Leo

Leo was surrendered because he wasn’t staying sound on the track. It was put down to a shoulder injury and nerve damage which would get better with rest – so we spelled him. Sadly bringing him back into work, his soundness hadn’t changed so we sent him to the UQ Equine hospital for a scan. Leo was scanned and some abnormalities were found which were xrayed. Leo has mild arthritic changes in his shoulder which causes him discomfort. Sadly he has two stifle cysts. These are a major problem and I have had to euthanize horses in the past for having large painful stifle cysts causing lameness and pain. However, the wonderful specialist has informed me that there is a new treatment for stifle cysts which have been amazingly successful. The UQ Equine hospital has only performed one of them in the past but they couldn’t speak highly enough of the procedure. What they do is conduct surgery on the cyst but instead of removing it, which isn’t always successful they just put a pin through the actual cyst itself. The recovery period is long but the outcome is normally extremely successful. The surgery, is however, very expensive! The mild shoulder arthritic changes aren’t uncommon for OTT TB’s and we can manage that with steroid injections and 4cyte. Leo was sent back to UQ for a check up but the result was heartbreaking. The injections in his shoulder had worn off, he was also lame in his other foreleg which showed a hotspot on the bone scan and another cyst had developed in his off hind. The vet has said he will never be paddock sound and euthanasia is the best option.