RE: Update on fetlock injury, postvet exam.

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

Strongly urge you to get your horse to an experienced "leg" vet and get it
ultrasounded. My mare strained a suspensery ligament, was never sore to
palpation, had no heat or filling after the first three days and only a
slight lameness when circling in one direction only. The first vet
completely missed the injury. I got my horse to a track vet who is also a
serious rider. The ultrasound showed the injured tissue plainly. Two months
down the road, a second ultrasound showed significant healing but the
injured area was still plainly seen. We are about 6 months past the injury
now and have started careful conditioning. I followed the vets instructions
carefully. This meant confinement to a stall and/or very small sawdust
bedded pen (16' X 24') for 4 months with controlled, progressive exercise.
Turning a horse loose in a corral or field is just plain gambling with his
soundness and chance of reinjury. Yeah, you don't want to imprison you
horse. He hates it, you hate it, he hates it more and you feel rotten. You
want to believe that he'll be quiet and calm while turned out and not run
across the corral and do a sliding stop that undoes all the tissue repair.
He sensible, he'll never do anything more than a walk out there, right?
WRONG!!!!!! If your horse does have a real soft tissue injury then grit your
teeth and get serious about doing what it takes to let it heal properly. 

I've noticed a tendency in vets that don't have ultrasound machines to
underestimate the seriousness of an injury and tell the horse owner what
they want to hear. I had a horse with a chronic suspensery injury (1 1/2
yrears) because of trusting my vets advice. No ultrasound available on Oahu
back then either. Lucky for me and my horse, she was sidelined with an
injury and a track experienced vet from CA subbed for her. He looked at my
horse (slightly off again) and told me to lock him up. After 30 days I got
to start handwalking him. We walked for a long time before he got to start
trotting. He came around sound in that leg and stayed sound.It was miserable
to do but it worked. Sorry to make this note so long but this is one of my
pet peeves. Investigate throughly by taking advantage of the great
diagnostic tools that are now available then take the conservative route
towards healing it. It'll pay off.

Bonnie Snodgrass
Southern Maryland

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Sarah Roxanne Zawacki [SMTP:zawackis@pilot.msu.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, June 23, 1999 11:06 PM
> To:	ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject:	RC:  Update on fetlock injury, postvet exam.
> 
> 
>     I drove semi-frantically home from my class in an attempt to beat the
> vet to my house.  My mom was going to be there to meet him, and I caught
> him as he was writing up the bill.  The big bill.  Things are much more
> expensive in this area.
>     According to my mom, the vet spent a long time looking at Elliot.  He
> palpated, he watched Elliot trot straight to and from, and he had my poor
> mother trot him (Elliot, not the vet) in circles.  He said he didn't
> really
> know what it was, but that there was definitely something there.  He
> figured
> it was either a muscle thing or a tendon thing, and that it wasn't too
> serious, since even the bowed portion of Elliot's leg did not respond to
> palpation at all.  I stared at him and failed to believe what he was
> saying,
> but I was polite and nodded a lot, asking questions ("He's not *lame*?!"
> for
> example).  So he said that Elliot probably twisted something funny while
> he
> spooked and we should keep him confined to a smallish paddock for three or
> four days, bute him to reduce inflammation, and he should be back to
> normal
> in a few weeks.  I thought he was nuts, so as soon as he was out of sight,
> I watched Elliot trot, palpated the bowed part of his leg, and just gave
> him a real thorough look and feel.  But the vet was right--Elliot looks
> pretty good, and he's not sore with the leg at all when you squeeze the
> tendons.  He's still resting it, and he's still off (Grade Two Lameness
> maybe?)
> but he looks much better than he did yesterday.  I don't think such a
> dramatic
> recovery would occur with a bowed tendon.  I'm inclined to get an
> ultrasound
> anyway, just to know what was going on.  This might be a great warning to
> prevent tearing something important.  The vet seemed largely unconcerned,
> so I'm not sure what to think.  The swelling has gone down a lot as well.
> The other thing that concerns me, which I failed to mention in my previous
> posts, is that I think this all started when I was out riding with Trish
> and
> Elliot tripped, and went down on his right knee.  He walked normally
> enough
> afterwards that I didn't check his legs (which I *really* should have
> done)
> right away.  When we went to trot, though, he was waaay off, and I
> dismounted
> immediately and we led the ponies home.  He had scraped a knee, and it
> looked
> like he might have given himself a small splint, but the lameness felt
> like
> it was coming from his hindquarters, because it was sort of like his back
> end
> was falling out from under me during the three strides of trot we got in.
> After that, he was sound walking and trotting within days, but I gave him
> a
> week off and then started up again by practicing slow bareback riding, and
> then the ride with Trish.  But I got kind of nervous about that right
> hock,
> because you could sort of tell that there was something weird going on by
> the way he was resting it.  Because with navicular and foundered horses,
> you
> can tell they're front feet hurt by the way they're pointing their front
> feet away from their bodies, and when horses hurt their fetlocks in back,
> you can see it in the way they are resting (not because they're resting,
> but
> how they're resting--it's like the fetlock looks too pointy to be normal
> or
> something) it.  Anyway, I've never noticed a horse with a sore hock, but I
> remember spending a few nervous days watching Elliot because I could tell
> that
> something wasn't quite right.  I had thought about giving him another two
> weeks off, but I went for this ride with Trish, and then he hurt himself
> and I thought it was terribly bad, but it looks like I've got another
> chance,
> thank God.  Soo...I want to have Elliot ultrasounded.  I'm planning to
> make an appointment at State (MI) tomorrow for sometime later next week.
> So, once again, comments and suggestions?  Is a week too long for him?  I
> think he'll be okay waiting, so long as he doesn't get ridden or stressed.
> Besides that, the first appointment I can get will be Tuesday, and I've
> got
> a final on Wednesday.  If it won't kill Elliot to wait, I'd like to do so.
> The vet said that wrapping probably wouldn't help or hurt, so I'm not
> going
> to.  Which leads to another question.  Because Elliot has early arthritis
> in his left hind fetlock (on the non-injured leg), I use Pro Choice Sport
> Boots in back when we're doing longish training rides with lots of
> trotting
> and some cantering.  My theory is that it will possibly prevent injury and
> at the very least absorb some energy so that fetlock won't have to.  I
> leave
> the boots off for shorter, less intense rides since I don't want to cause
> him to get dependant on them or weaken his hind legs at all by giving them
> supplemental support.  He never wears them in the pasture, either.  But
> I'm
> wondering if his legs weren't somehow compromised by wearing the boots as
> often as he did.  Maybe I should have just let him adjust to increased
> work
> without using the boots.  Maybe I'm just beating myself up right now.
> Oops.
> At any rate, if anyone has experience with working a horse in support
> boots,
> and when and how to use them to the horse's greatest advantage, I would
> appreciate all comments.  Thanks again, all.  :)
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                             Sarah & Elliot, who also got his shots today.
>                                                --[||]-|  And he stood
> still!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
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