Darcy arrived here about 7 weeks ago and is a good example of the fact that how a hoof looks can't always tell you much about how well it is functioning. I could point you to a dozen horses with apparently worse looking feet who were nevertheless far sounder than he was.
Darcy had feet which didn't look bad at all, with a palmar hoof, frog and digital cushion that looked well developed, as he had spent most of his life barefoot.
Despite this, he was definitely one of the lamest horses on arrival, graded at 6/10 lame by his vet and with a visible unlevelness even in walk.
Edited to add: Darcy was about 1-2/10 lame when he had an MRI which showed navicular bone bruising and related soft tissue damage (impar ligament and DDFT). He was remedially shod and his lameness worsened to 6/10 lame; this lameness persisted when the shoes were removed and at this point he came to us.
Edited to add: Darcy was about 1-2/10 lame when he had an MRI which showed navicular bone bruising and related soft tissue damage (impar ligament and DDFT). He was remedially shod and his lameness worsened to 6/10 lame; this lameness persisted when the shoes were removed and at this point he came to us.
Although his feet looked strong enough, there was definitely something wrong has his landing was clearly toe first and he struggled on turns.
Darcy is still far from being fully sound but in his last piece of footage, taken a week ago, there are signs of improvement which are encouraging to see. Its all about movement, after all.
3 comments:
Nic, I may have missed some earlier posts but could you remind me what his diagnosis was when he first came in?
He was about1-2/10 lame and MRI showed navicular bone damage and related soft tissue damage (DDFT, impart ligament). He was remedially shod and became much lamer - 6/10 lame - and this lameness persisted after the shoes came off, which was when he came to us.
Thanks Nic, interesting. Lets hope he can continue with the improvement.
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