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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 333
 
| To give the rest of us some hope, please share your resolved mystery lameness story from symptoms to resolution.
Could use some pick me success stories.
Edited by powerstroke power 2014-10-12 9:40 PM
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
 
Location: Kansas | My gray horse's lameness issues were well-documented, cussed and discussed on here this spring. He just wasn't quite clocking like he could but we were still hitting the 1D or winning money in the 2D so it was tough to tell what was wrong or even that there was something wrong. I had him adjusted by the chiro in mid-March, injected his SI joints in late March, and that helped but not completely since he still didn't clock or work well at Bonus Race Finals. We wound up going to a completely different vet and putting the Lameness Locator on Chance, only to find out that his feet were sore. We injected 3 of his coffin joints that day and a little over a week later he ran right near the top of a tough rodeo. We're now shoeing him with Equipack pads on the front and resetting him every 4.5 to 5 weeks with great results.
To illustrate how subtle his lameness was and how well he was still clocking, here's a few videos.
January (4th in 1D, tough local jackpot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tVuL6cgi9U&list=UU3h0VmyuYbqBRUor4JBQVlA&index=86
March (2nd in 2D & 17th overall, 100+ entries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvDzcAr8A30&index=81&list=UU3h0VmyuYbqBRUor4JBQVlA
Labor Day weekend (10th out of 342): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tshoUYpyE2M&list=UU3h0VmyuYbqBRUor4JBQVlA
Last month - winning a 114-horse race with the fastest time of 229 runs during the weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkICPFKTRIs&list=UU3h0VmyuYbqBRUor4JBQVlA |
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 All American Mom
Posts: 485
Location: used to be the country....to many city folks! |
WOW! Thanks Rodeo I will be talking to out vet about this! |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | My gelding would have a pretty great run (great in my book as we've only had about 10-12 runs in the 4 months I'd ran him and still trying to get together) and then I'd ride him a day or two later and I could tell something wasn't right with him. He would slightly resist the alley, not want to pick up his feet to be cleaned/trimmed, just random little things that I thought he might have been testing me to see what he could get away with. I would stay off him for about a week and then ride him (away from barrels) a couple of times just fine and so I'd haul him to a race he'd warm up fine so we would make another run. Then get back on 1-2 days later and something would be "off". I have a couple of videos of some exhibitions that we did within about the first two weeks I bought him and everything was picture perfect. I would keep comparing that exhibion to his current runs and it just wasn't the horse I bought.
Took him to a vet with a lameness locator and found that his right hind proximal suspensory was inflammed. I feel so terrible for thinking that all the time he was "testing" me when he was really trying to tell me he was hurting and didn't want to work. I can't reccommend the LL enough, so if you have a vet nearby that's profecient in it I'd suggest you go.
I did Runner's Relief for about two weeks and then started doing BOT wraps and we've done 2/3 shockwave treatments. He's on stall rest for 3-4 months with 10 minutes of controlled exercise a day (handwalking is what I do. I can ride him at a walk, but I'm too afraid he'll get fiesty) and we go back in for our 45 day checkup in a couple of weeks. One vet seems to think he'll be back a lot sooner, but I'm not risking it. The vet could say start legging him back up next week, but I'm still giving him the rest of the year off. I really believe that I have a nice horse... just might take me a year of owning him before we start proving it! lol |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 333
| Is LL (Lameness locater) the thermo imagery?
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | powerstroke power - 2014-10-13 12:34 PM Is LL (Lameness locater) the thermo imagery?
No, the LL is a tablet device that recieves the motions of the horse via sensors placed on to the horse's head, leg and rump. The program/tablet creates graphs to show the movement of the horse and can detect where movements were abnormal. It can narrow down the lameness to a specific leg and then you start doing blocks from there and it will compare the unblocked movement to the blocked movement. There are certain thresholds that the horse can move on and the vet and rule out pain, but in my case my horse was way above the allowed threshholds and required to vet to take a closer look in that area. My horse's hocks weren't above the threshholds, but I went ahead and had x-rays done and they were fine. Shaved the leg for a good ultrasound after the LL narrowed it down and found the problem. Let me add that we ultrasounded before the blocks and vet didn't really catch it. I was lucky that we caught it before it got worse.
I probably didn't give a great explaination, but I hope you can get the gist of it! It doesn't come right out and tell you what's wrong, but it gives you a headstart!
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | Longneck - 2014-10-13 1:12 PM powerstroke power - 2014-10-13 12:34 PM Is LL (Lameness locater) the thermo imagery? No, the LL is a tablet device that recieves the motions of the horse via sensors placed on to the horse's head, leg and rump. The program/tablet creates graphs to show the movement of the horse and can detect where movements were abnormal. It can narrow down the lameness to a specific leg and then you start doing blocks from there and it will compare the unblocked movement to the blocked movement. There are certain thresholds that the horse can move on and the vet and rule out pain, but in my case my horse was way above the allowed threshholds and required to vet to take a closer look in that area. My horse's hocks weren't above the threshholds, but I went ahead and had x-rays done and they were fine. Shaved the leg for a good ultrasound after the LL narrowed it down and found the problem. Let me add that we ultrasounded before the blocks and vet didn't really catch it. I was lucky that we caught it before it got worse.
I probably didn't give a great explaination, but I hope you can get the gist of it! It doesn't come right out and tell you what's wrong, but it gives you a headstart!
They literally end up with a graph of how your horse moved without any blocks and then beside it a graph showing the differences after each block. Propp's crew could tell me that blocking the right hind foot on Chance improved his lameness by X percent on that limb but then his right front showed up sore. We did discover that his hocks & stifles were fine and that his pain was all in his feet. I have injected the front coffin joints a second time since then (May 9th and August 14th) but I'm hoping that these injections will last longer than the first ones since he wasn't nearly as sore in August as in May.
I forgot that they also ultrasounded him - I can't remember where all - before doing the injections. We probably spent 3 hours down there but it was SO educational and best of all I got my horse back! I think my regular vet wishes he could have gone with us to learn more about the LL and what to look for on Chance. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I have 2 stories.
had a 5yr old that had been off all winter due to my pregnancy. He was running really nice the fall before. I got him going again in June and he was hesitant to lope smaller circles. He ran by the 1st barrel twice but only at one arena. He would bow out in his 2nd turn but nail the 3rd barrel perfect. I had him massaged and I could get 1 really nice run out of him and then he would be sore again in his SI area. Took him to several vets, nothing wrong, even injected his hocks and SI area. He lasted 3 months and about 4 runs and was sore again. Finally took him to a different vet that specializes in sports medicine and after a 3hr exam and multiple x rays of just about everything from the stifles down, he did a rectal exam and found he had a heal asymmetrical broken pelvis. Guessing he slipped in the ice or snow during the winter. Good news is he is riding sound, just won't be a barrel horse.
The other was at the trainer getting 30 days put on and cut his foot the day I went to get him. The vet was only concerned about the cut, but by July he obviously had more issues. I was trying to ride him and he was bucking (turned out to be a poor fitting saddle), so between the bucking and round penning the crap out of him, it put too much stress on an already injured ligament and he started to drag back toes over compensating for the front foot injury. He even lost muscle tone and had some EPM'ish symptoms. Did a blood test that came back Neg and he showed improvements as soon as we started to address the front ligament issue. His come back is yet to be determined, but after 2 1/2 months of being on NutraWOUND, 2 months of a pulsing magnetic boot and the past month of using Runners Relief, he is showing much improvement. I'm going to give him until next summer and have him looked at again to see what his status is. |
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