I’m having lameness issues and a persistent cough with
my daughters horse. Here’s the story:
Gunnie is a 9 year old Quarter
Horse. I’ve owned him since he was 2 and he’s always been
very healthy. I haven’t changed anything with his environment or
diet.
He came in to the barn one night
lame - dragging his back left leg. I checked him all over and his ankle
was very swollen and I could feel heat in it. I soaked him in warm water
& Epsom salt and wrapped his leg with poultice and gave him some Bute. I stall rested him for a week and continued
with the soaking and wrapping and he seemed to get better. Decided to let
him out one day and when I came home he wasn't lame dragging his leg but was
only tip-toeing on it. No swelling, no heat, so I picked out his hoof
thinking that maybe I was dealing with an abscess. I used the pinchers to
do the pinch test on him and when I hit the outside edge of his hoof he pulled
back like it hurt. Thought I had found the culprit - NOT!! Pinched
again and absolutely no reaction. Soaked again and wrapped but this time
I poulticed the leg and packed the hoof with Echthammol. The farrier was
due out in a couple of days so I thought I’d get his opinion at that
time. He also though I was dealing with an abscess. Kept soaking
and packing and after two weeks nothing. He also developed this horrible
cough that is dry and deep and sounds horrible. No temperature, no
running eyes or nose so now I called the vet. He feels that Gunnie has
some sort of allergic reaction going so I've had to strip his stall, sanitize
it (sucker was immaculate to begin with) put down dried baled pine shaving
instead of sawdust, wet his hay and give him cortisone injections. The
day the vet was there they also examined for the mystery lameness. After
3 1/2 hours of injections to numb and isolate the lameness - nothing!
$400 dollars later and no answer other than they wanted me to haul him to MichiganState and have some sort of dye injected
in to him and then they do some sort of Thermographing to determine where the
hot spot is. I decided before I went ahead and did that I was going to
give him one month of stall rest and walks and continue with my own
program. He is finally putting weight down on his heel at a walk.
Haven’t tried at a trot yet. I’m thinking this horse kept re-injuring
his ankle area with all the frozen lumpy bumpy ground outside when I was
letting him go out. If he shows any signs of lameness at the end of
January I'll have the test done. Anyone have similar lameness issues or
advice?
I'm not convinced that Gunnie has allergies either. The
only thing that I know is different is that he was chewing on the corner posts
of the fence which are wulmanized. He hasn’t ever done that and I’m
not sure why he started. Could he be having a reaction to that? Vet
says no – its an allergy. At the end of two weeks if the cough
hasn't gone away I'm gong to have the vet scope him to see what’s going
on.
I only get the Ridecamp Digest so if you could e-mail me
directly that would be great.
Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions,
Wendy – Michigan
wendyh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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