XRay help please

Kim, the thrush idea brings up an interesting possibility. In my experience the thrush has to be really bad for the horse to show much lameness. The interesting part is that your horse presents as lame on the right fore, but the X-rays appear clear and the horse doesn't react to hoof testers. The thrush is on the left hind. As you know, the horses head goes up when he bears weight on the sore foot... on the fronts. On the hinds, the head goes down when the sore foot is weight bearing, so a sore left hind could appear as a sore right front. It would be easy to test by putting hoof testers on the frog, or maybe taping something like a partial roll of vet wrap under the thrushy frog and seeing if the lameness is worst. Easy, free, and would rule out that possibility.

Regards

Thank you Mr. Ray. You are correct. Unfortunately, when the vet/farrier came to do the horse, he really was just concentrating on the front feet and you can see from his lameness evaluation and his review of the xrays that were just shot in December of 2013, he had a pretty good idea that the problem was with his right front and his unbalanced shoeing job. His intention was to correct his front shoeing and see if that could make him comfortable. While he was finishing up with front feet, he asked me if I wanted him to re=do his rear feet or let my regular farrier do them. He said my regular farrier would probably be much cheaper but it was up to me. He would do them if I wanted him to. Since he was already here and I figured I may as well let him do the whole horse so he can have a clear picture of my entire horse, I said go ahead and do them. So he didn't find the issue with the left rear with the thrush until after his front feet were already done and we had already spent that money. So yes, seems like we went about things arse backwards, but based on the knowledge we had with the particular horse and the previous farrier/vet recommendations, we were really just trying to follow through on the gut that they were telling us. Believe me, if he is still sore and not a whole lot better real soon, we will do the blocking and pinpoint further. I will not rule out a MRI if I feel it's needed as well. Just have to budget accordingly. I so appreciate all the input I've received here. This morning he is running around and looking so much better in his trot. Hardly visibly off at all.

Western Hill Forge, do you think his xrays appear clear above? I posted all 10 shots that were taken at his prepurchase in December 2013. My vet at the time felt there was some changes going on in the RF that might be a problem? Do you see anything that looks off to you?

I would defer to David Hall's interpretation of the X-Rays, he's the man when it comes to that.

Regards

OK, trying to get an idea of what and when with the new pictures.

How long since the horse was shod till these pictures?

Are these pictures of the "balanced" shoeing?

I agree with David - which means he is right!

Latest update. Thursday Farrier/vet came out and blocked his foot, first the smaller rear portion of his RF foot, and he trotted maybe 20 percent better. He blocked a bit farther up and he trotted 100 percent, so we are certain his pain is RF foot. Now to figure out a plan. I was willing to do a MRI, but both my vets and farrier feel my money can be better spent at this time, since they do have xrays to work with to do the coffin joint and/or bursa injection. I will wait to hear from my vet Monday pm if he's going to do both. Vet/Farrier said he was going to recommend both, since we are working under a time frame of trying to get him sound enough for my daughter to take him to her State 4H show July 9th, since she has already qualified. Will post results and what we did once I know the plan on Monday pm.

Are the pics you posted of the current shoeing by the vet/cjf?


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New Post, update to be moved to this section soon with updated xrays...

Background. Horse purchased in Dec 2013 with known navicular changes, but thought would be OK for what we would be using him for. May, 2014, became very lame in same RF foot with the changes. Farrier was not doing a good job with his feet at the time, long toes, low heels, etc. Much was done to determine it was in fact foot pain, blocks, etc. New shoer, coffin joint and bursa injections in June 2014 and has been sound until the last two weeks. Came up sore again, rather suddenly. Vet blocked foot, said not foot, he was still sore, so highly suspect of soft tissue in leg. This went on for about a week, stall rest, bute, etc. I had my suspicions that is was his foot. I insisted on a xray to see what was going on in foot, hoping just abcess or something. Went for xray on 4/17 and got a very grim report from the vet that was doing the work for my vet at the hospital. We were basically told to retire the horse, we MAY be able to keep him comfortable for a short period of time, but we would really maybe want to consider euthanasia. Devastated is an understatment. This is my 18 year old daughters AQHA Huntseat show horse (she only does flat work) and he's just turning 7 this year. After speaking with our vet, he agreed the xrays were not hopeful, but he did say there were some things we could try to do, but he did not make any promises. He came last Saturday, injected his coffin joints, and farrier came Monday and put new shoes, wedge and full pour in pads. He's been on 1 gram bute twice a day and each day appears to be getting better. He did re-block him prior to injections and this time he responded to the block, the first time before going for the xray he did not. This is why the vet at the clinic seemed to think it was hopeless, as he did not respond to the block the first time. However, daughter says vet did not wait too long prior to trotting him around, etc. At any rate, he appears to be feeling better, and we are hopeful. We do love this horse and are considering neurectomy IF they think it may be benficial to him in the long run. I am corresponding with the head of lameness at the UF Large Animal Hospital and have sent her the xrays to review and will probably spend the money for MRI just to get the full picture. We just cannot fathom putting this horse down, if there is anything we can do to allow him to continue to live a happy life, even if it's retirement, but our hopes are to still be able to let him do what he loves. I am going to attach the xrays that were done, he was overdue for a shoeing, but I put that off because wanted to know what we needed to change in order to try to fix whatever was wrong. Any feedback is welcomed and please note we are using the largest and best equine clinic here in our area, we are doing everything we can to help this horse.