advice re horse that is not coping with box rest /controlled exercise

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speedycivic

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A bit of advice re horse that is not coping with box rest and controlled exercise
My horse is on strict box rest following a suspensory ligament injury and is now on a plan of ten minute walking in hand, increasing by 10 minutes a fortnight till we reach 40 minutes walking twice a day. She seems to be able to manage walking round and round a small space in hand in the yard. But there is not much space there and as soon as you get her out of the gate, she loses the plot. She quivers like a whippet and rears, spins and is generally considered by the yard as unsafe and dangerous. The problem is that she is just away with the fairies when this happens. She has no regard for you or any focus on anything else other than getting free and letting rip. We are only in week two of this exercise regime. We have tried sedation, but this does not work as she must get herself in such a state that she throws off the sedation, till she is back in the stable. She is being led in a bridle.
I am at a loss as to what to do. Is she going to lose her marbles completely over this? What can I do to safely handle her? I am at the point of just wondering about turning her away and hoping for the best.
Any other ideas or suggestions? I don’t want her hurting someone.
 
I have had a similar problem with a horse this summer, we (it took two lead him) lead him in a chifney and then took to hacking out rather than leading, however even sedated he twice took off. Vet agreed to small turn out after he pulled back shoes off in stable (dread to think what he was doing). He stayed in turnout for 2 days then jumped over the 6ft fencing (set up because we know he is a field hopper) at this point we removed his shoes and just turned him away as it was felt by all concerned including the vet that this was the safest option. He has not come to any harm and our plan is have a scan in the next few weeks to make sure, then start to bring him back to work from the field, then to his normal winter routine of being out in the day and in at night. Hope this helps - On reflection it would have been safer and saved alot of heartache to have turned him away sooner
 
My mare was on months of box rest a couple of years ago and fortunately she coped well with it. We had controlled exercise and in hand work to do for a while, she had a tear to her DDFT. She had a couple of excitable moments but on the whole she coped well.

Your horse isnt coping so well and could end up doing more harm than good by the sounds of it. Could you have a word with your vet about turning out, maybe sedated to begin with, and just leaving out? It may be your safest option as if she is becoming very agitated this could bring on other problems from stress like colic, laminitis.
 
An event horse owned by a woman i work for came back after amaging the suprasinous as well as doing lots of other damage to the same leg. She has always been a nightmare when stabled for any length of time, nearly killing the girl that had her to event after 2 days box rest after a previous injury, and was never going to cope with box rest and controlled exercise. The vet suggested from the start that she have a small turn out pen, it was originally built as a lunging ring, and then after 8 weeks of being in this pen she was just turned out. She was a lot calmer than she would have been on box rest. The vet said she was going to end up doing more damage to herself if we tried to box rest her and keep her on a controlled exercise programme.
 
I found "time out" grazing in hand whilst her stable was mucked out kept my mare sane when she was on box rest. From that we built up to her grazing "normally" without being on the end of a rope in her field whilst her stable was being done. She seemed to work out that it was conditional on her behaving herself and we never had any trouble. She always allowed herself to be caught and was happy to go back in her stable...

I think if we had not done this, she would have completely lost the plot.
 
Well, I turned mine out after a week. He was 17.3 and although our stables are big and he was happy in, it just wasn't good for the rest of him. So turned him out. My vet a great believer in them being out. Any way 6 months later he was hunting and he has never had a problem since.
 
PLEASE be careful! I am so anti walking in hand after boxrest, I struggle to put it into words. Those were the circumstances of how I was double barreled in the face in December 2008 (by the sweetest horse I've ever known!). I'm having yet another surgery tomorrow and live in constant pain, it just isn't worth it! Dope her up and turn her out in a small paddock, next to quiet other horses.
 
More surgery Puppy? Christ.... Good luck with that, I had no idea it was still ongoing!
OP, I would ask the vet about sedated turnout in a very small area. And hat and body protecter whilst leading her!
 
Mine was like this. Dopey old gelding, I thought I would be fine as he had been grazed in hand most of the time for his 2 months box rest - but when wanting to do more he became a total crazed lunatic. To cut a long story short, and after several tubes of Sedalin he went to a livery yard and after a nasty experience (they thought he was dopey too!) YO called the vet for assistance and she prescribed Bromide. Although he nearly got colic ("Oh yes, it does that sometimes" vet). Seems to slow the digestion too.

Luckily the YO was fantastic and noticed he hadn't finished his hay in the evening, so had to walk him around the yard in the middle of the night to get him to eat something! So after getting the dose right he stayed on that and it just took the edge off him so he didn't do (else) anything stupid. When returning to work and back into usual routine he revered to being dopey old gelding again.
 
Puppy I hope your op tomorrow goes well and you are in less pain.

speedycivic my horse has had a few problems that have required prolonged box rest two times in the last few years. Fortunately for him he's been on a yard that has a given him access to tiny turn out area, just beside the entrance to the yard. Its a triangular shape about the size of three stables. He was able to be put in there every day for a few hours and it def. kept him sane.

He had some haylege put down but the main thing was he saw the comings and goings of horses and people and had some variation in his daily activity. This was done with the consent of the vet hospital in each case.

So if you have access to or can make a tiny turnout area I think that would help your horse a huge amount.
 
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My horse is in this exact same situation right now - we are on day 5 of walking out! I give 2ml sedalin (vet said I could double that if needed) then let her eat breakfast / tea and take her out about 40 min after the sedalin. What I have found the best thing for calming her down is grazing in hand for about 10 minutes before starting to walk. On the first day it was a bit lively but now you can see her physically relaxing as soon as she gets her head down. I then do half our walk distance down the drive, let her graze the verge for another 5 min, then walk back again.

My body language affects her alot and I found that if I was worrying about her reactions etc I wasn't breathing so I make myself give a big sigh and you can almost see her deflate beside me lol :rolleyes:

Also I use a thin rope halter (NH type :p ) with an extra long rope / lunge line attached which I find gives much better control than a bridle especially if she goes up or backwards plus it is much nicer for her to be grazing without a bit in her gob!

As she is a very sharp tb nutjob I was concerned the above wouldn't cut it so I lined up some zylkene which is supposed to reduce stress etc but never had to use it yet so I can't say if it works or not! Oh, and she also likes a nice massage with a little lavender massage oil - do I spoil her? never!!
 
Just want to thank you all for your feedback! I am sorry for the late reply. Also hoping that Pops Operation goes well. A very stark warning.
Shortly after I posted this, she seemed to have calmed down a bit. But we have sent her off to bootcamp now, because she needs to be walked where it is quiet and not lots of people and other horses milling around. I am going to see how it goes, if she is no better then will turn her away. Absolutely don't want anyone getting hurt.
Thank you again every one!!!!
 
Wendals Herbs Valerian Calmer is amazing. My sharp and very unsuited to boxrest mare was like a lamb...we did give it at a high dose but it was cheap and did the job. I still needed bridle to start walking her in but was relatively ok compared to how she could have been.
 
One of mine changed character on box rest after a while and in his case, under vet supervision (and insurance claim) he ended up being sent off to TB convalescent yard where he had to swim each day. Did work for him as he went from being really laid back to very dangerous. The swimming wore him out.

However, there has been some discussion on here how teaching a horse to swim can have an adverse effect on horses jumping into water ..
 
Latest news is that we have had to resort to turn out small area. She was just going crazy in her box at the new yard. So put her in a small paddock and she has calmed right down. We thought, she was likely to do herself an injury in her stable like that. We tried lots of calmers and sedation and really nothing much worked. She can throw it all off pretty quick when she is getting stressed.
 
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