# Outlook for fused fetlock



## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Sorry to hear this. Am interested in what the experts say.


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## Bondre (Jun 14, 2013)

I remember someone posted in the hoof care section about their rescue mare who had a fused knee, and was completely sound. It would be great if this could be the case with a fetlock too. Flamenca's workload is light to non-existent ;-) so I would be happy as long as she is comfortable for her day-to-day and walking out to hand graze.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

How long will it be before a vet can come and examine the horse?
Just because your horse may move like one in a video does not mean it is the same diagnosis or issue....you already know that.
Looking at her stance I think she is in pain...could you imagine not being able to fully extend your leg to the ground?
In time that tendon and ligament can also shorten or check and that "posturing" may become permanent....it doesn't take that long a time for "learned behaviors" to become concreted in the mind...
I wonder if she has a bone chip which is preventing her extension of the joint and the click is the bone moving in the joint area...
Can tell you I had that in my knee and it was excruciatig when that tiny piece of bone/cartilage went traveling. You bet I walked funny till that debris was removed...

Caught quick enough she might respond to a injection to reduce inflammation or dissolve debris broke off and traveling...left alone.
_Not going there....
:runninghorse2:....
jmo...
_


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## sarahfromsc (Sep 22, 2013)

Awww poor dear! I hope you can figure this out. Waiting to read what others have to say. I have not seen anything like that before, so I am useless. just wanted to wish you and her the best.


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

Yeah. Vet.

I would look into trimming that foot a little differently to help her.

How old is she?


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## Bondre (Jun 14, 2013)

The farrier was out last week. He looked at her right hind and first thing he did was whip a bit of sole off the toes. Then he said that she has soft soles and couldn't take anything else off without laming her. I asked him if he could take the toes back a bit as they're long, but he said no, so I didn't insist. This guy trims my other horse - who has 'normal' hooves ok, but Flamenca has pathological front hooves (former founder case with thin soles) and his approach is to cure pathologies through remedial shoeing. He doesn't believe in barefoot for her problem. So I trim Flamenca and he trims my other horse lol. Her hind feet need going over, and I'll take her toes back which should help her. 

She is 19 in her papers, so if they're correct she isn't that old, but they're probably not correct. Her previous owner had her official papers done together with the microchip only four or five years ago, and I don't know if she had any documents prior to that or if they just put an approximate - and/or favourable - age on her papers. 

When I got her, nearly 18 months ago, she had terribly overgrown and foundered front hooves and was kept in a tiny stable with very limited possibilities for movement, which would certainly favour the appearance of arthritic problems.


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## Bondre (Jun 14, 2013)

GOOD NEWS! !

So today Flamenca wasn't as horribly lame as yesterday, and was straightening her fetlock better. Her pastern was rather swollen above the heel bulbs. I was planning to take a bit off her hind toes and I was cleaning the hoof on her bad leg when I realised she had some yellowish pus on her heel bulbs. 

Yay! Never been so glad to see some pus! It was a hoof abscess that has been causing her acute heel pain over the past few days and making her walk in that awful gimpy fashion.

So I cleaned up the exit hole, which is pretty small and right in the centre of her heel bulbs. I'll have to see if I can get hold of some Epsom salts - not commonly sold here but hopefully I can find some - but if not I don't know if ordinary saline solution would do for cleaning and/or soaking? 

I'm a bit peeved that the farrier didn't pick up on this, considering he saw her last week and I asked him specifically to look at that hoof to see if anything in the hoof could be the cause of her lameness. But he didn't come up with anything more than thin soles, and started off on his remedial shoeing chat....

Anyway, never mind. The important thing is that I'm not (yet) looking at permanent and worsening unsoundness due to arthritis. Time for a happy dance:

:happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

The remaining question is the cause of the abscess. Last year she sprung two small solar abscesses in April, also in her hind hooves. And this spring, a white line abscess that's burst through the heels. The common factor is spring, and spring grass. In all certainty she had had a sub-acute laminitic episode and the resulting necrotic tissue is expulsed as an abscess. I read up about them in a great article, and it results that abscesses that exit through the heel are caused by infection that originates in the white line of the bars, but can spread extensively through the solar papillae (between P3 and the live sole) so can do a lot of damage inside the hoof before they exit.

http://www.rainierhoofrehab.com/Hoof-Abscesses.html


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Abscesses are a pain to deal with but at least you can deal with it. Good luck with your mare.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

That must be a relief! Glad you've got an answer.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Well, it is all solved now, but I was going to say that typically when a fetlock is fused it won't BEND. When a horse cannot STRAIGHTEN a joint, there is something else going on. Usually. 

I was going to suggest heel pain and that pain causing her to not drop her heel... 

And it seems that is exactly the correct answer. 

Good news really.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Very good news that it's an abscess. Whew. 

I don't recall if you've ever posted pictures of her soles. What I'm wondering is if the farrier is letting her bars grow too long or fold over? That can be a cause of recurrent abscesses. Similar to this hoof below:








The long, folded bars on this hoof are almost certainly the cause of the abscess seen. They trap small gravel and foreign objects underneath, which then penetrate the sole and cause the abscess. I've seen so many horses get abscesses under the bars like this.
Here's an example of long versus trimmed bars:








Around here, many farriers don't trim the bars at all, as if they don't exist. I've seen where the bars are laying all over the sole and the horse has had shoes put over the top. Then, the horse abscessed and had to have the shoes taken back off.


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