This is becoming a nightmare. The mare I hoped to do endurance with (11
year old Morab) had locking stifles. We ended up doing injections and she seemed
to be improving, but the vet noticed she was slightly lame on the left front.
After nerve blocks and ultrasound, he found a lesion on the suspensory ligament,
put my 24/7 pasture horse on immediate stall rest for 3 weeks, to be followed by
3 weeks stall rest with twice-daily hand-walking for 20 minutes, then he will
repeat the ultrasound. We have no clue as to how long this has existed or how it
happened. This vet has a terrific reputation with equine legs, but that also
makes him an extremely busy man. I was having trouble absorbing this and now
have some questions. After searching the archives for an hour, not finding what
I need to know. Exactly what, medically, is a "lesion". The clinic would not
venture any opinion on her future - does that mean this is really bad? The
favoring of the leg was so slight we really had to look to see it, and at no
time did I ever see a swelling in this leg. Can anybody help me understand the
severity of this, what it is and if I'll ever have her on the trails
again?
