rays and start at the bottom and work your way up....i dont believe in any hocus pocus mumbo jumbo...a good lameness vet is one of the best investments....m |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| lazytdickens - 2017-04-20 9:07 AM
I had 7 different vets try to solve the mystery.
How long did it take to get the results back? |
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Member
Posts: 48
| You may want to look into the left hind as well. Horses work on diagonals, if you truly can't find something on that right front, there may be something in the left hind and due to them working in diagonals it's showing itself in the right front. Good luck!! |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| RedHead84 - 2017-04-20 7:32 AM
perfectturns - 2017-04-19 6:35 PM
I have on with a mystery lameness on her left front. I spent thousands trying to get it diagnosed and finally had one of the top lameness vets in Texas tell me that she has a gimp. He told me as long as she has a good attitude and is clocking to not worry about it
This is pretty much what my vet said...I am not sure I am satisfied with that answer just yet. I think there are more avenues to explore...
You may want to try a different lameness vet. How can he say that without Xrays? I don't let a vet inject my horse without X rays and in fact, my vets have always started with Xrays before injecting. They don't "gimp" for no reason. I hope you get this figured out. It is SO frustrating. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | The only way to find the problem is take this horse in to a good lameness vet and get x-rays done and like mruggles said start from the bottom and work your way up, a moble vet dont have the right tools to find a mystery lameness..
edit for mispelling mruggles 
Edited by Southtxponygirl 2017-04-20 9:43 AM
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | RedHead84 - 2017-04-19 2:59 PM Do not tear me apart on this because I have had the vet out to do a lameness and flexion test and she passed. With that being said...I have a 13 year old mare who SOMETIMES is a head bobber going in circles to the right (the tighter the circle, the worse the bob; hardly any bob in a straight line) showing slight lameness on the right front and also SOMETIMES stands with her right toe pointed forward. 9/10 she rides out of it, meaning she'll do it right from the start and get better as she "loosens up". She does have little to no heel, due to crappy farrier work before I bought her and we do have pads on her, but farrier cannot find any other foot related issues. She lays down, gets up, runs, plays, is not sour, does not act like she's in pain, has never refused to do what I ask...I ran her last weekend without any issues. I just have this "mystery lameness" that appears that drives me nutso! Any insight would be appreciated!
???
Your vet pretty much told you "there's nothing wrong" but didn't so much is at least do x-rays??
I would be getting a second opinion. X-rays are pretty basic and cheap, in my opinion, and can at least rule things out.
So step #1, get x-rays. There may be nothing there, and that's okay, but at least you can see if there are any bony changes to account for it. (These can also be helpful for your farrier, for shoeing purposes.)
Step #2, do nerve blocking to tell if it is one front foot or both. A good vet should be able to see the horse "off" in a small circle to the right, even if it is slight. Nerve blocking can give you some indication on how high up the problem is, and if it is both front feet or just one.
If she has heel problems, my first hunch would be that your horse has heel pain.
I have a gelding that has chronic heel pain, in both front feet (left is worse). He too is just very slightly "off" sometimes on some days. He's had it for a while, so I can tell when he's not quite right. Now, he has great feet and great heel, but he is in a 3 degree wedge pad (with normal shoe) to help manage the pain. We have never seen any problems on x-ray or ultrasound, but of course, we know it is soft tissue related. I have injected his coffin joints once (made a huge difference!) and probably will do so again later this year. He too has never refused to run barrels or anything -- he's willing to go go go out on the trails. Of course, horses are guilty of working hard for us, despite having pain.
So I think you need to do some more digging with a good lameness vet.
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