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  Discussion on Hocks causing pain in the front??
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Member:
hughekl

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007 - 1:21 pm:

Hopefully I have this post in the correct thread... if not, I apologize. I'm thrilled to report my 14yr old QH is completely healthy as far as his lungs are concerned (we battled COPD for about 2yrs). Well, now that his breathing is normal, we've been back to some very nice riding... but he's had intermittent lameness issues this spring.

It started in March after a spring rain and warm weather and the horses were playing & running pretty hard in the pasture. When I went to get him out of the pasture, he was favoring his right front. I called out my farrier (suspecting an abscess). The farrier did not find any heat in the hoof and we couldn't find an abscess. I soaked the hoof for a few days, no abscess appeared and he seemed to be getting better so I and the farrier concluded it must've been something higher up in the leg related to his goofing around in the mud.

He returns to sound... so I take him out on a trail ride of pretty even terrain and by the end of the ride he's favoring the right front.... with time off, he's better... Next trail ride, same thing... he's favoring the right front and when warming him up in the arena he didn't want to canter (and this horse always has plenty of GO!). Well, we rode Sunday (6/24) at a park in all sand and 3/4 of the way thru the ride, he was lame on the right front, so I took him to the vet yesterday and he did a flexion test and took xrays. The flexion test showed he was very sore in the hocks (no surprise with the riding we'd done the day before). The xrays showed he has a small (tiny) bone spur on his right front ankle with a little bit of swelling and he's showing very early signs of mild arthritis in both hock joints. The vet prescribed bute or an ointment (Surpass) that is absorbed thru the skin to be applied before and after a ride. The vet said that the pain in his hocks probably is causing him to bear more weight on his forehand and caused the irritation of the bone spur. I wasn't surprised he was sore in the hocks due to the length of Sunday's ride and the moderate to deep sand we were in (and we got lost, so it was a longer ride than planned). I'm sore from sunday's ride, so I don't doubt my horse is too. I just feel something is missing in the diagnosis as to why he would be lame on the right front, but arthritis in the hocks is supposedly the cause ?? Doesn't make much sense to me.... Anyone's 2 cents is very much appreciated!! :-) Thanks!! Kris & Rusty
Member:
gwen

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 - 8:00 am:

It absolutely makes sense to me! My horse has both spurs in his front feet and arthritis in hocks. I have heard several people say that if one end is sore, he will go to the other end for support.
Member:
scooter

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 - 8:15 am:

I agree could be possible, my horses front feet are sore and at times his backend looked worse than his front from taking the extra weight.

Compensation lameness is a hard one to figure out sometimes, the way to figure it out I suppose would be to fix his hocks and see if the front gets better.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 - 6:58 am:

Kristen you are right, if on the initial exam the horse is only lame on the right fore all this fooling around with the hock first is nonsense and neither flexion tests nor radiographs are very good at localizing lameness. However if you have the appearance of two lame legs you can get a head bob from a rear leg lameness, causing a confusing situation (see the article for a thorough explanation of this). In these cases a thorough exam including blocks are needed to correctly flesh out the problem.

If you posted earler about your COPD why not put the results at the bottom of that post and what you thing turned the corner for you. This helps others immensely.
DrO
Member:
hughekl

Posted on Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 - 12:39 pm:

Thanks to all of you for your posts. :-) I plan on getting a more thorough exam on Rusty's lameness.

Thanks again Dr. O for your insight. I will definately post on update in the COPD section on Rusty's progress.
Member:
hughekl

Posted on Monday, Jul 2, 2007 - 2:42 pm:

Just an update. I tried the Surpass topical ointment before a ride Saturday evening. Approx 30min after I applied it to his right front ankle and both hocks, I tacked him up and walked him around in the outdoor arena. He was still favoring his right front and did not want to trot. I then gave him 2gm of bute and that seemed to help significantly. We then did a trail ride and he was fine. I rode him the following afternoon, and gave him 2gm of bute before the ride. He showed no signs of lameness and was more than willing to walk and trot, but he did not want to canter - he would pin his ears and buck when I asked him to canter and would DrOp back to the trot (and like I mentioned before, this horse always has plenty of "go"). When I un-tacked him and brushed him, he would suck his back in when I curried over a certain part of his back on the left side near where the rear of the saddle would hit (I ride in an english saddle). I checked my tack for fit and any lumps, bumps, etc... and didn't find anything unusual. I still plan on getting Rusty in for a more thorough exam, because there's still a piece of the puzzle I feel is missing...

So, Dr. O... I guess my question is do I go back to the vet that did the xrays who said it was arthritis in his hocks and ask him for a more thorough exam (he does have a well-known large animal surgical center, so he's not just an average vet) or do I go to my local regular vet to see what he says (and see if the other vet will send him a copy of the xrays already taken)....or I'm in the Champaign, IL area, so do I take him to the University of Illinois Veterinary program, who is supposedly the best around here.... ??
Thanks!
Kris
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 3, 2007 - 9:43 am:

Kristen, you know these folks better than I do and should make this decision based on what you know. Currently there is no reason to believe that this is a complicated diagnosis that cannot be made locally, but is there someone willing to take a careful approach at figuring this out?
DrO
Member:
hughekl

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 3, 2007 - 10:18 am:

Well, the U of I is a teaching veterinary hospital, so I'm sure they would be thorough. My local vet is pretty good too and keeps an open mind. I guess I just wasn't sure if the vet that took the xrays would be willing to send them to my local vet to keep on record? I know human dr's transfer records all the time, but I wasn't sure if it was common practice for vets.... Thanks! Kris
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 4, 2007 - 10:22 am:

Sending a copy of the radiographs should be no problem.
DrO
Member:
hughekl

Posted on Thursday, Sep 13, 2007 - 12:55 pm:

Well, Rusty seemed to be doing better with his lameness. I cut back the bute to 1gm before a ride and he's been fine. However last weekend, when I took him out for a trail ride, he was a little on the lazy side and stiff in the front end. I brought him back to the barn and noticed he had some fluid built up in his hind ankles, so I massaged them with some liniment and gave him some time off, within a few days, the fluid/swelling was back to normal. I tacked him up for a ride on Tuesday and the weather had just turned cool and breezy - definitely fall-like! So I figured he'd be fresh and frisky. Quite the opposite was true... he was lethargic and very stiff in the front end. I did not bute him because I was running low on it and only had 30min to ride anyway. I couldn't pinpoint his stiffness to 1 leg in particular, it seemed to be the whole front end and he was unwilling to go forward. When I asked for a trot (to see what would happen) he would pin his ears and acted like he wanted to buck, he'd take a few trot steps and go back to a slow choppy walk. I've got a call into my local vet to see if I can bring him in (he needs his fall shots anyway) to see if I can find out what's going on. He's eating and drinking normally and hasn't been running a temperature. Any thoughts?? It's been 3wks since his last trim and his feet seem fine.

Oh, and an update to my previous post about him being "normal", but wanting to buck at the canter turned out to be a saddle fit issue.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Sep 13, 2007 - 8:16 pm:

Check out the article on localizing for a list of causes of a generalized stiff appearing gait, do any of them seem to apply?
DrO
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