swellhillcottage
Well-Known Member
Not sure where to start as this is a looooooooooooooong story - I bought a rising 4 year old Connie pony that was wrong behind for no obvious reason other than being recently gelded, he was at the right price and lovely so I wanted to give him a chance - I turned him away for 6 months and once brought back in his hind end was much improved but not 100% and all I did with him in the Spring and early Summer of 2015 was tootle around allowing him to grow and mature slowly.
Once the ground firmed up around May time the pony went short on the right rein in front and after playing around with shoes, pads and eventually x-rays and blocks he was diagnosed with Palma Heel pain in front. No sooner was he diagnosed with the "Navi Syndrome" the farrier came out severely cut his feet back then applied bar shoes and he went down with some sort of Laminitis - 1 week of complete box rest and then ridden slowly but gradually increase of work load in the school, living on soaked hay and no grass or hard grub and 4 weeks later at the vet follow up he looked amazing - almost 95 % sound on workup which included lunging circles on hard surface and this included his hind end - the vet saying it was barely noticeable and didn't know where to start looking- crack on! So we did and to be fair he started to go reasonably well - all of this from the stable with increasing amounts of limited turnout and grass.
Because he had always felt slightly pottery in shoes and was not great about being shod and to be fair did have generally great feet my plan was to take his shoes off when the time was right and see what happened, this was against the vets advice but after a lot of research and thought I had also come to the conclusion the Navi was a misdiagnosis and he was more likely suffering with low grad lami (the animal in question is a 14.2 glutenous chunky Connie gelding) - this happened sooner rather than later as a week after a new set of shoes he pulled a front off so I decided to pull the other 3 - BIG mistake - farrier pulled off his shoes and the poor fellow was so so sore - in hind sight I should have reapplied the lost one and waited
I hold my hands up - sadly the poor devil had 12.2 feet on a 14.2 body which he suffered with for a few months - he was living out by this point on what I think was very well managed grass track system and given small amounts of hay twice a day - he was intermittently wrong some days in front and some days behind - I booked him in for his 2nd workup and he was nerve blocked from stifles to fetlocks with nothing making a difference - the vet asked a passerby pro to sit on him and he went marginally better so vets advice was to send pony to pro for a while to sort it out!!!
I did not take the vets advice again and got on with it myself and worked him in a more forward manner which did help but something still was not right as I had got to the point of having had enough and not understanding how a little used 5yr old could be so wrong I booked a week in Ireland to go pony shopping!!
It had got so wet in the field and his grazing track was a mud bath I opened the field up completely to let him graze ad lib whilst I was away - less than 6 hours after I had let him graze adlib he was in such a sorry state - very obviously bloated, pawing the ground, covered in hives and looking twice the size he had looked that morning - this included his legs, face, torso - his eyes were so swollen and weeping I decided as a last resort I would remove him from grass totally - this was last November - he now lives in a open yard with an open stable with rubber matting and straw bedding and does very well on soaked hay 3/4 times a day - the turnaround is unbelievable, he is jolly, his eyes don't run, there isn't any oedema anywhere - where as before he had wind galls, puffy legs and even lumps on his spine despite many saddle fitters and saddles and again 95% sound! We have been out doing jumping clinics and competing in low level dressage comps its all been good until early this week when I stopped soaking hay as it was so cold the hay nets were freezing which I did not think was good for his tummy.
On Monday we went for what had recently become a normal a canter on some wet ground no issues everything was fine, I actually thought he is really starting to learn to hold himself in this ground, that evening his hind end joints had really filled and he was 5/10 lame again behind on that same old right hind that has been troublesome for nearly 2 years with no obvious reason apart from a bit of swelling like a windgall - well I finally admitted to myself it must be suspensory issues as what else could it be, his future didn't look promising and to make sure it looked obvious for the vet to see I worked him in the school yesterday and cantered him the same way today in the wet conditions and tonight do you know what his legs look fine - tight with no heat , the only difference is I have soaked his hay - it sounds absolutely crackers - as anyone ever had such an animal - he has tested negative for Cushing's, that and all his other blood tests are fine so my thoughts now are its definitely a sugar issue and I suspect Insulin resistance is a probability - I am sorry this is so long winded but it has been a massive saga and has cost me a fortune - sadly I hadn't insured him so its all out of my own pocket
As anyone else had any thing any where near similar to this?
