Angel

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Leeana

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Okay i was on the phone with Marty this morning and was down in the barn brushing Lexus. Well i got off the phone and realized that Angel wasnt out playing and running with Coco, Rocky and Joey like normal. Well she was back in the little run in and i put out my hand and had a horsie cookie in it ...she walked out. When she got out i realized ..her back left leg was locked! I didnt want to lead her so i tried to keep her from moving and yelled for dad who was in the garage. He came back and i told him that from all i heard ...i think her stiffle locked up. I have NEVER had any experince with this. We got her into the barn and her stall and then i had my phone with me and we called the vet. Well he said there was nothing he could do, that this was common with ponies and mini's. He said he could go in and Cutt that tendon or ligament (im not sure which) and that would releive it. But he said he would rather wait untill after she had her foal. I never understood much about the stiffle because i never had this problem. She's in her stall away from all the other horses and he said that it could stay from 10 minutes to days ...and could come back in about 3-6 months. He said if i wanted to do the sergery now ...he couldnt get it done today but could sometime this week. But he really would like to wait untill after she foals (which i think were going to do ..just to be safe).

But he didnt tell me much about what causes it, what can i do to make her more comfy ...or what to do now untill its over. Should i walk her, will that help or just let her be and keep a watch over her. I am scared to death right now. Is she in pain??

The leg cannot bend ..she kind of swings it out to the side and then steps on it. She wont let me touch it though.

Is there anything i can do??? Since we cannot get the sergury untill after.

Is a stiffle VERY serious ...will she pass it on to her foal??

I am so worried.

Leeana
 
leanna locked stifle or upward fixation of the patella is a conformation fault usually caussed by overly straight stifles. Best thing to do when she locks up is back her up until it pops back. Also walking up and down hill will help. Most vets say not to stall horses that suffer from this as it will make it worse.

surgery is usually only recommended for horses 5 yrs and older and ones that lock up constantly

imo you see it so much in minis becuase it is a genetic fault. so if you breed a horse with locking stifles chances are the foal will have locking stifles
 
Angel is 7 years old (8 in june).

He didnt tell me to stall her, i just didnt want to do anything since he didnt tell me what to do.

When i was leading her, i stopped to open the barn door and after she stopped and took another step ...it popped and she took 1 or 2 steps fine ...then it went stiff agian.

I am going to go check on, i really dont want to leave her alone and Im going to try to walk her backwards!

Leeana
 
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[SIZE=14pt]awww...poor girl I hope it doesnt happen to much!!Good luck!
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I went today around 1:45 and it was pretty much gone. She was still favering the leg just a bit ..but she could bend it. Its still popping just a bit when she walks on it or makes a sharp turn. I walked her around for about 15 minutes and walked her backwards some ...it seemed to help.

I think she will be okay in the morning ....i was just scared to death because i always heard about them but never expected to look at my mare and see that she has one. It was just really scary for me
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.

Has anyone had the surgery done on there mini? Does it keep this from happening agian or does it just stop it from happening for a while? If its something that will really help her and make her life better and keep this from happening .....i will get it done.

But she does seem to be back to normal ...untill next time and i will then know what to do at least!
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. God that was scary!

Leeana
 
the surgery is very effective and will stop the popping. when i talked to the university about it the only bad thing was in minis it seemed to cause arthritis later in age. They dont know why as it doesnt do this in big horses where they cut the tendon. the surgery is a pretty simple one and most vets can do it right at your farm.

sometimes youll see it go away for months and then come right back. i would not do it until after she foals. too much stress.
 
Stifle issues can also come from an injury. We have had more than our fair share of stifle issues here most are comformation faults however, I have a quarter horse mare that injured both of her stifles while jumping. Her pasture is on hills. That's been the best for her. It has strengthened them. The injury was about 8 years ago. She has not had any issues with it since she has been on the hills.
 
I was reading and it said that exersizing helps to strenghten the joint and could help prevent it.

She is a bit overweight, she's been like that since we've had her and im pretty sure she was never lunged or anything like that.

Do you think that if we started with nice long walks and builded it up to a little lunging that it would help hold off the locking up untill after she foals? Or would that not help at all and just make things worse?

Leeana
 
I have a little one with this problem, on and off, usually during growth spurts. It is scary to see and I posted on here when it first happened because it scared me to death. The vet looked at him, agreed it was probably due to growth spurts, didn't say anything about his conformation. When it locks, I can lift his back leg up, stretch it out, then bend it, and it unlocks. Once it's unlocked, I walk him around a bit, it pops a bit, then seems to stay "fixed". From reading on here, there are several exercise things that will strengthen it. Walking up and down hills, trotting in straight lines, and walking over poles. It seems to help my guy, I haven't had an incident in a while! According to the vet, he didn't think it was due to an injury in this case, it doesn't cause pain, but it can scare them quite a bit! I wouldn't keep her up, let her move around, exercise can only help.

