Lameness and Injury

Name: Capped Elbow

Cause: Irritation to the ulnar bursa. When lying down, the shoe on the injured limb hits the area. Inadequate bedding allowing the horse's elbow to come in contact with a hard floor. Rider's toe constantly hitting the elbow. Gaited horse hit's his own elbow.

Main Parts Affected: Elbows

Symptoms: Soft swelling.

Detection: See Syptoms

Treatment: See Prevention. Cold water hosing or applications to the swelling. If swelling continues to rise, call the vet.

Prevention/Precaution: Take away causes. Good sized stalls and adequate bedding. Capped elbow boots, sausage boot, shoe boil, or donut boot.

Name: Cracked Heels

Cause: Inadequate drying of the area after the horse is washed. Continuous exposure to wet, cold weather.

Main Parts Affected: Heel area

Symptoms: Area reddened, scaly, and sore, sores rupture and form cracks, cracks become crusty and hard, the limb becomes swollen and lameness occurs.

Detection: See Symptoms

Treatment: Clip the area, wash it with warm water and soap, dry thoroughly, and apply a lotion recommended by the vet. Keep area clean

Prevention/Precaution: Appy oil to the heels in wet weather. Dry area thoroughly after a bath.

Notes:

Name: Fistulous Withers

Cause: Ill fitting saddle or harness, direct blow, rolling on rough, sharp surfaces

Main Parts Affected: Withers

Symptoms: Inflammation, swelling, pain on manipulation, pus discharge, stiffness in front legs

Detection: See Symptoms

Treatment: Call vet. Requires surgical treatment to remove pus and heal wound.

Prevention/Precaution: Make sure the horse has well-fitted tack.

Notes:

Name: Girth Galls

Cause: Excess pressure on the horse's girth area. Debris such as shavings or dirt caught between horse and girth, abrading the skin. A girth can be too loose, so it rotates and the movement causes rubbing.

Main Parts Affected: Girth area

Symptoms: Small swellings on girth area, erosion of the skin in the girth area, pain while being girthed, irritablity while being girthed, reluctance to move forward.

Detection: See Symptoms

Treatment: Clean the area with warm water and soap and apply antiseptic or something like Desitin and baby powder or Bag Balm. Temporarily charge routine to avoid using the type of tack that caused the galls (ride bareback or longe the horse - no girth or harness) until the horse is sufficiently healed (especially important when the galls were bad enough to cause mild-severe behavioral changes). Infected galls should be treated by the veterinarian.

Prevention/Precaution: Use a clean girth cover, or at least a clean girth, on a cleaned horse. Use well fitted tack. Use a split leather girth on horses prone to galls. Stretch out the horse's forelegs before mounting.

Notes:

Name: Laminitis (founder)

Cause: Most notably overfeeding of concentrates to a horse that does little work (can even happen if a horse gets out of his stall and finds the feed room and gains access to a grain bin) and too rapid an introduction to lush grass. Working an unprepared horse over long distances, especially on hard surfaces - horses with thin soles and wall are more susceptible. Cold water given to a hot horse, retained placenta (called 'Post parturient founder'). Anything that causes chemical changes in the bloodstream that affect the blood supply to the laminae [laminae link the pedal bone, a.k.a. coffin bone, to the hoof wall] and cause them to become inflamed; certain chemicals released into the bloodstream and constrict the blood vessels.

Main Parts Affected: Hoof (and to some extent the kidneys)

Symptoms: Acute signs: Stiffness, horse appears to be "walking on eggs" or "glued to the ground." Heat in the hoof. There is a clssical laminitis stance in which all 4 feet are forward of their normal position. The horse, in an attempt to shift the weight off of the toes which are usually more severely affected in the early stages, will tuck his hind feet as far forward under his body as he can while standing. The head is low and the back is arched. In addition, there will be fever (103-106 degrees F) and excessive heat and stronger and more easily felt pounding of the pulse at the hoof (the digital pulse, near the heel). Chronic signs"Dropped sole, rings on hoof wall parallel to the coronary band, hoof becomes dished and turned up.

Detection: See Causes and Symptoms

Treatment: Treatment is different for different causes. The vet will know which one applies to the situation. The treatments aim toward reducing inflamation and returning normal circulation, prevent or minimize coffin rotation, and relieving pain. Hoof care extra important to prevent further trauma. If the coffin bone has rotated down, some horses may need special shoing and special work done on the hoof. Overweight horses must loose the weight and keep it off. If a horse ends up with cronic [recuring] laminitis, it may need drug therapy to combat high blood pressure and to correct any thyroid imbalances. A horse can die because of laminitis so it is important to get it treated in time. A "wait and see" approach can be dangerous. This is one thing for which you should not try to be your own vet. Once a horse has recovered from an episode, exercise the horse, change to a special shoe, and constantly trim the hoof. It can be very expensive to care for a foundered horse.

Prevention/Precaution: If one of the causes of laminitis has occured and the horse is properly treated against letting chemical changes in the bloodstream affect the blood supply to the laminae, then it is possible to prevent it from getting out of hand. By anticipating, sometimes it can be warded off. When buying a horse, watch out for hooves too small for the body, and horses with hooves that have dished appearance, or show irregular growth rings. Don't feed too much lush grass too soon, feeding hay about an hour before turning a horse out onto rich pasture should slow the horse down so he won't eat as fast. Make the feed room inexcessable to horses or ponies (door heavy enough not to open to the casual push of an equine muzzle, close the feed room door all the way, secure tops on bins full of concentrates so no horses can get into them). Exercise horses sensibly, don't over do training or speed work. Avoid exercising on hard-packed roads or uneven pebbly ground. When your mare foals, make sure the entire placenta is out, don't let your horse get overweight, Don't give cold water to a hot horse, a few sips at a time will be plenty. After cooling out check the feed for bounding pulses or excessive heat. Simply put, always practice good horse and stable management.

