Lameness issues?

Question

i have a draft cross who has been lame on her front right hoof now for about a month and a half. She had an accident when we were jumping and did a roll back and she fell all the way down on her knees. After that she was off for a bit but she didn't show any major signs of injury. she was riden after that and then we gave her bute becuase she was feeling a little bit sore about a week or so after the accident. Now a month and half later she is lame and unrideable. i don't know if she went lame as a result of this fall or if it is a result of something else but i am desparate for a cure. I've been resting her, icing/heating her leg, linamenting it, hoofpicking and looking for bruising on her feet (farrier said not an absess), felt for pulsing in her fetlock, there is no heat and no swelling so i don't know whats wrong with her. She's five and isn't worked hard so i don't think its arthritis. I am thinking it is a bone chip but i am not sure of anything right now. any suggestions?

Answer 1

Have your vet do a lameness test. This usually involves watching the horse trot towards and away from you in order to determine whether not the horse is truly lame. sometimes they also flex the fetlock, more than you would to pick out the hoof and then have the horse trot off. from this they can try to pinpoint the location of the problem. they might have to xray. whatever you do, i would definatly say have the vet come out and look at it. my arab had an abnormal knee and i had it looked at and xrayed, it turned out that it was an older injury and that he still needed some time off of it in order for the swelling to go down. he actually had a very small bone chip.  he recovered afterwards and is now jumping again.

best of luck to you

Answer 2

instead of a chiropractor have you thought of a horse massage thearpist (they work on the muscle not the bones) cause sometimes chiropracting can do more damage, it could be a muscle thing and a massuer fixes the stuck muscles

when a horse injures itself, they protect themselves by using its muscles deffirently and hold themsleves in a way to keep pressure of the sore part, so after it has healed your horse has to learn that she can go back to normal and use the normal muscles, but she night need help to readjust back to the same

she might have stiff muscles more than bone problems, we have had lame horses come right after bringing in a horse massager to work on them

Answer 3

Vet evaluation, x-rays, and, depending upon the vets eval, "rest is best".

Answer 4

There is one obvious answer, call your vet and have him/her evaluate her...you obviously know the information that he/.she needs to work with, I wouldn't mess around any more attempting to self medicate...done it before myself, costs you time and money in the long run...and sometimes, it can cost you a horse.

Answer 5

At this point if there is no abscess, and no external visible sign of injury, you need to have a vet evaluate the horse.  You don't want to wait too long, and miss doing something that could help your horse heal correctly, and quickly.

If somebody in your area has a fluroscope, you can have your horse's leg scoped (kind of like doing an ultrasound on the leg), or have your vet do x-rays.  If its a bone chip, fracture, etc, they will find it on x-rays, or your vet might do blocks to find out where in the leg the issue is if its soft tissue damage.

Answer 6

talk to a vet you might have to inject her..i know there is much more things you could do before that but that is always a option