My mare showed mild-moderate lameness Wed night - unrideable, slight limp at walk, hobbling at trot.  She is improved to mild lameness as of Sat - 4 days.  It is left front leg lameness.  Have checked everything - nothing in foot, no heat anywhere, no swelling, pasture sound, fine at walk, she is not taking any weight off the foot.  We are speculating she was kicked, chased or just strained something.

 So, my question is, when do you call a vet for mild lameness?  She is improving each day, does not appear to be in pain, is getting rest, eating fine, etc.  I am going to check her again today, the earliest the vet could come out was tomorrow.  If she is still improving - do I have the vet check her out?

Interested in thoughts.

I always call the vet for any kind of lameness. You never want to let something get away from you b/c you think "it's just mild". Juno's mild lameness--that we attributed to a pasture shoulder injury/strain--lasted forever, and is beginning to show signs of healing more than 2 yrs later once she had surgery done on her mildly lame LF for a coffin bone infection. Yes, that is an extreme case, but her lameness got better, then got worse, during the 2 yrs. Just b/c it's better it doesn't mean that it won't get worse. Nip it at the bud, be safe rather than sorry, and all cliches that apply here. :)

Unless I am 100% completely certain of what the source of lameness is (obvious cut, abcess, etc) I call the vet if the horse isn't back to 100% in three days or less. Period. I don't mess around with mystery lamenesses, if I can't see what's wrong, I want someone who can to see it and give me guidance.

 Well she was 100% sound today - I am thrilled.  I have been asking around the farm as well to see how many people would call the vet.  I'd say it was about 75% to not call the vet with such mild symptoms.  The main consenus was to wait a few days and see if she continued to get better each day.  

I had her on the schedule for tomorrow to be seen, but cancelled it in light of her recovery.  I still find it an interesting conundrum though - do we call the vet for every symptom (as in a child's cold) or wait it out (and possibly have things get very bad)

your lucky you have a vet close enough to call for something possibly minor.  the closest vet to us is a couple hours away and i don't have a horse trailer.

i have had a couple nail biting incidents when i couldn't take horse to vet.  fortunately, things turned out okay.

on a 3rd occassion, it was a major emergency, and fortunately i had very kind neighbors that were available with their horse trailer mid week, when most everyone else was a work.

now, i would call the vet more often if they were closer.  but, it has saved me alot of money not being able to depend on them.

we were discussing this type of thing because my mom's dog came up lame the week before last and we were debating when to take him to the vet.  mom didn't take him and 5 days later he was fine.

so, it's hard to know when you should use that vet.  i guess that's what comes with experience.  being able to determine whether vet care is necessary right away or to wait and watch for a bit.

Gailforce:

so, it's hard to know when you should use that vet.  i guess that's what comes with experience.  being able to determine whether vet care is necessary right away or to wait and watch for a bit.

 

 

That's what we were saying at the barn as well Gailforce.  It amazes me that the horses can always come up with something new to baffle me 

With a minor strain, the vet is just going to recommend rest anyway.  We will usually try a couple of days on bute or B&L pellets and see if there is improvement.  Sometimes we combine that with stall rest.  I was allll ready to take my horse to the vet when he came up lame.  We put him on bute, wrapped and poulticed the leg, and kept him in for a week and he was fine.  I could have spent hundreds on Xrays and ultrasounds and a lameness exam only to have the vet tell me stall rest.  It also depends on how lame they are, my boy was pretty uncomfortable (which is why I nearly panicked).  If they don't show dramatic improvement within a week or two though with wrapping, meds, and rest, then we call the vet.