Any ideas anyone please !

J

jgmbng

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Brief history

16yr (just) Dales owned for 2 yrs

Resting back legs quite a lot when brought in from field
Didnt feel quite right and found to be dropping right pelvis in trot.

Fine in walk 2/10 lame in trot straight line...4/10 in small circle on lunge :(
Suspected hock problems.
In to vets for joint blocks into hocks, followed by steroid injections and 4 weeks of cartrophen intramuscular.

Vet out to check again on 3rd Cartrophen and he showed improvement, with another appointment booked for 2 weeks after last cartrophen.

Used to hack or school approx 4 times a week plus 1 hour lesson.
Now down to a plod around school x 1 plus a couple of short hacks and maybe a walk inhand.

My poor pony now seems to be permanently resting a back leg (either one) and has on occasions started to refuse to pick up a his back legs for picking out (he has never done this before !)
Farrier was here on Wednesday and when he was doing his front feet he had the opposite back leg resting all the time so he was balancing on 2 legs. (never done this before !)
Spoke to vet (again) last night and told him all this and asked if maybe he could have some pain elsewhere secondary to the hocks, not ruling out but dosnt think so.
I asked if it was worth having someone to look at his back so he agreed and I am in the process of sorting this out.

In the meantime can anybody help with any ideas.

Thanks in advance
 
Often when compensating for hock problems they become sore in their backs,this is often found before the hocks are diagnosed/treated.
I would think a physio would be the best route with your pony,
 
Our pony used to drop her pelvis on one side. This lead to other knock-on problems like shoulder over developed on one side when viewed from the back, resting hind leg a lot, found it hard to maintain an "outline" and eventually, in desperation poor thing, she would stand up when asked to school. The vet concentrated on the uneven gait, dismissed the uneven shoulders and said her poll was "out". He also suggested that if the rearing continued we should either sell her or have her re-broken!

A friend recommended a very good McTimony practitioner who suspected she had either slipped in the field or got cast in her stable or something like that and the muscles around her pelvis had gone into spasm pulling the quarters down on one side. He treated her once a month for three months. Not only did she level up over her quarters, her shoulders also levelled up (they had been compensating for the unlevelness behind), she stopped rearing and started to soften over her back and take up a contact.

Sometimes you just need more specialised help.
 
My cob developed spavin in one hock at 12 hrs, joint fused with injections, has been great since (now21), has continued to do most everything- but vet advice at the time was to cut down on or cut out completely circles in the school (or maybe no school at all) as obviously this would create further strain on hocks. Did this (can continue schooling as nec out hacking)and have had a great time since ( inc jumping, shows ). My current vet allows for age/spavin etc when he has his checkups so we don't expect trotting tight circles on hard surfaces to be great. Not sure if this is any help!
 
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