Locking Stifle Treatment Nightmare

[LeannePip]

Sorry this may be long, but I'm at a bit of a loss and a bit deflated!

I have been fighting a loosing battle with UFP for four years with my little mare, vets always insisted she would grow out of it, three years old they said start backing/ hacking it will only help, didn't get any better. every summer when she's round and 'well conditioned' we don't hear a peep from it, but as soon as soon winter comes it comes back with a vengeance and worse than the previous year. It is almost every year to the date that it happens. all years previous to this the problem has been with the off hind locking, this year it was her near hind; she was still in work, and routine only changed three days previous so that she was in over night when it locked again, and again and again, she was still getting turned out from 8-5, workload hadn't changed and she still looked great. Any time i try and give her any time off/turned away she's locked within a week.

This year after she started locking again everything started deteriorating, her behaviour got worse, and schooling her was non existent, had vet out who checked her over, she wasn't lame as such but locking intermittently on the lunge and bucking to correct it, flexioned her stifles and she was about 5/10ths lame after flexions on her near hind x rays showed no bony changes but more fluid than normal behind the patella - whether that was an effect or cause is unclear. x-rays were viewed at Liphook and they couldn't find anything either. Discussing treatment i told vets that it was unlikely she would be covered as they had refused it last time and then excluded it. Vet said she wanted to try injecting the stifles, and this should correct the problem, i should have probably asked more questions but all feed back i got was she would be right as rain after a rehab period, so I'm thinking this is a fix, and obviously a new preferable treatment to cutting/splitting. All the while, she's having to see the physio or EMT every 6 weeks as she is so tight over her sacro iliac and over her quarters, we are guessing from over compensating for the dodgy leg.

Vet came back and injected the stifle with steroid, long lasting local anaesthetic and anti inflamitries, instructions of two danillon a day and after a week off, start ridden walking with a check up in six weeks. During the week off she locked constantly, after two weeks of walk work she was un manageable producing displays that can only be likened to an uncontrolled version of the spanish riding school! vet was off sick and then on annual leave so after discussion with YO we decided the safest thing to do was to up the work and put her on a calmer. Calmer worked a treat and after a week she was walking with bits of trot and working on the long reins nicely, and also started on equitop myoplast. Vet came back and apart from the week off she hasn't locked again but she's still about 2/10th lame on the hard on a circle and intermittently 'off' on a surface, pretty much sound on the straight. Vet was really pleased with progress and agreed with the increased work load but suggested another 6 weeks danillon and regular Physio. Physio came out again last week and agreed the difference was remarkable but she was still sore over the SI and hind quarters, programmed a TENs for us but doesn't want to see her again for 6-8 weeks.

It is beginning to dawn on me that the treatment we are doing is not going to fix the problem, just manage it for the time being as surely after any time off, we will need to go through all of this again as all the treatment is really doing is numbing the stifles so she can build the correct muscles rather than compensating, but . . any time off is going to reduce the muscle tone, therefore un doing all this work? so (hugely) long story short, physio is helping but as long as there is the possibility of locking she will likely always need very regular treatment to keep her on track, any time off and she is likely to deteriorate again and she's still lame on two bute a day. My credit card is nearly maxed and insurance aren't paying a penny, if i could turn her away and know she was comfortable i honestly would, but the only thing that is keeping her vaguely sound at the moment is two bute and physio, I'm under the impression that having the offending ligament cut could solve the problem but could potentially cause problems later in life, but is that the price you pay for a comfortable horse and deal with the consequences when they happen? but having come this far and spent this much would it be wise to change route so suddenly?

Any Suggestions? Sorry its horribly long but its not easy to explain without lots of detail :S

Apples and Malteasers if anyone got this far!

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

We had a horse with UFP, were told that surgery had moved on dramatically from last time my friend had a horse with this and now they would score the ligament to allow it to stretch over the joint rather than cutting it as previous...mare was working novice BD with view to moving up and we were told to keep putting entries in as she would only be out of work a few days. What actually happened to cut a long story short is that we ended up going for the op, things went wrong, the patella was fractured during the procedure and we ended up with a permanently lame animal. She was in so much pain she was a nightmare to handle and impossible to do anything with even in hand. We had the space and she is now a field ornament (still a lame one) but now the pain seems to have gone she is back to her happy self - there is just now way she will be ridden again. If what you are doing just now is working, I would absolutely be inclined to stick with it...if we had known even a half of what we do now there is no way we would've put the mare through the op. Not saying this happens at all the ops but just food for thought. Good luck! X

 

[Spring Feather]

sorry to hear this. I have had two horses with UFP and both are fine now. I kept them on 24/7/365 turnout. I would never keep a UFP horse inside, not even for short periods of time. The fields I chose for my two are hilly and the best grass is right at the top of the hill and the water is at the bottom of the hill so my horses work even while they're out in their field.

