I have a 4yr old british shetland pony. She is out of miniature parents who are 33" and 33.5" and she is currently standing in excess of 36/37" so she has way overshot both her parents and pretty much all her siblings!
She came back to me April 2010 and i had noticed her locking stifles (upward fixation of the patella)... she looked the typical lanky youngster and wasn't that bad so i didn't worry about it too much. Over winter she struggled, lost weight and condition, got very cold and her stifles got so bad she could barely walk! Obviously vets were involved who beginning of the year gave her a steriod injection to help her gain condition and weight and she slowly started to come back up but her stifles weren't improving, i was lunging her daily which made it worse, so changed to some lighter lunging and in hand work but wasn't getting any results and vets talking about an operation to fix the problem.
Now beginning of spring i spoke to my vet and we agreed to give her the summer, feed her up, do some work with her and allow her more time to mature as she is very tall!!
Here is the confusing part.. she also has sweet-itch so i stabled her over night as she was going nuts in the field, expecting a big problem with her legs but.. its the other way round.. stabled at night she is at leasy 85% improved... so i've decided instead to do the oppisite to what you'd normally do with locking stifles.. stabling at night no extra exercise other than the odd walk round the block in hand... few weeks ago i tried leaving her out over night... nope that won't work as she instantly the next morning was worse so back in the stable at night.
She does still lock up but its occassionally and its not severe.. its managable and i'd leave her a little while longer to see if she does eventually grow out of it.. as even though she is 4 she is still growing!!
Has anyone come across this before? My vets are baffled... i'm baffled....
She came back to me April 2010 and i had noticed her locking stifles (upward fixation of the patella)... she looked the typical lanky youngster and wasn't that bad so i didn't worry about it too much. Over winter she struggled, lost weight and condition, got very cold and her stifles got so bad she could barely walk! Obviously vets were involved who beginning of the year gave her a steriod injection to help her gain condition and weight and she slowly started to come back up but her stifles weren't improving, i was lunging her daily which made it worse, so changed to some lighter lunging and in hand work but wasn't getting any results and vets talking about an operation to fix the problem.
Now beginning of spring i spoke to my vet and we agreed to give her the summer, feed her up, do some work with her and allow her more time to mature as she is very tall!!
Here is the confusing part.. she also has sweet-itch so i stabled her over night as she was going nuts in the field, expecting a big problem with her legs but.. its the other way round.. stabled at night she is at leasy 85% improved... so i've decided instead to do the oppisite to what you'd normally do with locking stifles.. stabling at night no extra exercise other than the odd walk round the block in hand... few weeks ago i tried leaving her out over night... nope that won't work as she instantly the next morning was worse so back in the stable at night.
She does still lock up but its occassionally and its not severe.. its managable and i'd leave her a little while longer to see if she does eventually grow out of it.. as even though she is 4 she is still growing!!
Has anyone come across this before? My vets are baffled... i'm baffled....