S X
Coffee, Wine and chocolates if you managed to decipher some of that!! XX
Once the ground firmed up around May time the pony went short on the right rein in front and after playing around with shoes, pads and eventually x-rays and blocks he was diagnosed with Palma Heel pain in front. No sooner was he diagnosed with the "Navi Syndrome" the farrier came out severely cut his feet back then applied bar shoes and he went down with some sort of Laminitis - 1 week of complete box rest and then ridden slowly but gradually increase of work load in the school, living on soaked hay and no grass or hard grub and 4 weeks later at the vet follow up he looked amazing - almost 95 % sound on workup which included lunging circles on hard surface and this included his hind end - the vet saying it was barely noticeable and didn't know where to start looking- crack on! So we did and to be fair he started to go reasonably well - all of this from the stable with increasing amounts of limited turnout and grass.
Because he had always felt slightly pottery in shoes and was not great about being shod and to be fair did have generally great feet my plan was to take his shoes off when the time was right and see what happened, this was against the vets advice but after a lot of research and thought I had also come to the conclusion the Navi was a misdiagnosis and he was more likely suffering with low grad lami (the animal in question is a 14.2 glutenous chunky Connie gelding) - this happened sooner rather than later as a week after a new set of shoes he pulled a front off so I decided to pull the other 3 - BIG mistake - farrier pulled off his shoes and the poor fellow was so so sore - in hind sight I should have reapplied the lost one and waited
I hold my hands up - sadly the poor devil had 12.2 feet on a 14.2 body which he suffered with for a few months - he was living out by this point on what I think was very well managed grass track system and given small amounts of hay twice a day - he was intermittently wrong some days in front and some days behind - I booked him in for his 2nd workup and he was nerve blocked from stifles to fetlocks with nothing making a difference - the vet asked a passerby pro to sit on him and he went marginally better so vets advice was to send pony to pro for a while to sort it out!!! I did not take the vets advice again and got on with it myself and worked him in a more forward manner which did help but something still was not right as I had got to the point of having had enough and not understanding how a little used 5yr old could be so wrong I booked a week in Ireland to go pony shopping!!
It had got so wet in the field and his grazing track was a mud bath I opened the field up completely to let him graze ad lib whilst I was away - less than 6 hours after I had let him graze adlib he was in such a sorry state - very obviously bloated, pawing the ground, covered in hives and looking twice the size he had looked that morning - this included his legs, face, torso - his eyes were so swollen and weeping I decided as a last resort I would remove him from grass totally - this was last November - he now lives in a open yard with an open stable with rubber matting and straw bedding and does very well on soaked hay 3/4 times a day - the turnaround is unbelievable, he is jolly, his eyes don't run, there isn't any oedema anywhere - where as before he had wind galls, puffy legs and even lumps on his spine despite many saddle fitters and saddles and again 95% sound! We have been out doing jumping clinics and competing in low level dressage comps its all been good until early this week when I stopped soaking hay as it was so cold the hay nets were freezing which I did not think was good for his tummy.
On Monday we went for what had recently become a normal a canter on some wet ground no issues everything was fine, I actually thought he is really starting to learn to hold himself in this ground, that evening his hind end joints had really filled and he was 5/10 lame again behind on that same old right hind that has been troublesome for nearly 2 years with no obvious reason apart from a bit of swelling like a windgall - well I finally admitted to myself it must be suspensory issues as what else could it be, his future didn't look promising and to make sure it looked obvious for the vet to see I worked him in the school yesterday and cantered him the same way today in the wet conditions and tonight do you know what his legs look fine - tight with no heat , the only difference is I have soaked his hay - it sounds absolutely crackers - as anyone ever had such an animal - he has tested negative for Cushing's, that and all his other blood tests are fine so my thoughts now are its definitely a sugar issue and I suspect Insulin resistance is a probability - I am sorry this is so long winded but it has been a massive saga and has cost me a fortune - sadly I hadn't insured him so its all out of my own pocket
As anyone else had any thing any where near similar to this?
S X
Coffee, Wine and chocolates if you managed to decipher some of that!! XX
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