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New Member:
Suzanned

Posted on Thursday, Jun 23, 2005 - 10:03 pm:

Okay here is the scoop on my barrel racing horse. Today we were at the vet for a lameness exam/checkup from previous treatment. This mare was injected in her stifles and hocks in April. She has been turned out with no riding since then. Today after the her flexion test she was graded a scale 2/5 on both stifles...lame in the circle on both, but lame only on the left in the flat. She was positive to manipulation. Blocked left stifle, she went sound. Blocked right stifle, she went sound once again. Her radiographs were completely clean as expected, no bone changes. She has recently had a full body bone scan w/ no found lameness. Since she has not responded to rest or injection the vet decided to have a scope done(tomorrow.) This obviously will reveal any soft tissue damage that she may have. What my question for you is, "What does this sound like to you, and is their any hope that she is not chronically lame? Does the fact that she went sound w/ a block mean anything? Thank you so much!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jun 24, 2005 - 7:06 am:

Yes, properly done blocks to the stifle joints are a very good way of localizing the lameness to this area. The stifle joints are actually made up of 3 separate compartments, though 2 occasionally communicate, can you tell us which compartment was blocked that resulted in soundness? How old is this horse and how long has she been lame? Is it known what caused this horse to become lame? The nature of the lameness should be much better understood after the procedure today please let us know what they find.
DrO
New Member:
Suzanned

Posted on Friday, Jun 24, 2005 - 10:22 am:

DR.O, I do not know which compartments they blocked? It looked to me like they had stuck her right in the front of her stifle in the little dip area. I hope that makes sense. She is 10 yrs. old. She was first noticeably sore, not lame in the fall last year. I treated her and gave her a good break. We started her back in the spring with a new season of rodeos ahead of us and she was performing great. The thing is she will stay sound until you run her on bad ground or really ask her to get up underneath herself in the back end, it has to be a tight circle...like turning a barrel. Then when she gets in these situations she will generally throw a fit. So we do not know what caused this to come about, no clue! She kicks a bunch, and with rodeoing on bad ground I am sure she has hyperextended her back legs more than a few times. Still waiting on them to scope her sometime today. She has a very good surgeon working with her today at Rood and Riddle in Lexington, KY. Please let me know what you think.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jun 24, 2005 - 9:04 pm:

The article explains about the blocks of the stifles and it sounds like the femoropatellar jt was blocked which means it could also be in the medial femorotibial jt. I guess we wait for the results of the exam because there is nothing here to tell us. The article gives a list of common diagnoses and their percent incidence.
DrO
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