Locking Stifles - Help Please :S

LeannePip

LeannePip

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i've had my now three year old for two years in the first year i had her she suffered with locking patella/stifle once where she was just a bit stiff on it and the second time, we had the vet out who manipulated it and it was fine, she was living out at this point and we had no further problems.

on the 3rd January this year we moved yards which meant due to the winter routine she had to be in at night, the first morning she was slightly locked but walked it off on the way to the field we had no further problems and due to the weather she was on winter routine untill 1st june, then since then shes had a couple more 'episodes' on when she was in the field, it free'd off but sized up again whilst she was stood on the yard i did what we usually do to free it but it didnt work and the vet came out and she couldn't do it and left. after giving her two bute/danillion she managed to walk it of on the way to the field, it has happened two other times not quite as severely so when she locked up we put a danillon in her feed then turned her out and she was fine on both occasions.

well it happened again today and its driving me crazy!! i don't no what causes it, before it seemed better if she was being worked, and shes been worked more regularly now and it still happens! the other thing that seemed to help was being kept warm so shes always been rugged more (she has no objection to this, shes a pansy!) shes in a MW combo at night and is growing a good coat and i don't want to pile any more rugs on just yet! any help would be greatly appriciated its driving me stark crazy to think shes in discomfort and i don't seem to beable to do anything to stop it! :( my vets aren't helping my old vet said to walk her backwards and manipulate it and it was caused by a tight ligament and my new vet is telling me not to walk her backwards as this is how they would assess wether a horse has locking patella issues so this would cause it to lock further and my physio said its due to a slack ligament in the stifle! PLEASE HELP!!
 
Having the exact same thing with our mare.. first the vet said it was sticking stifle & said to work her & work her - hill work, schooling in deep sand, everything to build the muscles in the area.. no improvement so she had x-rays done which didn't show a slack ligament or any reason for the stifle to be sticking so we're at a loss.. she's going to see Donna Blinman, a vet, accupuncturist & osteo next week at Newmarket so hopefully will get some answers..
 
thats exactly what i was told too, i do lots of hill work in walk trot and occasionally canter as thats still a pace were learning, i was told to turn her out in deep mud, which funnily enough we didnt have any!! i dont lunge her as apparently this can make it worse, its driving me crazy! no one seems to come up with the same answer it extremely frustrating even more so that with the winter coming in hard so she will have to be in even more, can i ask what your doing in the mean time or what seems to trigger your mares problems? also how old is she? could you let me know how it goes with the other vet? sorry for the hundred questions but no one seems to have any answers for this!! x
 
Being in over night definately makes her sticky.. she also sometimes looses her back end while working in the school. She's a 9 year old tb & has a kissing spine but was being worked each week in a pessoa & her back had been fine. Until she goes to the vet my mum made the decision to just hack her mainly, walk, trot & canter, she's turned out all day & in at night. We reckon that schooling was making things worse so no schooling for the time being. I put her in the pessoa the other night for her back but she was dragging her toe so gave up with that! Mum got her when she was 4 & our farrier noticed that every so often she would stickbut then it wouldn't happen for ages..it only began to get this bad a few months ago..no idea what triggered it. But yes we will keep you updated.
 
I knew a vet many years ago that bred ponies whenever this happened she always gave them a boost of vitamins as she felt it was often a growth related problem. The more time they are out in the field usually helps them strengthen up naturally.
 
Thank you so much, can compleetly sympathise with the kissing spine as well my last loan horse had it. do you think the stifle thing could be her compensating for an issue with her back or an issue she thinks she has? just something that sprung to mind, may be why its not showing as a ligament issue? i hope the vet can shed some light on this for you!
 
thank you Be Positive, i might try her on a vits/mins suppliment now i think about it the summer she was out in the field she was on vits and mins, im also going to put her back on cherry chaff/show shine as its high oil which apparently can help, willing to try anything now! thank you
 
We had a cob that had this problem. I found that beng 24/7 helped alot, and turn out as much poss in the winter when he had to be in. Occassionally he would lock up badly and we woud have to walk him backwards to free his stifle. sometimes he would just a funny gat for a few steps, usually in the mornng after being in all night. I found that it was best to keep his exercse levels fairly even. Once after being at pony club with loads of exercise and being stabled he was fine, but when he came home and had less exercise, he locked up a few tmes. It rarely happened when out 24/7. Despite that he never had any lameness and was always sound!!
 
