RE: Sole bruises OR?????

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

From my experience this doesn't sound like a bruised sole. First, most
bruises can't be seen with the eye till they've grown downward for a while.
The exception seens to be toe bruising from a long ride on hard roads.
Anyway, a sole bruise will typically show up on hard or stoney surfaces,
regardless wether the horse is going right, left, straight. A soft tissue
injury is much more likely to show when circling to one side (and arthritis
in a joint may do this also). If the horse is more noticeably lame in deep
footing versus hard footing then it's likely a tendon or ligament strain.
And it may not show any noticeable swelling or heat. I've seen suspensury
injuries have no swelling, heat or easily decernable lameness within a few
days of injury, although they are very visable by ultrasound.
Another possibility is a lateral hoof imbalance. As an example, I bought a 3
yr old Morgan that was very slightly pidgeon toed, had been barefoot all his
life and had one wall higher than than the other on both front feet. When I
finally had to put shoes on him, the farrier trimmed him more "correctly" so
he was laterally balanced from side to side. We didn't discuss this change
and I didn't notice the change but my horse developed a mystery lameness
that showed when circling in one direction. Lot's of vet bills later the
only professional guess was that my Morgan that had been under saddle only
4-5 months had "navicular syndrome". I finally opened my eyes, looked harder
at his feet and a pre-purchase video and saw that he had been changed by the
farrier. I had to change farriers to get him "corrected" back to his
naturally unbalanced but sound way of going. Anyway, there are lots of
structures on the feet that can be stressed by poor shoing or shoeing that's
just not right for the individual horse. Just another possibility.

By the way, I've had a vet overlook a ligament injury and diagnose a buised
sole. I took the horse finally to a good track vet that had more extensive
experience in leg injuries.

Bonnie Snodgrass
Southern Maryland

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Kristen L Olko [SMTP:krisolko@juno.com]
> Sent:	Monday, September 06, 1999 10:53 PM
> To:	ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject:	RC:  Sole bruises
> 
> How long does it take a mild sole bruise to go away? We couldn't even see
> it when we took the shoe off and pared off some sole. Didn't have hoof
> testers.
> But it has to be the hoof. Not an abscess since it's getting better. Not
> the tendon,
> no sore muscles. She's off only in the counter clockwise direction and
> only right 
> after a canter (in a lungeing circle - free lunge). Then you get a brief
> head bobbing
> that disappears. Some discomfort at a faster trot, but not off.
> 
> How long?
> 
> Kris
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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