When they were young I did a lot of long lining with them over jumps where one side was up and the other side was down, then the next jump would be placed the opposite way. You can do this riding too, I did the long lining as mine weren't backed at the time. Both of my horses will show signs of UFP if they are kept in one of my flat fields so the moment I see anything, back they go into a hill field. They are fine in flat fields providing they are being exercised daily.

 

[Archiepoo]

Hi I have a pony with locking stifles .its worse if he comes in -could your horse live out? Its worse if he goes over with his feet trims .have you done anything different with his trimming/shoeing? Does it happen more when uve just shod/trimmed or when its due? Youve said it happens more when weight is dropped as I understand the fat pad over the joint keeps the ligament from sticking .so is it possible to keep the horse out 24/7 and feed up? Personnally id got for the ligament split -its a relativly simple op done on the yard so shouldnt be expensive . Good luck x

 

[LeannePip]

thanks for the replies guys - i live in a very clay'y area and cannot find anywhere within reasonable distance where she could live out and still get exercise all year round, she is moving to a new yard in a couple of weeks so will have 24/7 turn out over summer but they still have to come in at night over winter, although we are looking at buying somewhere this year so ideally she should be able to live out depending on the move, but this is not set in stone yet!

doesn't seem to be effected by her feet, she's had two main farriers in her life alternated due to locations: A farrier, B farrier, A farrier, B farrier, neither have effected, made worse or better and it doesn't seem to have been effected by having hind does on or off.

the last couple of winters i've kept her out overnight but they've been so harsh no matter how much i fed and rugged she's dropped off slightly, not masses but obviously enough, this year she was in and from what i can see i don't think she's changed very much, if at all, see pictures below:

one year ago - a lot poorer after a winter out over night, and poor spring grazing:

December2013 she was locking at this point

Feb 2014

April 2014 (back end slightly up hill at a funny angle)

I want to carry on as its obviously working and she's much happier in her self, its just hard knowing that all this time, effort and money could be undone should anything force any time off :S

Archiepoo have you had experience of the split procedure? Spring feather i think she'd like to come and live with you, she's pretty partial to a warmer climate and it sounds like you run horsey heaven!

 

[Spring Feather]

Spring feather i think she'd like to come and live with you, she's pretty partial to a warmer climate and it sounds like you run horsey heaven!

And she'd be fine in the summer time as it's very hot then but we find that in the winter the UFP horses have to be very well rugged as the cold seems to exacerbate the issue. Incidentally I did discuss the splitting surgery with my vets and both gave pros and cons; from what I took away, neither ops are without risk and I chose to not go ahead with either of them because I'd rather have a sound horse who just has to be managed a bit more, than the other side of the coin the horse is beggared for good with no chance of recovery. If I were you I'd persevere with trying to build up the muscle naturally as it's this which will hold the joint stable. Pretty horse btw :smile3:

 

[5bs]

My horse had this, went too Newmarket and they found other things wrong the vet said quite often the problem of the locking stifle, has underlying issues that can get overlooked.

His got so bad and he was so miserable and became dangerous, had to be butted to be shod I decided to have him PTS.

 

[LeannePip]

yes thats what made me not go for either op before but the way the vets were talking it was more, it will fix it for now and she will be sound and happy but there is risk of arthritis in later life, but also that if she carried on locking this is likely to cause arthritis any way, just seems a loose loose condition the more i look into it.

5bs what where the underlying issues with your boy? she's already had x-rays from all angles of both stifles and both show no concerning ambormalities and are perfect mirror images of each other.

i think i'd be silly to stop treatment here so will carry on as set out, as as far as proven historically we are now out of the 'danger period' but if it crops up again this winter i will have to re-evaluate.

Thanks guys, still interested to hear other scenarios, good or bad!

 

[CuriousGeorge14]

A friend of mine's horse has very recently had the spilt procedure and so far he is rehabbing really well, short amount of time off, relatively cheap - under £300, and he looks so much more comfortable.

I'd definitely say its an option to consider and worth talking over with the vets.

 

[5bs]

He started off with being unable to pick his leg up for the farrier it would go straight out to the side and couldn't bend, would back him up and be ok. Then started to happen coming out of the stable, he then started napping and spooking on rides, and you had to mount him moving to prevent the locking.

It ended up being PSD as the underlying cause in both legs, he had too stay there for four days for it to show up as he was a very, highly charged horse and did not show pain easily.

He had steroid injections, physio, very strict back to work routine, I struggled on for two years, one day took him on a hack and he just stood there and said no more, vet came next morning, trotted him up,completely sound in a straight line, on the circle badly lame, it had gone too his front legs also because he had been compensating too long for behind. He was PTS immediately, my local vet always thought he would not come write, he had been a show horse previously to me owning him. and my vet said the problem with so many horses these days is that they spend to much time on soft surfaces being schooled with is not good for there bones, ligaments etc. Some people say it is not painful, my vet and I disagree.