Ideally i'd have her out 24/7 however circumstances mean that cannot happen but she gets as much turnout as i can give her :( it does seem to play up when her work is irregular although shes only three so i cant do too much with her to make it regular! but this is something i am going to try to see if it works. my new yard we will have access to a horse walker do you think this would be a good substitue for the TO she will be missing? (she will still get TO however it wont be 24/7, she has to be in at night but will beable to go out during the day)
 
From long experience, things that help:

- hill work, jumping, walk-canter transitions
- working your horse correctly, on the bit with plenty of circles etc.
- if stabled, lungeing in the morning before turn-out, then riding in the evening.
- Boswellia Serrata supplement - see huge difference in 3 weeks or so.
- not having back shoes so they can unlock when it does seize up.
- working every day with no more than one day off a week.
- trotting horse up in hand before getting on (so nothing seizes as you stand by the mounting block)
- when ridden, my girl tends to prefer a slightly too wide saddle with a pad underneath to make it the right width, as it gives her more room to flex her back when the stifle is a bit stiff

It's linked to the sleeping standing up thing, and the ligament is too loose. It slips to one side and gets stuck, so they have to twist their back and leg to free it. The more muscle you build in that area, the more it holds it in place.
 
at 3 yr's old i wouldn't be panicking, our 4 yr old pony has it and vet has said it's hard to get them fit enough before that to eradicate it completely. now he's backed and ready to start work properly we've been told to include lots of hill work, not too many circles until he's built up more muscle and to try not to let his fitness drop of too much over the winter.
 
Work, work and more work. Some are saying hill work, yes this is true, but uphill as much as you can; downhill will make it worse as the drive needs to come from the back end. Avoid circles. A driving harness pulling weights. I used to pull an old chain harrow around the sand school with my 5yr old Icelandic. Soon everything will or should be pulled back into place.
 
We had a mare on livery who had a locking stifle. It would lock badly and all we could do was let her walk it off to the field.
She had to live out as more then a few hours in the stable and it would lock without fail, no matter how much work she was in.
 
LeannePip said:
Thank you so much, can compleetly sympathise with the kissing spine as well my last loan horse had it. do you think the stifle thing could be her compensating for an issue with her back or an issue she thinks she has? just something that sprung to mind, may be why its not showing as a ligament issue? i hope the vet can shed some light on this for you!
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Yes, this is exactly what we think it is.. just want to give everything a go before resulting on stifle op..especially as we think the real issue could lay somewhere else.. going vet Monday so will let you know the outcome.
 
from my past experiences to me it sounds like a locking patella or shiverer. plenty of vegetable oil in feeds help with a shiverer and if locking potella it is usualy a minor operation nothing serrious.

hope this is some use to you :D
 
Before I got my idx he'd had both stifles operated on for this. They still lock now, although not as bad, he's arthritic though and is prone to stiffening up if not moving. He's only 1 now but was operated on as a 7yo! I took him on as a companion as he's field sound. I think my boys case is much more serious so I don't mean to worry you! I find, keeping him moving would be your best bet.
 
LeannePip said:
Thank you so much, can compleetly sympathise with the kissing spine as well my last loan horse had it. do you think the stifle thing could be her compensating for an issue with her back or an issue she thinks she has? just something that sprung to mind, may be why its not showing as a ligament issue? i hope the vet can shed some light on this for you!
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to help tell if your horse has got kissing spine run two fingers down her spine from her withers to her rump usin abit more pressure every time u do it untill u get a response and if u dont then more than likely she wont have kissin spine. hope this helps you :D
 
I almost bought a 6 year old who had this problem (fell through at last minute). Led me to do LOTS of research on it!

Horse I almost bought had Cassini 1 bloodlines which are known to be slightly late developers, so we thought he may begin to grow out of it. Your horse is only young still, so it is possible that if the muscle in the area is strengthened he/she will slowly grow out of it. Lots of hill work, pole work, grid work blah blah as said before will help. If as he/she gets older and comes into work it still hasnt settled then a few xrays may be in order. Unless it is super serious, meaning she becomes locked for days, I wouldnt even consider the operation. What are you hoping to do with him/her eventually? Said horse which I almost bought was out eventing at a fairly high level for his age and was destined for 3*, only stopped because he was far too lazy off your leg :p Would have been absolutely fine for me to take out eventing at a lower level. Just shows it doesnt need to limit them!

Bute is a good suggestion from what I gather, but being out is so much better than being in.
 
