injury

Question
my horse is a quarter stock paint he has been soar in his left back hind leg for about 2 months and he would be limping and pinning his ear back every time that i asked him to go faster he never pins his ears back and i just thought that he may of pulled something or it was from a big cut that he got a little above his hind hock and that i could work it out of him but then every time i would stop or he wouldn't be moving i noticed that he did not put any wight on that back leg.i had a vet look at it and she said that he need an x-ray and possible surgeries. I had another vet look at it and he said that it is tissue damage, its swollen,and  that the ligaments are torn. he said to only ride him 10-15 min. a day at ONLY a walk and not to put him in a stall cause he needs to build back his muscles. i was riding him and his injured leg gave out. and he al most fell over. the second vet said that it in his stifle and hock but it will start to deteriate his hip then i will have to put him down. i just want to now if it is as serious as these two oppions and what i should or if his leg needs immediate expert attention.

Answer
Jessica:

From what you've told  me, you do not have enough information to know what to expect or how to proceed. I dont see anywhere in your message any specific diagnosis that you have been given. A diagnosis for this needs to include the site of injury, the specific structure or structures that are injured and what the injury is. "tissue damage", ligaments are torn, and telling you that surgery is needed is not helpful to you. These do not tell you what tissue is damaged, what the extent of the damage is and what ligaments (if any are) are torn. Therefore, there is no way to give you a method of treating this nor is there any way to give a prognosis- you have to know the specifics in order to do this. maybe your vets do, but havent given you all this information. however, there is absolutely no way to get this information in this case without taking xrays AND doing ultrasound examination of the soft tissue structures- to identify the SPECIFIC structures injured and what is injured, how it is injured and how severe the injury is. If this is going on now for 2 months, you are going to encounter some problems possibly in treating this. The horse should not be ridden. If your vets have not or cannot perform the diagnostics necessary to give you the information you need, you should ask them to refer you to a lameness specialist. You dont want to wait any longer for this. It does sound serious but I cant tell you what to do or what to expect given the information you have. you need to get that information first to know what you can do and what kind of prognosis might be possible. It could also be expensive to treat, but you cant know any of this until a specific diagnosis is made. Good luck in this. Feel free to contact me again if I can help you any further.