A woman called me several weeks ago to board here. I couldn’t take her so I sent her to my neighbor. She was going to move in the first of the month, but she called me this week to say her horse was dead lame and needed to move her now. The barn she was boarding at was no help to her or her horse.
She explained to me what the symptoms were and that the owner of the current stable told her the horse was probably drugged with bute when she bought it and that it was probably navicular. Her blacksmith had not picked up on anything unusual so nothing was said to her. I asked her how long she had the horse and she said three weeks. I told her bute does not last three weeks. She called the blacksmith and he told her to put the mare on bute and see if that helped. From how she was describing everything, how it went from perfectly sound to holding the foot in the air, I told her it might just be an abscess. This horse went from a very wet property to a sand lot. I also mentioned that if it was an abscess, bute would not help. She said she had asked her farrier to come back and check it out. Well even if it is an abscess, it still might not react to a hoof tester. I learned that with my Clydesdale. I tried to comfort her and told her to wait for the farrier and let me know what happened.
Well I just saw her moving her horse into my neighbors so I stopped by to ask how the horse was doing. Her comment, the farrier never showed up. She was frantic. So back to my just sitting back and watching this horse. First on the cross ties, heel up, and then walking in the pasture, walking on her toe. Didn’t want to put her heel down. So I asked if I could look at her foot. Well when she went to catch her the horse did trot off on her toe again. We got her and I checked out the foot. Her heals were cracked, soft, and didn’t smell just right. I told her my findings. I asked her if she’s ever had cracked fingers in the winter and how much it hurt? Of course the answer was yes. Well that’s what your horse has. She asked how sure I was. I said about 90%. I told her that treating it for a week should show great improvement. The only reason I stopped at 90% is that once that is healed I don’t know if there is anything else going on.
These people, whom she trusted to be knowledgeable horse people, told her the worst case scenario. You bought a crippled horse and now you’re stuck with it and the possibility of large vet bills. I was taking a guess over the phone from a description. Looking first hand gives you a better idea, but once again it’s like an onion. You have to peel back each layer and see what you have. But if you want to start simple and cheap, a little medication to dry the area is a good place to start.
My old vet, when looking for a cause of a lameness, always said start at the foot and work your way up. In this case start with the obvious and then proceed.
Well the hoof healed, but the problem is still there. So the call went out to my vet. She said the heel was dried and looking good so she worked her way up and it’s the hip. So off tomorrow for a xray or ultrasound.
Don’t you just hate pealing those onions, they always make you cry.