#horses - #My horse has a mystery lameness in the front left leg, and I'm trying to figure out a game plan for treatment/management.

My horse has a mystery lameness in the front left leg, and I'm trying to figure out a game plan for treatment/management.

(x-posted from AskVet, wanted a variety of opinions)

My horse is an 18 year old quarter horse gelding and has had a lameness issue in the front left leg off and on for 2 years.

History: The initial injury was a 50% tear of his superficial digital flexor tendon, which was finally discovered after a misdiagnosis, and was 75% healed at that point. The vet who diagnosed this felt that due to the way it had been healing, stem cells and shockwave wouldn't do much good, so we were told to keep him in a small turnout with Back on Track boots. That did the trick for a while, and he briefly returned to work.

Then the lameness came up again, and we had another vet come out. He nerve blocked positive through the palmar nerve block, so she gave me Isoxsuprine and said it was navicular (which was not confirmed with a radiograph...I know, I know...big mistake from my end).

I have since moved him with me to another state, and the lameness has been consistent. I had a highly-rated vet clinic come look at him, and this time all of his nerve blocks were negative, so we went ahead with an ultrasound since he is still tender through his tendons.

Problem: The initial tendon injury has fully healed up, and while there are some abnormalities and fluid, there was nothing that was a dead-giveaway as the problem (and his ultrasounds were looked at by the full team of equine vets). They decided to go ahead and drain the big fluid pocket and inject it with steroids. The vet said shockwave treatment was a thought, but looking at around $1,000 for 3-5 treatments and no guarantee it'll do anything, I declined (and she agreed with me).

That happened last week, and there was a lot of pressure in there...the fluid shot right out of the needle with no effort, and it felt a bit like synovial fluid.

To my surprise, so far the fluid pocket is gone and hasn't filled up at all, though that could take more time. He has been on stall rest, and I am thinking of trying the Back on Track boots just to see if that helps. As of now he is walking sound, which was not the case before...but he also covers up his lameness very well when he gets excited to be out of his stall, so I'm not sure if he's truly sound.

Main Question: How long should I keep him in his stall before I test it out with some turnout? I plan on handwalking him daily so he's not totally cooped up, but I don't want him to undo progress if he's on unrestricted turnout.

If stall rest doesn't work, is there anything I should look into beyond shockwave? I thought about a thermal imaging session to see if there's something else causing the problem, but it does seem be the tendon.

Submitted February 04, 2018 at 02:14PM by runforest19
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/7v9nj1/my_horse_has_a_mystery_lameness_in_the_front_left/?utm_source=ifttt