I bought a 2 year old this year and she had this when I first had her. She was completely unhandled too which meant it was not possible to go straight into getting her into work (e.g. leading out). Vet said she needed muscle condition so to feed her up (a little) and ensure she was out 24/7. Apparently it is not uncommon with ponies which have lived on the New Forest as she had - as they can be in poorer condition. She is a NF x TB so not as tough as a full NF.

It was triggered again once after I first had her - the vet felt it was probably stress related (i.e. moving home and being turned out with the others for the first time though she had weeks in the next field to them before then) though down to her underlying poor muscle condition. She is fine now.

She is also 3 now so although I haven't backed her this year I do intend to do keep her being walked out and going up plenty of hills to try to build and maintain condition. I was lucky as it was not bad enough to require the op. The vet seemed to consider the op a fairly minor one though if it was needed.
 
Hi again, took our mare to Newmarket today to see the vet/osteo/accupuncturist I mentioned. First of all she watched her being walked about & although she wasn't sticking the vet pointed out that she doesn't bend her hocks when walking, she is basically keeping her legs straight which is making the stifle stick. She then checked her all over & noticed that she has a dip in the sacral area which is apparently a common thing in ex-racers due to just galloping & not stretching out accross the back whilst being trained. Basically from the first examination the vet thinks that there are a few things such as the kissing spine, dip in the sacral area & a tight sacrolliac region that is causing the stifles to stick. She is at the vets for 2 weeks under going different treatments to relieve the tension accross her back & hips before getting her to work correctly to stregthen the back & lift the kissin spine. So the work that our usual vet prescribed & working in the pessoa would have worked if she wasn't so tight & tense in other areas..she literally is unable to work correctly & bring her hind legs under her self to work correctly.. now to see if the treatments work..will keep you updated..
 
thank you so much for letting me know how it went that is very interesting, i had wondered whether your mares kissing spine had anything to do with it, as i said before my old loan horse had had it and watching her treatment was interesting to see although she was no longer in any pain she still compensated in certain ways as it took vets a while to pin point the problem before she was diagnosed with KS and the compensation caused her problems in other areas!

i hope your mare makes a good 'recovery' now they know whats causing it, strange she doesn't move her hock :S is it not very noticeable? we've not had any more stifle issues, still keeping her rugged and she gets as much turnout as possible and is still in work with lots of hills. although we may not have had any stifle issues she did give herself choke yesterday giving my parents and YO a fright, cue me having to leave work 2 and a half hour early on a sunday (£10.50 ph!!) to arrive at the yard to find her snoozing in her stable, panic over -_- Horses -who'd have em eh?!
 
mr fields said:
from my past experiences to me it sounds like a locking patella or shiverer. plenty of vegetable oil in feeds help with a shiverer and if locking potella it is usualy a minor operation nothing serrious.

hope this is some use to you :D
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Not a lot! MORE useless 'advice' from Mr Fields! 40 years ago, almost ALL horses with upward fixation of the patella were routinely operated on. And yes, it's a relatively 'minor' op - and in most cases, it 'works'! For a while! But plan on very early retirement of the horse!

It's most commonly seen in younger horses, especially if they have been worked for a while and then turned away. And also if they have gone from being paddock kept to being stabled. You also see it in horses who are growing abnormally fast and disproportionately.

The best treatment is;

1. keep turned out, if possible - and if the field is hilly, so much the better!
2. gentle work, including uphill work in walk and trot - with fitness, it often resolves.
3. anti-inflammatories, as it can be painful.
4. a good joint supplement won't go astray!

Surgery is a last resort - and only for severe cases that do not respond to a lengthy period of fittening work!
 
I got my boy (4yr old ex-racer) and he had a locking stiffle quite bad. Pushing him backwards when it happened usually helped, if he had the farrier 1st thing i would usually take him for a quick trot in-hand to losen him up so it wouldnt lock for the farrier. Like has been said turn out, hill work etc is the best. It seemed to clear up for a while, then when i started doing abit more work when we moved yard it came back for a few days. Touch wood it hasnt hapened in a long time now, someties in the field when he comes over for dinner he seemes to have the odd time his leg sort of gives way. Im just hopeing it stays as well as it is going because i cant remember when it last locked. When i had his back checked when it was still happening now and again she suggested putting small wedges in his heals to help build up the muscle to support it, (he didnt have the greatest heals and it werent really bad enough so didnt need to try it, maybe something to look into tho). Your horse is still young (mine is 6 now) so hopefully with abit more it time should sort itself out. Hope it gets better soon tho.
 
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