Doormouse
Well-Known Member
I have a freebie 11 year old tb who arrived with me in May, took his shoes off, gave him a holiday and got him back into work in late July.
Had the back person straight away, as expected, quite sore, issues with near hind not really having the flexibility you would like to see, sore under saddle, withers etc. Work started to help all this. 2 months gentle walking and lateral work leading up to schooling to correct the giraffe effect, starting to jump coloured poles and so forth. All going very much in the right direction until one day after a jumping lesson he looked the following day to be very slightly unlevel behind. Fine the day after. Vet looked and decided he had an unlevel pelvis, not something that could be corrected but could see no significant muscle wastage and felt his gait appeared unlevel as opposed to a true lameness problem. I also mentioned that he had started to hit his joints behind to which the vet replied that he could see he was moving close behind and that it was possibly a muscle weakness that could improve with work. At the same time he took bloods as I was not happy with the horse in himself and sure enough he was diagnosed with a low grade virus.
Fast forward 6 weeks and he is clearly starting to feel much better. Result of this was him loosing his temper in the field that someone came in before him, cue 10 minutes of galloping up and down fence and screeching to stop at each end. Very sweaty and hysterical by the time I got to him!
Turned him out the following morning and again, unlevel behind for 10 strides, improving rapidly with movement. Rightly or wrongly because I could find no signs of heat, filling or indeed actual lameness I gave him 2 bute that night. I then turned him out in the school the following morning and good god, what a difference! I had no idea he could move like that. This may sound very stupid but I hadn't really been aware that he wasn't using his hocks properly until I saw him using them properly yesterday morning.
I obviously need a proper lameness work up with the vet now but since everyone who has so far seen him (back and vet) have assumed his problems are in his back am I wrong in my gut instinct that says it is a hock problem. Would 2 bute honestly make such a difference to a back problem in 12 hours? I don't know really and was wondering what others experience / opinions might be.
Had the back person straight away, as expected, quite sore, issues with near hind not really having the flexibility you would like to see, sore under saddle, withers etc. Work started to help all this. 2 months gentle walking and lateral work leading up to schooling to correct the giraffe effect, starting to jump coloured poles and so forth. All going very much in the right direction until one day after a jumping lesson he looked the following day to be very slightly unlevel behind. Fine the day after. Vet looked and decided he had an unlevel pelvis, not something that could be corrected but could see no significant muscle wastage and felt his gait appeared unlevel as opposed to a true lameness problem. I also mentioned that he had started to hit his joints behind to which the vet replied that he could see he was moving close behind and that it was possibly a muscle weakness that could improve with work. At the same time he took bloods as I was not happy with the horse in himself and sure enough he was diagnosed with a low grade virus.
Fast forward 6 weeks and he is clearly starting to feel much better. Result of this was him loosing his temper in the field that someone came in before him, cue 10 minutes of galloping up and down fence and screeching to stop at each end. Very sweaty and hysterical by the time I got to him!
Turned him out the following morning and again, unlevel behind for 10 strides, improving rapidly with movement. Rightly or wrongly because I could find no signs of heat, filling or indeed actual lameness I gave him 2 bute that night. I then turned him out in the school the following morning and good god, what a difference! I had no idea he could move like that. This may sound very stupid but I hadn't really been aware that he wasn't using his hocks properly until I saw him using them properly yesterday morning.
I obviously need a proper lameness work up with the vet now but since everyone who has so far seen him (back and vet) have assumed his problems are in his back am I wrong in my gut instinct that says it is a hock problem. Would 2 bute honestly make such a difference to a back problem in 12 hours? I don't know really and was wondering what others experience / opinions might be.