Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Unsoundness, no answers yet.

Not good. I went to the barn last evening to do some groundwork with Rugby and he was unsound. I tried lunging him and he was short striding and seemed sore up front and it would come and go. He didn't want to do anything more than walk and when I asked him to jog just to see if it was worse he was especially aggravated when moving to the right. I stopped him and brought him back inside.

I called the vet today and he checked Rugby out. It's definitely his right front. He didn't respond when his hoof was tested, there are no signs of heat, swelling or elevated pulse but showed improvement when nerve blocked. The vet diagnosed it as a heel pain condition but could not give a definitive diagnosis based on that alone.

He noted that when we X-rayed Rugby for the pre-purchase exam a year ago, there was no indication of navicular disease at that time. He suggested bute and isoxaprine as starting therapy to see if it would alleviate his discomfort. He also suggested egg-bar shoes to give him relief but I asked to hold off on that until we pull some X-rays of that foot since he's currently barefoot and would need to be barefoot for the X-rays. I figure at least we can compare to last year's pictures of that hoof and rule out things or find an answer by comparison. The vet agreed so tomorrow he'll be X-rayed.

So I'm trying to stay calm until we know more.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any possibility of an endocrine (thyroid) or metabolic issue - both can cause foot soreness?

Jean said...

It could easily be a number of very innocent problems. A heel bruise that only shows up when his weight of over 1000 pounds is on the foot, included. Don't panic. There's a good chance it's nothing serious.

southernbelle said...

Egg-bar shoes might be helpful for some conditions, but they are flat out wrong for most of the things for which they are typically prescribed. If you have some sort of navicular pain, please try to consult with one of the big barefoot trimmers like Ramey. IMO egg-bar would be going really backwards unless there is a specific wound that needs to be protected.


Hope you can get it figured out and cleared up soon.

Unknown said...

Oh no! I hope he's okay.

Golden the Pony Girl said...

ewww. I am sorry to hear about that! What is your pony up to right now? What is his work level?

Bodhi was just diagnosed with a sprained shoulder. Very slight as well but all the troubling.
Keep us updated on your boys progress.

Promise said...

Hope he's ok...keep us posted.