Dragging a toe.

gail_rose

gail_rose

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Dec 28, 2003
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My friend's Connemara, Pete, is usually very sound, I've known him for about 5 years & he's only been unsound once with an abcess when his previous owner had his shoes taken off.

A few weeks ago my friend was out riding & noticed he didn't sound quite even when he was trotting & he was quite reluctant to work in a circle on the left rein but was OK on the right.

She's had the vet out & Pete is going in for nerve blocks on Thursday, having been on box rest for 3 weeks with no improvement. While the vet is lovely & has been very supportive of my friend she hasn't really given her any idea what *might* be wrong with Pete & my friend is really worried now.

Does anyone here have any experience of this kind of lameness? He drags his off hind toe when trotting but there is no heat and no swelling anywhere. He is 12 & my friend is worried that she won't be able to ride him again.
 
Does he always drag his feet? Could this not be him just being a bit lazy or id it more prominant. Adella will occasionally drag her feet but this is due to being lazy and not tracking up (or so I think). Could it be a bit of arthritis?? Only saying that coz my mare has this trouble but she is almost 30. Arthritis can come on at any age. Not much help other than that im afraid.
 
Did the flexion tests show anything? First thing that would spring to mind is bone spavin. Is he flexing his hock? Otherwise I would think higher up in the sacroiliac area if the hock is flexing ok on a normal flexion but the horse is unable to do high flexion.

Full lameness work up is really needed though.
 
Lucyad had this when Oscar was diagnosed with spavin in his hock. He is now better than ever after a controlled program of work and supplements and adequan injections. The toe dragging was what showed up first with him.

Apparently once the hock fused it stopped causing any more bother?
 
Hi,

Please read my previous posts as my pony dragged his back feet in trot. To cut a long story short, x rays revelaed he has mild arthritis in both hock joints.

I'm not sure I would go down the road of a nerve block just yet as the vet will be able to tell an awful lot from flexion tests and x-rays.

How old is the pony? My pony is 6, and the vet said that if I had ignored it, then later on in life, he would definitely had bone spavins.

Good luck.
 
Just another thought - Check for saddle fit. A recent change to the fit might be causing a sore back which can also cause toe dragging and reluctance on a circle. Maybe walk/trot the horse up untacked and listen for the toe dragging then lunge on sand if possible. You will see the marks from toe dragging on the sand.
 
Spavin is arthritis. Vets will tend to nerve block so they know where to xray. Otherwise they could be xraying and xraying and finding nothing. If they have done the nerve blocks they will know which joint is causing bother then they only have to xray one joint.

Please tell your friend not to panic. Nerve blocks are only to give the vet an idea where he is to look!
 
My pony does not have spavins as I have caught the arthritis at a very minor stage.

He has special surgical shoes on the back, which the vet said should fuse the bones back together so that spavins will not form.

According to my vet, spavins only form if the arthritis goes undetected for years.
 
The vet came out a couple of weeks ago & did flexion tests but they didn't really show anything. Pete's not usually one for dragging his toes which is why my friend's worried & the dragging is still noticable when he's being trotted up unridden.

Misteeq - Pete's 12 & we thought it could be the onset of arthritis. Think my friend will just be relieved when she inds out what it is & how to manage it!

Suppose we'll just have to wait & see what the nerve blocks / x-rays show up on Thursday but thanks for your theories! Will post with an update when I have news.
 
jay started dragging his hinds to the pint he had square toes, vet said bone spavin or possibly his suspensort had gone again, he had no heat or swelling in either leg.
 
An update - Pete is going to be fine. He was at the vet today & they didn't even do the nerve blocks. He trotted up fine (even though he was still lame when we trotted him up last night :rolleyes:) and the vet has said to give him 2 more weeks off followed by 2 weeks light lunging & in-hand walking & slowly building him back up to being ridden.
 
gail_rose said:
An update - Pete is going to be fine. He was at the vet today & they didn't even do the nerve blocks. He trotted up fine (even though he was still lame when we trotted him up last night :rolleyes:) and the vet has said to give him 2 more weeks off followed by 2 weeks light lunging & in-hand walking & slowly building him back up to being ridden.
Click to expand...

Well that's good news :D:D
 
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