Yesterday, she was dragging her left rear leg IMMEDIATELY, even at a walk. I worked her fairly hard, and she kept stumbling and was just terrible through all her gaits, choppy and rough. She was pawing at the ground with her left rear leg and holding it in unusual positions while tied up after the ride. She is OBVIOUSLY hurt. I gave her some bute after the ride, and I'm likely going to visit the vet in a few days. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm praying it'll be a quick fix and involve low cost. But you never know with this stuff.
Below are the photos of how she was holding the leg.
8 comments:
Yikes. I hope it's something minor. Of course I don've have a lot of sympathy for her since she sicced Woody on me and Cibolo.
Jk, maybe she just got something in her hoof or has an abcess. Any heat in the hoof?
Does she naturally toe in behind like that? Looks like she might be trying to avoid weighting the inside edge of the LH hoof. Or it could be stifle and/or back/sacral issues - I've had a lot of experience with those and they can produce real gimpiness even when there's nothing wrong elsewhere. Also, the way she's holding her foot in the second photo is odd - it's like she doesn't want to flex the P1/P2 pastern joint - it could be bony changes there - what used to be called high ringbone - that can be very painful. Good luck in figuring this out!
The more I think about it, the more I think stifle - both the toe dragging and stumbling (could be a stifle catching), and the odd stance toed-in. She just can't move the leg forward properly. But I'm not the vet and it's probably time for one at this point. Could even be something neurological like EPM, which can produce asymmetric weakness. Good luck (again)!
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