Breezy has a bone chip
Breezy has had a strange lameness that has manifested as either back left or front right. It looks like her back strides aren’t the same length. She’s had several weeks off and it hasn’t seemed to help.
The vet came out yesterday to do a lameness evaluation for Breezy. The vet used a lameness locator as well. You attach several data senders to the horse’s head (via a bonnet), front right pastern, and top of the croup. These data senders transmit data about the horse’s movement to a device like a tablet and provides a tool to help the vet evaluate where lameness originates. The lameness locator showed mild lameness on the front left.
The flexion test on the front right and back left were fine. The flexion test on the front left showed up a lameness. Total surprise but validated the lameness locator’s findings.
We opted to not do nerve blocks and instead do X-rays instead. And low and behold, the vet found a small bone chip in the front of Breezy’s front left fetlock. It’s the little white ball looking thing.
The good news is that we found the bone chip. The bad news is that we have to schedule surgery to have it removed. No riding until it’s fixed and recovered.
My vet is going to refer Breezy to the local vet school hospital.