Need some "get well" vibes for my horse

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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My 23 year old Morgan gelding, Mickey, has come up lame and the husband and I are worried. He foundered three years ago but the coffin bone de-rotated and with specialized trimming by our farrier, he’s been doing pretty well. Last winter when we weren’t able to get him out of his stall for several days, he came up lame and I think this is another episode.

I hosed his front legs [the right front one is the foot that the founder happened in], rubbed linament on his legs and he got a half a tablet of Bute with his dinner. I’m hoping it’s just stiffness from old age and not something worse.

So will y’all keep the Mickster in your thoughts? He’s my baby boy and when he hurts, so do I.

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Absolutely! I wasn’t a horse person before I met my wife, but I now understand. Morgans are beautiful, and I hope Mickey does well.

My wife suggests alternating Bigol Oil (sp?) and capsaicin cream every other day on the fetlock above the coronet band which will both help reduce the swelling (and associated discomfort), increase the circulation and help with blood flow.

She also suggests you do not feed alfalfa hay, instead feed a lower mineral hay to reduce the arthritis. Also perhaps look for abscesses in the hoof, but we are sure you guys are already looking for that.

My wife used this method to cure a 12 year old fourth level prix St. Georges dressage horse which had been given up on because of navicular. After several years he was cured to the point that she sold him to the president of a significant dressage association, went back into competition and he lived out his life as a schoolmaster (this was the early 90s).

She also managed to cure he current horse Devon of canker in all four hooves a few years ago, but that’s a whole 'nother story.
I want to be careful not to come across as a know it all, for I certainly am not. My limited experience in the horse world is that the problem of everyone thinking they know more than everyone else is pretty rampant, and I don’t want to go there. I was just asking my wife if she had any ideas, and these are what she said.
As an aside, and as an example of the love of horses, my wife & I are about to head up the road a few hours today to retrieve the one she let get away a few years ago. Her situation was difficult at the time and she had to let Tank go to a good home.

Two days ago we got a call - Tank’s owner is selling, and does she want him back?

It’s tough, but we can do it, and we’re headed up the road so Tank (the 15 year old Tennessee Walker) will rejoin his best buddy Devon (the 11 year old Percheron Quarterhorse mix) and the family gets reunited. We are still in a bit of shock over it.
Good vibes to Mickey! It’s a good world, he’s got a good loving owner, and I’m sure it will all work out.

Ps: where in Applachia? We’re in central Virginia

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I know how you feel. My 26 year old Appendix came up wih stifle problems a few weeks ago so I had the vet out last week. The vet gave him IV Legend and that has helped a lot. When he has hock flareups, I give him 2 tablets of Bute per day (1 mg each, for a total of 2 mg) for 3 days. If your guy doesn’t improve in a day or so, I would suggest having the vet out, what with Mickey’s history of founder.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

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Are the front feet hot to the touch? Is any foot hot to the touch? Is he standing in the “foundering stance?” Is he fat with a “cresty” stallionish looking neck?

The thing is, it could be a million things: an abscess, a pulled muscle, joint pain, new episode of founder, navicular changes, … lordy, I’m just getting started. Lameness can really lead you down the garden path and put grey in your hair.

Don’t take any advice on treatment until you know what you are treating. What you’ve done so far is pretty much all the “generic” treatment" a horse owner can apply without knowing more. If he doesn’t improve, call a good lameness vet (the track vets are the best on lameness, if you can find one). I hope your guy feels better soon!!! And that it’s nothing but one of those creaky “off days” even us humans have!

I just love a Morgan. Is he Park or Foundation type?

forgot my lameness story: my 18 yo Appaloosa mare was off & on lame in front. I was dead certain it was navicular changes, but it turned out to just be thin hoof soles. Worked her in gel sneakers (LOL, a shoe with a pad filled with silicone gel) and let her hoof grow out and she was right as rain. And I fired that farrier.

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Best wishes & prayers for Mickey. I am a horseless horse lover and I understand the love you have for your boy. Please keep us posted!

