freckles22uk
Well-Known Member
Harley is my 8 weeks old foal, at 6 days old we (me and the vet) thought he had 'joint i'll' as he had a very swollen knee. We had to take him straight to the Horse Hospital Vets, near Alicante, (who are fantastic)
I turns out he had pulled a ligament/tendon down the front of the knee causing the swelling, plus he had 'Angular limb deformity' where the long legs bones, where they meet at the knee (or fetlock) grow faster on one side than the other, causing the legs to splay out, untreated, it can get worse, resulting in lameness, which in turn can result in the animal being PTS. Harley had it in one fetlock, and both kness,
So him and mum (Freckles, my favourite horse) had to stay there 10 days.
Harley had 'Shockwave treatment' which slows the bone growth on the bad side, allowing the otherside to catch up in length, so the legs straighten, after coming home with them on strict box rest we had to take them back every 10'ish days for more treatment. We did make a 'stable sized' outside area for the day time (to keep Freckles sane!!!!)
plus the box rest would give his tendon/ligament time to repair.
His fetlock needed one treatment, one knee 4 treatment and the other loads of treatments
Well we took Harley back to the hospital on Wednesday 'Monolar' the head vet (and we have been told the 'best' in Spain) was outside when we got there, and straight away you could tell he was pleased with Harleys legs, it was ''Muy Bien! Muy Bien!''(very good, very good)
They xrayed him first, though he had to be sedated as he would not stand still enough for the second leg to be xrayed.
The xrays showed a HUGE improvment,
they then gave him one last Shockwave treatment on it, (which they did not charge us for, only charged for the xray)
We just had to wait for him to come round before we bought him and Freckles home,
we dont have to go back either, I asked when he could go out again (its been 7 weeks box rest!!!) and they said he could go straight home and have a run round,
so we got home and put them in the schooling paddock, he had a good old run round bucking and f*rting! and Freckles had a mega roll, she seems very pleased to be out and strech her legs, she has been a STAR throughout all this, shes loaded perfect in the trailer, stood as good as gold at the vets. Even Harley now loads straight in the trailer.
Yesterday at lunch time we put alflalfa in the big field, then went and put Freckles and Harley in with the others, Freckles trotted off to the first pile of Alfalfa, poor Harley did not know what to do!!! Moonshine could not keep his eyes off him and soon came to say hello, so they had a bit of a play, they have now all settled well together, and it looks great one big field full of spotties!!!
