Locking patella?

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rforsyth1984

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The horse stabled opposite mine has problems with a locking patella (UFP?). The vets think its due to muscle wastage caused by premature arthritis in the hocks.

Poor mare is only 6, and her owners are very distressed. They are dealing well with the arthritis, the mare is turned out and ridden every day, but find the patella locking, which was initially only in one leg, but yesterday happened quite severely in the other leg, quite distressing.

The vet has advised the usual - exercise to build up the muscles and to walk it out when it locks, but recently it has worsened, with the mare locking up every morning this week.

I dont know much about this condition at all. I know surgery is an option, but the vets are reluctant to do this (though they are coming out tomorrow, so maybe will change their minds with it getting apparently worse?).

Anyone have any experience of this? The mare is clearly not in pain but it's very distressing for the owners to see her like this, I wondered if anyone had any sucess without going down the surgery route? Or is surgery really the best way forward?
 
i cant tell you much but my shetland pony gets a locked patella when she is stabled over night in winter. she never gets it during the summer. is it not possible for this horse to be out 24/7 or at least in a small yard at night so she can walk around.
 
I agree with wild pony. Can the horse be turned out 24/7.Was given a pony who had athritus and was on bute. Where he was he could only go out twice a week/When he cane to me he lived out and he was fine. Never had bute again and was ridden everyday.Another horse {bought this time} first morning out of stable his leg locked.Scared the life out of me. Phoned the dealer and she said phone vet. Vet came out and advided exercise especially uphill. Dealer was prepared to take horse back but I kept him. He lives out and his leg did lock occasionally,was told to walk him backwards, he is fine now four year later.
 
My horse has locking patellas in both hind legs. It looks horrid when they lock but it doesn't hurt her. She does find it annoying if she's having a bad day though! Vets at my practice rather uncooperative on the operation front too. Mostly it's managed by exercise so they just put me off when I mention it.
 
My four year old had it. I got the vet out the first time because she was just dragging her leg behind her and I couldn't get it to click back in and he advised the riding route and that she would grow out of it when she muscled up. I put her on Alpha A over the winter and hemp oil and then formula 4 feet which is supposed to help with cartlidge formation etc and she has been in overnight during the winter and has just had 6 weeks off without any ridden work and has been fine. It looks horrendous when it does lock but they recover really quickly. I don't know of the oil does work but it can't do any harm either.
 
My horse as a 4yr old suffered from locking Patella, my husband is a Vet so he diagnosed it and then arranged the remedial farrier to come and put Wedged shoes on his hinds, you should only keep them on for about 3wks absolute maximum as they can cause other problems. This sorted out the problem without box rest or being turned away for weeks on end! so long as you have a good remedial farrier in your area he should know what he is doing. The wedges are a normal metal shoe but the sides are gradient with a wedge up to about 1". My horse is now 14yrs is working at advanced level! Hope this is of help
 
I have a mare who has UFP. Hers is the worst case I have ever seen and when I bought her, she literally could not walk. She had been kept in a stable with a tiny pen for all of her young life. I turned her out 24/7. 2 years later she can walk, trot and canter perfectly ... just not all the time. Once in a while she will seize up; probably every half hour I'd say. It's not great but it is a heck of sight better than when I first bought her and she couldn't take even one step without seizing up.

I am not sure what I will do with her; I have toyed with having the ligaments cut but the research I have done shows there to only be a 25% chance of full recovery from this; I think it's too much of a risk for me to do this to her.

She's happy pottering around my fields right now and she has improved beyond recognition, so for the mean time I will just wait and see what the future brings.
 
I have a ned with this too and the fitter he becomes the problem gets much better, both of his legs stick and he has just got used to it and unlocks himself. He lives out 24/7 and is 14 years old. The only thing I have to watch is when I ask him to lift his feet up to pick them out his back legs ping out at about bending over head height and he's nearly got me on a couple of occasions, he's 17.3hh and an absolute sweety working at Elementary.
 
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