I'm going to see this horse tomorrow morning. I saw him on monday. I was shoeing some other horses in the barn and they asked me to look at this horse, he was showing some signs of a mild laminitic episode and apparently been for a few days. They were however still turning the horse out on the grass. It's autum here and not much grass is growing but many don't realize that the cold weather causes the base and stems of grass to retain large amounts of sugars. Horse hardly reacted to the hoof testers, so I just put some Impression material in the back portion of his hooves and wrapped with some vet wrap to keep it in. As I see it, this should only help the horse be more comfortable. I explained that the horse should only go out with a grazing muzzle. She kept saying there is hardly any grass and turned the horse back out. Looks like I will have to have this discussion again tomorrow. Anyway she called today and told me the horse 'got real bad' after I left. One of the girls took the IM out in the morning and said the horse showed relief but was still very lame. To them it looked like the IM was the cause of the soreness. Im not ruling out the IM contributing to soreness, I just don't see how unless their is an abscess in caudal area or the IM migrated forward (doubtful). The vet came out today and shot some films. He took them back to developed. Yep no digital unfortunately. I called and spoke to him, the clip was in the way of the tip of p3 (sucks when you have to wait till you get home to find that out) so he couldn't see remodeling or judge the sole depth, though I suspect one could make an accurate guess from intersecting lines.I asked him to email me and he said something like 'Oh wish I had made a copy'. heh. Anyway I'm in the position in a barn I am fairly new to, with a vet who is good to work with but lacks modern raigography and a staff that thinks I made the horse worse! In reality I think the timing was coincidental, but if the IM is really making the horse uncomfortable it sure throws a wrench in my plans. I stated shoeing this horse in the spring. The horse is in his 20's. His feet were a mess with obvious evidence of past chronic laminitis that may have perhaps gone unnoticed. He was shod about a 3-4 weeks ago with Delta TS8's. Pretty standard shoeing. He is apparently cushinoid and has been deemed to have EMS by the attending vet. So it was probably only a matter of time before this happened considering all factors. I'll post some more info after I see him tomorrow.
If you can get the owner to read http://safergrass.org/ you might be able to get them to realize how wrong their thinking is. IMEs with laminitis when the owner argues "there's no grass out there" while the horse is showing obvious symptoms, you are not going to accomplish much with the horse until the owner gets over their ignorance and denial. The way I see it, if they really give a damn about their horse they will go to the web site and read up on the data.
I would suspect an abcess except for the fact that he wasn't hoof tester positive. Is it possible the IM was creating pressure on a bruise?
I find that sinkers don't like IM much. Any chance this could be his issue? This has been a rough fall on the East Coast for the cushingoid horses.
Patty, it's possible but the hoof doesnt look like it. It doesn't help that I haven't seen the radiographs. I put the horse back in IM today, he seemed to have some releif. The folks at the barn were very accommodating today. They agreed to turn the horse out in the riding ring where there is no grass. The horse is moving not so willingly. Probably 3.5 grade lameness so it could certainty be worse. I'll post more later. I just sent her off my report.