 

[sywell]

I had a horse with this problem and we were advised to work on steep hills for the muscle but for Vet advice I would recommend Sven Kold. The horse was competing dressage and is now 15 years old

 

[mystiandsunny]

I have a horse who has had this problem since she was an unbacked youngster. It is managed through:
- living out (hilly fields help most)
- regular hill work
- suppleness work to encourage the stiff hind to come forward and to build muscle. So we have a daily warm-up routine, which includes the whole set of exercises in walk, then trot, then canter, after a general walk/trot/canter round to warm up a little. We do: leg-yielding, shoulder-in, large circle pirouettes, renvers/travers. Also plenty of transitions between and within paces, esp walk-canter, halt-trot. It takes me about 20min to warm up in total, but when I last had time to compete, she was successful at Elementary level dressage, and the routine keeps her nice and supple. Jumping helps too, but we don't have the facilities for that where I am now!
- if you need help to get to this level of fitness, Boswellia Serrata is fantastic for slightly numbing the uncomfortableness and letting them build the muscle. It's also safe for long-term use, and not too expensive as a supplement.

 

[LaurenBay]

After reading this I'm wondering if this is what my mare had/has.

I got Ruby 3 years ago and had her 5* vetted which she passed. The problems started when picking out her feet as she refused to pick her front up (obviously didn't want to hold the weight on her hind) after falling over and hitting her face I decided to get vet out, they couldn't see anything so told me to get a visio out. Viso said she was very one sided and tight over her rump. Saddle wasn't the best fit so we decided hill work in hand would be the way to go. 3 months in and pysio came and said Ruby was lame so the vet came back out. His exact words were "her stifle never really activated" so she had steriod injections and I was told to hack only.

I spent a year hacking and she built up, whenever I tried to school she was lame (granted the school was deep) so I moved yard to somewhere with more hacking. It didn't work out so we moved back to our first yard, we spent a long time hacking and she was great. Vet very happy with her. She doesn't lock as such but occasionally comes out the stable and stretches that leg.

This year I introduced schooling again and she was going well, not at all lame and happy to move forwards. I only schooled twice a week as didn't want to over do it. Since the dryer weather the schoolhas gotten deep again so I am hacking again. Her leg sometimes clicks.

We have never gotten to the bottom of it, does it sound like she has a locking stile?

 

[Cocorules]

sorry to hear this. I have had two horses with UFP and both are fine now. I kept them on 24/7/365 turnout. I would never keep a UFP horse inside, not even for short periods of time. The fields I chose for my two are hilly and the best grass is right at the top of the hill and the water is at the bottom of the hill so my horses work even while they're out in their field.

When they were young I did a lot of long lining with them over jumps where one side was up and the other side was down, then the next jump would be placed the opposite way. You can do this riding too, I did the long lining as mine weren't backed at the time. Both of my horses will show signs of UFP if they are kept in one of my flat fields so the moment I see anything, back they go into a hill field. They are fine in flat fields providing they are being exercised daily.

Agree with this. Mine has it but kept out 24/7 on hilly ground and lots of exercise and she does not lock. In winter she needs to be kept warm and standing in would not help with that. I would not be able to keep her in even for short periods without it coming back. If you are able to find somewhere you can keep yours out all the time next winter rather than in for the 16 hours a day you have to at the moment that may make the difference.

 

[Nene]

thanks for the replies guys - i live in a very clay'y area and cannot find anywhere within reasonable distance where she could live out and still get exercise all year round, she is moving to a new yard in a couple of weeks so will have 24/7 turn out over summer but they still have to come in at night over winter, although we are looking at buying somewhere this year so ideally she should be able to live out depending on the move, but this is not set in stone yet!

doesn't seem to be effected by her feet, she's had two main farriers in her life alternated due to locations: A farrier, B farrier, A farrier, B farrier, neither have effected, made worse or better and it doesn't seem to have been effected by having hind does on or off.

the last couple of winters i've kept her out overnight but they've been so harsh no matter how much i fed and rugged she's dropped off slightly, not masses but obviously enough, this year she was in and from what i can see i don't think she's changed very much, if at all, see pictures below:

one year ago - a lot poorer after a winter out over night, and poor spring grazing:

December2013 she was locking at this point

Feb 2014

April 2014 (back end slightly up hill at a funny angle)

I want to carry on as its obviously working and she's much happier in her self, its just hard knowing that all this time, effort and money could be undone should anything force any time off :S

Archiepoo have you had experience of the split procedure? Spring feather i think she'd like to come and live with you, she's pretty partial to a warmer climate and it sounds like you run horsey heaven!

Hi LeannePip,

I have just been reading your post, and wondered how your pretty little mare was doing with regards to her locking stifle. My 5 year old has been suffering intermittently (for two years), and it has got worse over the last year. She is now in rehab, and whilst appears sound in walk and trot she struggles in canter. The vets have advised to keep her in a small paddock as she can be a bit too daft in a field full of mares, but I am finding this has not made any difference and the locking up has now started in her left hind, so she must be compensating from one leg to another. I haven't really heard any good prognosis and I don't know what I am going to be able to do with her competition wise? She is 16.1 ISH, and I bought her for dressage, but this is looking unlikely now. I would love to hear from you, and I hope you had great success with your mare.