Good luck!
 
You might want to try talking to your vet more in detail about this but do a search on the forum for stifle problems and things to ask him about. It is hard to know what to talk about when it is the first time dealing with something new.

We've been dealing with a stifle problem on one side for one of our horses and it seems to have happened due to an injury. We went to a vet experienced in both minis and stifle issues. The first course of action is actually exercise to strengthen the area - those that mentioned not stalling your horse are correct. She needs to move around and get exercise otherwise she will just get stiffer and also the muscles in that area will start to lose tone. The next step had what we had done is a series of injections that seemed to have really helped him - the vet injects the tendon and (hopefully) it tightens up and returns to normal and the stifle problem goes away. The surgery really should be the last resort, especially for us, because our horse that has the injury is one of our best jumpers and if the surgery is done, his jumping days are over.

Our horse had two rounds of injections and so far I have not seen his leg catch or any sort of hitch in his step since he came home from the vet. The exercise plan the vet gave us for him was lots of hill work (which others have also mentioned) and if possible round pen work in deep footing so that he is working harder and lifting his feet up. I've been looking for a used treadmill so that I can work him consistently this winter even when we have a lot of snow and ice outside. Fortunately this horse is naturally active and is doing a lot of the exercising on his own. He and his buddies are in a large hilly pasture right now and is always up and down hills on his own. I love having him back home because he gets the other boys moving around and playing and staying in shape. It has been warm enough too, that I have not stalled them at night either. So far everyone is staying a lot more fit than last winter when I was keeping them in stalls every night and on days of bad weather.
 
We had a yearling who had upward fixation of the platella - Cody would drag his hind leg after being stalled or in a small space. Our vet seemed to think it was a growth thing, as he was young, and that exercise was the best thing for it at that point. Sure did scare me the first few times, but Cody was a lot better when we stopped stalling him at night and put him in a bigger paddock.

Good luck with your mare!
 
I had this surgery done on one of my first mini's we had....It was very simple....And he never had the problem again.

His locked and then would pop really loud...It was AWFUL.....I was so surprised that after the small surgery that he was walking fine.
 
I have had this done on a mare with the worst stifle locking I have ever personally seen- like we would have to roll her over to allow her to get up. Although one side was worse than the other the Vet considered both sides would need doing. In the end they decided to do them separately and she was done, standing up, under local. Long story short she never needed the other side done and is as sound as a bell- cart trained and everything.

Obviously you do not breed from a mare with this problem.

She was gifted to a petting Zoo with as no breeding contract.
 
I kept her in the walkway in the barn last night, because i figured it would help since she would have more room to walk. Well i went out this morning and to feed her and it locked up agian BOTH BACK LEGS!. I took her outside to walk her and i walked her up and down this hill that we have out there and tried to walk her backwards, but they were both just to locked up to go back. She took one step back and started going off to the side every time i tried it. Then i was walking her back to the barn and almost tripped and fell but cought herself and that seemed to help her back right leg ....but the left one is still locked up. She's still in the center of the barn eating. I tried to get it to uplock but i couldnt, this was the leg that locked up yesterday for a while.

I hope this wont happen everday ..she will deff. be getting that surgery after she foals on both hind legs.

She is not going to get sold because she has a stifle, couldnt do that to her ...after she gets the surgery i think she will be fine but if she isnt then it looks like i will have allot of walks with her.

But this will be her last foal after its born.

Leeana

EDITED: i called her a him ..had to fix it
 
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leanna im so sorry this is happening to you. only bad thing is she may get worse as her weight increases thru her pregnacy. Its a wise decision not to breed this mare anymore after she foals. my veternarian gave me a test you can do on a horse to make locking stifles show up. Always a good thing to do on a horse you are thinking of buying for breeding. Ill show it to you when you come out. this is also why its important when buying breeding stock to know the farm you are buying from and see the sire and dam. I was lucky that the mare i bought was taken back by the farm i bought her from. they had no idea she had locking stifles so they refunded my money
 
I have the people's farm name and phone number ...

But i think that this is the reason that they sold her ...
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Leeana
 
i feel sure it is the reason they sold her and this is why i tell newer people not to buy at auction. all horses at auction sell "as is" with no guarantees.
 
I am sorry about Angel, but this is why I would never buy a breeding mare or stallion from an auction. You never know.
 
So sorry this unexpected supprise happened to you Leeana. It never hurts to ask them for any options if you are dissapointed with her. Although I would be a little leary dealing with them from this point on...... Perhaps it is best to learn from this insted.. Kay Kay is there anyway you can describe the test for stifle lock you were referring to, for the forum members to learn from as well. Does it have anything to do with picking up the hind legs?
 

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