Update: This has been an absolute emotional roller coaster. Piper arrive at the clinic yesterday 9/14. Loaded like a champ 💚 I am thanking again everyone who had been able to help so far.
The good news is that she is sound under saddle at the walk, and her lameness at the trot has improved from a Grade 3 to a Grade 2.
However, she is now showing lameness in the hind end as well, so now she’s showing lameness in all four limbs. The vets wanted to determine whether what we were seeing in the front end could be compensatory pain for the hind.
They performed a nerve block on the left hind, but instead of improving the overall picture, the lameness became more apparent in the opposite limb. Piper then decided she was absolutely not going to allow us to block the other hind leg. 😂
We were able to block the front feet, and there was some improvement on the left front, which has made the vets consider that there may be more of a foot-pain component to what we’re seeing.
At this point, all of the lameness we’re seeing is Grade 1–2, so thankfully, we’re not dealing with a dramatic degree of lameness.
Because we weren’t able to fully block the hind end, the vets went ahead and ultrasounded the suspensory ligaments to help rule out soft-tissue injury.
The suspensories were abnormal but showed no injury. Just minor abnormalities that seemed chronic that she had for a long time. So she would call them clean. 💚we do find some swelling of the deep digital flexor tendon, but in a verty weird spot that you don’t typically see on a hind leg. And again would not affect her. But will change how we shoe her.
We then moved on to X-rays of the leg we couldn’t block, both hind feet, and her hocks… I can’t remember if we did stifles at the moment.
And this is where we got some REALLY good news:
Her hocks are PERFECT.
So perfect that the vet actually asked if she could use Piper’s hocks as a teaching example of what healthy hocks should look like! 🥹💚
We also repeated the imaging of her neck with a more powerful X-ray. This allowed the vets to confirm that Piper does NOT have arthritis in her poll, which had previously been a concern.
She does have some very very mild arthritis in the lower neck, but the vet does not believe it is substantial enough to warrant a CT at this point.
When we X-rayed all four feet, found there is no rotation or radiographic evidence of laminitis/founder. Given Piper’s history, that is an especially reassuring finding. 💚
So we’ve ruled out a LOT.
From a bone perspective, this horse should not be lame.
And yet… she is still lame.
So, we’re now looking at muscle disorders and potentially neurologic causes. Piper will be evaluated by neurology today , and from there we’ll determine what additional imaging and diagnostics make sense, including muscle diseases and biopsies are warranted.
I might have them pull a full tick panel as well.
But after months of uncertainty, getting this much clean imaging is genuinely something to be grateful for. We don’t have the answer yet, but we’re continuing to systematically rule things out and keep moving forward.
Nervous, exhausted, but hopeful.
Putting my faith in modern medicine. 💚
