DSLD or nothing to worry about?

dressagelove

dressagelove

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I don't know whether I am being neurotic or whether this really does need further attention...
My horse is 9yo irish TB. I just do dressage with him, and hacking, lunging etc.

I am worried because he has very long sloping pasterns in his hind legs, and when he moves in trot and canter his fetlocks come right down and almost, not quite, touch the floor.

He rests his hind legs A LOT. Even if I stop to do up my girth while riding, he rests a leg.
I have asked around and no one really has an answer for me, I'm not sure if I am just looking for problems...

The fact is, at the moment, he is still completely sound, and I have pictures of him of the last couple of years with his leg doing the same thing: coming right down to the ground, so its not suddenly come on.

Could it be DSLD? I have joined the Yahoo group on it, but they have not cleared my post yet.... Or could it just be conformational and normal to him.
I don't really see the point in throwing money at trying to find out what it might be while he is still sound... My physio just recommends that I just crack on with him and enjoy him while he is sound, but I can't but feel that is burying my head in the sand, and if I could alter his management now and save his soundness for a few more years then I should do that.
 
I think I would call the vet and ask his opinion.
I have 5 yr old that has been recovering from tear and friends horse had same problems as yours,both horses also had problems in front coffins compensating.My friends horse needed op to shorten ligament as it had overstretched sounds like this is very common in sj s .Hes back to work doing slow rehab and much happier. Both horses had prp fascioctomy and nueroctomy I have found site which helps with lots of questions you might need answered.PM if you want anymore info.
 
Hi DL. As you can gather from lack of responses, not many people know about this disease, especially using the name DSLD.
Ask the same question about PSD and you might get more response, the symptoms and signs sound very similar.
Have you seen your post on Yahoo yet, it should be on there by now? Try again if not.
Good luck
 
If you worry you could scan? It would cost £200 ish? Might seem like a lot but the way I see it my sanity is worth more...

My mare is being scanned Tuesday, not because of that just because her fetlock keeps swelling. I'm hoping for something easy to fix. The flip side is you keep going until you hit lameness? It seems quite a new thing here so maybe speak to a couple of vets first? They may be able to advise?
 
P.s if you google a horse galloping / jumping you will see the fetlock almost touches the floor :) it could just be normal... Obviously I'm not a vet nor do I know your horse but I do know what it's like to be a worried horse owner...
 
robthecob said:
P.s if you google a horse galloping / jumping you will see the fetlock almost touches the floor :) it could just be normal... Obviously I'm not a vet nor do I know your horse but I do know what it's like to be a worried horse owner...
Click to expand...

Agreed, but it shouldn't hit the floor though at trot, that's not normal. I've seen other pics and the fetlocks are very "springy" which will put more strain on the suspensory apperatus.
 
So is DSLD and PSD more or else the same thing? Mine has PSD in all 4 and hind pedal bones have dropped but fetlocks haven't dropped but have seen older horses whose fetlocks have dropped and it's obvious when they move.

The more you seem to learn the more there's seems to be to learn and all more to worry about!
 
pinklilly said:
The more you seem to learn the more there's seems to be to learn and all more to worry about!
Click to expand...

Agree with you here! :(

Thanks everyone. I have another horse that is 'broken' as well and just spent £172 on him trying to diagnose and getting nowhere. It is disherterning and makes me want to pack it all in.

Thanks muff, post still isn't there, so I guess I will try again :(
I was even scrolling through google images of horses trotting and cantering last night in a bid to see if I could pass him off as being normal. I hate all the vets in my area and do not relish getting them involved. they are all time and money wasters.
 
You sound as disolusioned as me with vets.
I ended up just doing my own research and that's when I found the Yahoo group and it all seemed to fall into place.
Pinklilly, I am not sure if they are the same affliction, I have googled it so many times, there seem to be new articles that I haven't seen before.
I googled PSD the other night and came across an article written by a farrier. He touch upon a thought that had cross my mind from time to time, and he said it seems to be a condition that affects horses that work mostly on soft surfaces.
I keep meaning to write a post on the D/E group to ask if they had done a poll on what sort of bedding the diagnosed horses had been kept on. I know that there are many that have been affected from birth and it has been found in a gene. So they know it is genetically passed on down bloodlines.
My horse has had some of the main signs since I got him nineteen years ago but it didn't really begin to affect him until I moved him to a yard with very lush knee deep grazing. He was about eighteen years old by then.
This is why I advised you to carry on doing what you want to do with yours but to keep his diet as low in sugar as possible. The group advise a low sugar diet anyway and mine was on as low as possible due to other effects it had on him, but I never thought about the grazing at that time because I was unaware of D/E at the time.
 
pinklilly said:
So is DSLD and PSD more or else the same thing?
Click to expand...

Surely PSD is injury to the top of the suspensory ligament below the hock or knee, and DSLD is a disease which causes the entire ligament to stretch until it eventually fails to hold up the leg and also affects all the other connective tissue in the body?
 
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Well one of the early signs of D/E is injuries to the suspensory ligaments that take longer than normal to heal and then usually repeat injuries that happen sometimes for no apparent reason, i.e. not during strenuous exercise or during competition.
D/E affects ligaments and connective tissue all over the body but not all affected horses show signs throughout the body, if you see what I mean. Different horses show the signs in different areas of the body. It is quite likely that my horse is affected in the lower part of his legs, particularly in his feet - the laminae is connective tissue.
Also, not all D/E diagnosed horses have dropped fetlocks.
I never had my horse investigated because my vet was not supportive of my thoughts and any signs on ultra sounds he would have done would not have been recognised as you need to know what to look for and he wasn't interested in learning about it. :mad:
 
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/curlygait/dsldorg.html

this site gives some information there are also some pictures. Muscle problems also arise as the horse carries himself badly.

As someone who has had horses with inherited DSLD there is little you can to except make the horse comfortable. In the meantime I suggest you get on, ride him and enjoy him. I think that most advice is along the lines of keep them unshod, boot if necessary, and keep the sugars down.
It helps to get the horse seen on a regular basis by a body worker to ease muscle pain etc.
 
On my horses vet notes it stated he has "suspensory disease" and it may possibly be degenerative as it is in all 4 legs.

So to sum up PSD could be a possible symptom of DSLD rather than it being the same thing?

Mine has responded to remedial shoeing, though we have had a couple of set backs.
 
Thanks for all your replies everyone. A new vet is booked for tomorrow, so I will report back and let you know the outcome, come what may...

Muff, yes I am completely disillusioned with vets, tried 3 in the last year and they have all been hopeless. We actually had our elderly cob put down because one veterinary practice failed to find the he has chronic laminitis and cushings. I honestly sometimes despair for the future of equine vets, I don't understand why many are so narrow minded. Surely the welfare of the horse is more important...
 
My 6 year old tb is the same. He has long pasterns behind, and often rests a hind leg (sometimes crosses it over the other hind one, very weird!) I've never seen his fetlocks touch the ground though as I have never seen him ridden.

As long as he is happy in his work and happy to be forward, I'm not going to throw money at it. My farrier seems to think it's not a problem.

The more I look at stuff on the internet though, the more I worry. But there's no sense worrying if there is not a problem is there!

I could have sworn I had scabies three weeks ago after looking all over the internet, turns out it was just urticaria from coral scratches after two weeks' surfing. Bloody Google!
 
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