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Your baby is almost as old as me! That’s awesome. I didn’t know horses could live that long :slight_smile:

/goodvibrations

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I’m sorry about your horse. My old mare is 33 this year and is an ex-founder AND Potomac Fever survivor. For such big animals, they are so fragile. I put my 3 year old up one night totally fine and the next morning she came out of the stall with a blown up hock. Vet was afraid it was broken, but she was fine. I never did figure out how she did it.
Horses are born and then spend the rest of their lives trying to commit suicide. Some are more successful than others… :wink:

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and I hope it’s nothing serious.

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Sending your Morgan lots of healing vibes! Morgans are such nifty horses. I hope your Mickey is soon sound again.

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2gigch1—Mick is on a low-starch feed that is especially recommended for horses who have foundered. It smells LOVELY, I believe it has anise oil in it and he just vaccums it down at breakfast and dinner. I also used Bigeloil on his legs, I’d buy it by the case if I could. It’s one of those all-around linaments that’s good for horses and people!

We’re just outside of Charleston, WV.

peedin—Husband is calling the vet tomorrow to bring out their portable x-ray and see if that coffin bone has started to rotate again.

Hello Again—he’s got the “stallion-ish” cresty neck but his hooves aren’t hot and he’s not been standing in the foundered stance. I think the neck comes from him being not only castrated late but “proud cut” as well. He’s ALWAYS acted like a stallion, but we’ve never had the heart to tell him he’s not :wink:

He’s a Foundation-type Morgan. Unregistered, but he looks exactly like the statue of Figure at the U of Vermont. We also showed him to a local Morgan trainer/breeder and she said she’d bet good money he was. We got him thru a local “horse trader” back in 1995 and he’s the apple of my eye [unintended pun there].

Thank you all so much for the good wishes. He’s doing only slightly better tonight so like I said, if he’s no better tomorrow, we’re calling the vet. I’m hoping and praying it’s nothing more than old age—one of our boarders lost her 26 year old Quarter Horse mare a couple months ago and I’m still sad about that as Anne was such a darling horse.

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Where I used to work, we have an Appaloosa who was a former jumper. He was donated because the girl who competed with him was never certain when he would turn up lame. In the time I was there he was diagnosed with a whole host of hoof/leg issues (ring bone, laminitis, navicular, abscesses, you name it, they theorized he had it) that we treated symptomologically with varying degrees of success, until finally one day I went into the pasture to get him and he refused to get up. I finally got him back to the barn, and called out our secondary vet to finally do xrays (non-profit organization; I hadn’t been allowed to have him xrayed before this).

When the vet pulled up the xray, we all gasped (me, the vet tech, and the vet). The navicular bones in both front feet looked like small blocks (it should look like a chef hat), were porous, and had fractures running through them. In essence, both the front feet of this 1300lb horse were broken, and had been for at least several years. :eek:

We discussed euthanising him, but I had to check with his former owner first. Her dad happened to work for a vet supply company, and asked if we’d agree to his farrier ‘trying something out,’ on his dime. I did, and our farrier joined us one afternoon for the experimental shoeing so- on the off chance it worked- he could replicate it later. It took about 4 hours- the guy took a regular eggbar shoe and welded half of a steel ball on the bottom of it, so the horse could ‘rock’ his feet and take pressure off of wherever hurt him most. The horse that I could barely walk out to the crossties prior to the shoeing jumped over the fence and ran off into the pasture within minutes of the shoes being put on. :eek::eek::eek:

That was about 3 years ago; we made a few modifications (replaced the steel ball with a wooden one, then eventually went to a different shoe altogether that still needs to be hand-made) but he’s going strong. You could definitely tell when it was coming up time for a trim, as he’d slow down a little, but he’s light years away from the horse I thought I was going to bury (though he’s a pasture ornament now, no riding!).

The truly bizarre thing, we had NO CLUE AT ALL that his situation was so severe. Just a month or so before I found him in the pasture, we’d used him for basic riding with a host of our clients and staff- the heaviest of whom was pushing 300 pounds- and he never, ever showed signs of anything other than mild lameness that was treated with bute and poltices. I felt terrible.

Best of luck to your four-legged!