maddiemerritt123
New User
Hello all
My 6 yo gelding had an accident in the field September of last year and he managed to catch his tail on something and in a struggle to get free he pulled and pulled at it until some of his hair tore off. He was obviously very sore all over his backend in the immediate aftermath of the accident. The advice from the vet at this point was to give him painkillers and leave him alone as any invasion to diagnose any issues would have been too painful for him. So a few weeks roles on and we notice that he is no longer using his tail and we decided to leave it a bit longer in hopes that he had pulled a muscle and that was the reason for not using his tail. Over time there became an obvious dip right at the top of his tail (around the dock) so we had a vet out and it was confirmed that the tail has broken at the top and advised for us to use acupuncture to try and stimulate the nerves in hopes he would regain the use of his tail (as he still could not lift it). We did the course of treatment with the acupuncture and there has definitely been a small improvement as he can lift it slightly higher. This is the kind of treatment that could continue to have affect and he may be able to lift it slightly higher again in the future (only time will tell)
other then the loss of function in his tail he was considered sound and in no pain, he cantered and buckes around the field happily, and therefore I have recently started bringing him into very light work and we’re just slowly working him up and seeing what happens as there is no way of knowing what he will be capable of in his ridden work now so we’re just seeing how it goes. My thinking in writing this post was to see if anyone had any similar experiences and a) what was the outcome or b) how did their horse adapt to the loss of function in their tail? I will be leaving home in the next year or so and therefore he will need a new home, he wouldn’t be a brilliant companion pony but also he’s only 6 and it would be a real shame if he became a companion pony so young, this is one of the reasons that I am bringing him back into work and seeing how far we get. Ultimately if worst came to worst of course he’d have a home here with us but I do want him to have to best possible chance to find a loving home in the future. Thank you for reading and please leave your thoughts
My 6 yo gelding had an accident in the field September of last year and he managed to catch his tail on something and in a struggle to get free he pulled and pulled at it until some of his hair tore off. He was obviously very sore all over his backend in the immediate aftermath of the accident. The advice from the vet at this point was to give him painkillers and leave him alone as any invasion to diagnose any issues would have been too painful for him. So a few weeks roles on and we notice that he is no longer using his tail and we decided to leave it a bit longer in hopes that he had pulled a muscle and that was the reason for not using his tail. Over time there became an obvious dip right at the top of his tail (around the dock) so we had a vet out and it was confirmed that the tail has broken at the top and advised for us to use acupuncture to try and stimulate the nerves in hopes he would regain the use of his tail (as he still could not lift it). We did the course of treatment with the acupuncture and there has definitely been a small improvement as he can lift it slightly higher. This is the kind of treatment that could continue to have affect and he may be able to lift it slightly higher again in the future (only time will tell)
other then the loss of function in his tail he was considered sound and in no pain, he cantered and buckes around the field happily, and therefore I have recently started bringing him into very light work and we’re just slowly working him up and seeing what happens as there is no way of knowing what he will be capable of in his ridden work now so we’re just seeing how it goes. My thinking in writing this post was to see if anyone had any similar experiences and a) what was the outcome or b) how did their horse adapt to the loss of function in their tail? I will be leaving home in the next year or so and therefore he will need a new home, he wouldn’t be a brilliant companion pony but also he’s only 6 and it would be a real shame if he became a companion pony so young, this is one of the reasons that I am bringing him back into work and seeing how far we get. Ultimately if worst came to worst of course he’d have a home here with us but I do want him to have to best possible chance to find a loving home in the future. Thank you for reading and please leave your thoughts