Notes: If the horse does recover from full blown laminitis, it may have relapses. Most won't be able to return to the previous level of activity. If the coffin bone rotates enough to pierce the hoof, euthanasia may be the kindest option. Laminitis can be an extreme symptom of other things. Laminitis is one of the leading causes of death to horses. Certain horses are more predisposed to it: ponies, overweight animals, certain breeds (?) such as Quarter Horses (?), and stallions, but laminitis can occur in any horse or pony in the wrong circumstance. A horse that has had laminitis is at a higher risk for recurrance. Chronic laminitis is incurable, the only thing to be done is prevent another episode from happening.

To learn more about Laminitis:

Name: Poll Evil

Cause: Direct blow to poll from a beam, a low stable door or trailer ceiling, or a blow from the end of a crop. Pressure from heavy bridle or chaffing halter.

Main Parts Affected: Poll (area between the ears)

Symptoms: Swelling and inflammation of poll, pus discharge if the swelling bursts, head held erect and signs of intense pain at any movement of his head, horse sensitive to being brushed at the poll and being bridled.

Detection: See Sypmtoms

Treatment: Put horse in a box stall and place his head at a comfortable level. Call the vet. This problem usually requires surgical treatment.

Notes:

Name: Ringbone

Cause: Injury, sudden or chronic strain from athletic activity, and irregular conformation.

Main Parts Affected: Pastern

Symptoms: First stage - intermittent lameness, tissue around the area may be soft and painful. Once it becomes chronic, the soft tissue around the joint becomes very firm, very cool, no pain on palpation. There may be swelling around the pastern or on top of the coronet band associated with the coffin joint. Most noticeable on the front and sides and less apparent on the back surface of the leg.

Detection: History of the problem, external appearance, palpation, and radiographs.

Treatment: Dependent on the cause. Early stages of ringbone may be helped with leg wraps, topical application of DMSO, systemic administration of a polysulfated glycosaminoglycan (Adequan). Any agents are most effective early on, prior to a lot of bony changes.

Prevention/Precaution: Avoid selecting horses with conformation problems for high-risk sports. Horses with joint injuries should never be rushed back to work. Warm up a horse before competing or strenuous exercise.

Notes: More common in horses with upright pastern and those putting extra stress on one side of foot and leg because of crooked legs. High ringbone is where bone growth is at the joint between the long and short pastern bones, if the two bones become fused lameness stops. If it is low ringbone (bone growth is between short pastern bone and coffin bone) and the bones fuse, lameness is often permanent.

To learn more about Ringbone:

Name: Splints

Cause: Swelling or enlargement in the body of the splint bone because of an injury at or near the splint bones, such as a sprain or trauma to the outside of the splint bone because of a sharp turn while jumping, reining, cutting, or lunging, because the hoof is unbalanced (through incorrect trimming, shoing, or incorrect conformation), or the splint bone is kicked by another horse.

Main Parts Affected: Cannon and slint bones

Symptoms: Painful to firm pressure, lameness should disappear when a local anaesthetic in injected around the splint. Tissues often warm and swollen during splint formation over the splint formation site.

Detection: Heat and inflamation is present. X-Ray. Lameness should disappear when a local anaesthetic in injected around the splint.

Treatment: Rest and cold application to reduce pain and inflammation. Flat, straight work to minimize stress on the legs.

Prevention/Precaution: Hooves should be properly trimmed and shod. Horses should be exercised sensibly.

Notes: Modern horses have only one toe on each leg, early horses had more than one. The splint bones are thought to be vestiges of those other toes. Splints are pretty common. Horses with knock-knees or bench knees (Offset knees) have better chance of getting it. When healing is complete, a small, hard, nonpainful bump will frequently be left behind whick will never go away completely.

Name: Thrush

Cause: Bad management (poor hoof care and/or unhygienic conditions in the horse's stall or paddock). When a horse has full pads under his shoes the pads can trap in moisture and such.

Main Parts Affected: Most typically the frog and the white line.

Symptoms: Bad smelling black ashy stuff. Frog looks abnormal, pieces of it hanging off and if the farrier tries to trim it the horse reacts adversely. When it gets real bad the horse doesn't like the feet being picked and the frog is almost nonexistant. There is no reason for thrush to get this bad.

Detection: Presence of symptoms.

Treatment: Keep foot clean and dry, have farrier trim out the effected areas. Topical applications of Betadine, formaldehyde, diluted bleach, Kopertox, Thrush Buster, or Sugardine. Keep stall clean

Prevention/Precaution: Keep up a good hoof care regimen, keep the bedding clean and the stall dry.

Notes: Thrush usually effects more than one hoof at a time. Thrush should be treated aggressively and not neglected. One horse at my barn got it and it wasn't taken care off. She was kept in a standing stall where she stood in manure 9-14 hours a day, 6 days a week and it wasn't picked up regularly. It got to the point where she had no frog and when rough parts of the remaining frog were trimmed, they bled. She wouldn't tolerate a thorough hoof cleaning. We had to keep her in at night for a few months to keep the bandages on her feet, medication on them, and dirt out of them. She was then let out on dry nights in a cleaned paddock for another month or so. For a while it took 3+ people to treat her and often more than an hour to finish. She would jerk her feet away from us and refuse to pick them up for us because the treatment was painful and had to be done everyday. Sometimes it would hurt so much that she would almost collapse when her foot was up and being treated and she got to kicking her right hind which was one of the worst feet. She is just getting used to her feet being picked up and handled without flinching and pulling away. She wasn't ridden for almost a year.

To learn more about Thrush: