Monday 12 November 2012

Millie - 2 steps forward, some steps back...

Time for an update on Millie, which is definitely a case of the curate's egg. She arrived lame in front and with a "navicular" diagnosis - in other words she had bone changes evident on x-ray. 
Nowadays we know that horses with these types of changes almost always have soft tissue damage which precedes the bone damage and in a horse like Millie (who has a weak caudal foot and also evidence of medio-lateral imbalance) I'd make an educated guess (based on many other horses who have been here) that she would have DDFT and collateral ligament damage if she had an MRI. 
The photos show her front foot from day one to today. Like Rolie last week, her feet are rebalancing and there are some good changes evident. Her foot is straighter, the frog is starting to function properly (though she is not as far ahead as Rolie was at the same stage) and the medio-lateral balance is starting to improve. 

You can see from the lateral shots that the caudal foot is stronger and the hoof pastern axis is therefore also better. 
The caudal shots give you the same impression - the foot is stronger and Millie is much more able to engage the back of the foot. 
Again the comparison is between the day she arrived and today, about 8 weeks later. 
Unfortunately although her front feet are making progress her hind feet are also causing her problems and over the last couple of weeks have been more of an issue than her fronts.
I've posted on the blog before about her hind limb conformation. Of course this isn't a new issue. Her owner has had Millie since she was only a few weeks old and Millie has coped with this imbalance for many years but its bound to be putting strain on her limbs. 
A few weeks after she arrived the loading seemed to be improving but last week she was lamer behind so it was hard to tell if we were still on the right track.
A few days later and she seems to be improving again, so fingers crossed. 

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