lockingstifle in shetlands

[sarahshet]

I have a miniture shetland age3 who has a very bad locking stifle, he has just had the operation to split the ligament to help this, however after 3 days it is still locking and I am rather concerned. has anyone else had this done and how successful has it been?

 

[Darkly_Dreaming_Dex]

Hi,
My boss had a mini shettie who had this op first nearside then 6 months later offside. It healed well and had no further problems (i worked there for another year) I have known one other have the op with no complications- i would get your vet to have another look as the ligament may not have been split enough and/or may have rejoined as it healed.

 

[Honeypots]

I have 2 nags with locking stifles. One is daughters pony and its only very slight and we barely ever notice it. One is a shettie who was given to me as old and arthritic. She is actually 6 and has locking stifles..
When I got her it was quite bad and her legs locked almost every stride but she has improved no end in the last 8 months due to being active. She is out on a sloping paddock. It is very bare and she has to move around alot to find enough to eat. When I feed her hay, I put it in lines around the paddock so she has to move about to fill up.
If for any reason she hasn't moved around alot for a day.ie if its been raining alot and they been in the shelter alot she'll lock up occasionally but most of the time you'd never know she had it.
So, in a nutshell, my advise would be, don't stable her/him, keep her moving, work her to build up the muscle around the joint and she should improve.
It does generally happen in young horses/ponies and they improve once they are working

 

[MrsMozart]

Friend's two year old has locking stifles. Vet said exercise, exercise, exercise. She has been backed gently and slowly over the last year (all very light and chilled), so now my stick insect daughter is riding her for ten minutes a day to build up the msucle. She'll also have built-up/angled shoes as soon as the farrier can get over to us. She's been doing it for a few days, but already she's doing less toe dragging and is looking much happier

So, as Honeypots says, exercise! Given that it's after the op., I'd ring the vet and get their thoughts.

 

[Cahill]

my shetland had it a few times when we got him but grew out of it.he was 2 then.he is 23 now.he used to jump his own height! and it never seems to have affected him since.