Mackenzie J.
04-20-2005, 05:33 PM
There's kind of a long story behind this horse (I've posted about him in the hi/low threads in the balance forum) and we've had some difficulty with finding a good farrier in my area. For ease of time and asking this question, as the story on this cir***stance is quite lengthy, I'll make this brief. Let me know if you guys need more details, though.
For the past 5 months, since we switched to a new farrier, Rambo has exhibited extreme soreness, back pain, short striding with the right hind, agitation, refusal to go forward, rearing, stalling out under and out of saddle, and stiffness. He's also gotten really bad with his feet whereas he used to pick them up at the sound of a snap and hold them up. We haven't been able to figure out what's going on.
The more I thought about these and other symptoms, I've been thinking that his feet have been bothering him. I decided to pull all shoes--except for the shoe on the low foot so he'd stay even--and just see what happens, because I'm at my whits end at figuring out what's been wrong.
My farrier couldn't come out for a week, so I asked another farrier who was out there to pull them for me. What he found: 3 hot nails in the lateral side of the right hind that were nailed inside the white line. These had been in there for 4 weeks. Rambo had been sore and uncomfortable but not dead lame as one would think...but he has a large pain tolerance. He is more stoic than I thought to tolerate this...I really admire him.
He now has swelling in the right hind up the pastern and fetlock. It was quite extensive about a week ago, extending up the suspensory, but has since been slowly decreasing. The main concentration of swelling and soreness is on the lateral side directly above the coronet band where he has a little "shelf" of swelling and is very tender. This is not on the coronet band, but is about 1/2 an inch above it on the pastern. It is swollen and warm and is about 1/4-1/2in long. While I can see it, it is not greatly visible.
The pastern and fetlock are swollen as well, but the suspensory swelling has gone down. The swelling in this area decreases after a bit of walking, but doesn't go down with wrapping with a standing wrap.
He isn't very lame, just barely at the trot and not at all at the walk. He is tender as he hasn't had his back shoes off before--but I expected that.
I've had horses abcess in the past and they've been quite lame. My question is if this could be a brewing abcess from the hot nails and his pain tolerance is big enough for him not to be really lame yet? Or if this could be anything else related to the feet? Or, does it sound like we're dealing with something else completely?
Thanks for any and all thoughts, and let me know if you need more details. Thanks,
Mac :)
For the past 5 months, since we switched to a new farrier, Rambo has exhibited extreme soreness, back pain, short striding with the right hind, agitation, refusal to go forward, rearing, stalling out under and out of saddle, and stiffness. He's also gotten really bad with his feet whereas he used to pick them up at the sound of a snap and hold them up. We haven't been able to figure out what's going on.
The more I thought about these and other symptoms, I've been thinking that his feet have been bothering him. I decided to pull all shoes--except for the shoe on the low foot so he'd stay even--and just see what happens, because I'm at my whits end at figuring out what's been wrong.
My farrier couldn't come out for a week, so I asked another farrier who was out there to pull them for me. What he found: 3 hot nails in the lateral side of the right hind that were nailed inside the white line. These had been in there for 4 weeks. Rambo had been sore and uncomfortable but not dead lame as one would think...but he has a large pain tolerance. He is more stoic than I thought to tolerate this...I really admire him.
He now has swelling in the right hind up the pastern and fetlock. It was quite extensive about a week ago, extending up the suspensory, but has since been slowly decreasing. The main concentration of swelling and soreness is on the lateral side directly above the coronet band where he has a little "shelf" of swelling and is very tender. This is not on the coronet band, but is about 1/2 an inch above it on the pastern. It is swollen and warm and is about 1/4-1/2in long. While I can see it, it is not greatly visible.
The pastern and fetlock are swollen as well, but the suspensory swelling has gone down. The swelling in this area decreases after a bit of walking, but doesn't go down with wrapping with a standing wrap.
He isn't very lame, just barely at the trot and not at all at the walk. He is tender as he hasn't had his back shoes off before--but I expected that.
I've had horses abcess in the past and they've been quite lame. My question is if this could be a brewing abcess from the hot nails and his pain tolerance is big enough for him not to be really lame yet? Or if this could be anything else related to the feet? Or, does it sound like we're dealing with something else completely?
Thanks for any and all thoughts, and let me know if you need more details. Thanks,
Mac :)