Alison P
New User
I wonder if anyone has any experience of the following, or could give me any pointers to information or ideas. My 20 year-old, very sweet-natured Argentine Polo Pony (no longer playing) has a squealing and kicking problem in the stable which just seems to be getting worse (she's nearly taken the door off twice). I'm worried she's going to break her legs and am about to get the vet in but wondered if anyone else has experienced similar with horses with shivers.
- She squeals and kicks at random times of the day and other days can be absolutely fine. Usually the kicks are just her offside-hind (her worse Shiver side), sometimes she double-barrels. We've caught her back-end literally 'shivering' afterwards but only for a short time. In fact if you come to the door when she's kicking and squealing and she sees you, she happily stops and comes over as if nothing had ever happened.
- It's significant (nearly taking the door off) and is becoming more frequent. It can be day or night. I have padded the walls with rubber. The squeals are seriously loud (or just squeaky some days). I now need to pad the door.
- She's had her ovaries checked (scanned) one seems inactive, but she doesn't really seem to come into season how she used to but her blood test was fine and there were no tumours on her ovaries. We have tried Regumate (didn't work), she's on Oestress, no change. She could sometimes seem to be slightly worse at the peak of her cycle (difficult to track though as she doesn't season obviously like she used to) but in the recent few weeks it's just constant.
- She has a shiver, which is what I'm starting to wonder is getting worse. I tried to turn her round in hand the other day and she just left the back right leg planted and didn't move it. She waggles her back legs a lot when you pick out her feet and I'll speak to the farrier tomorrow but my friend (who helps look after her and is normally there when the farrier is there) said she seemed to be getting worse.
- She is not showing any outward signs of pain per se, she is happy and otherwise relaxed. There is no resistance when working, in fact she's working well. She's keen to work and backs up under saddle better than she used to! She doesn't work hard any more either as we don't play polo anymore, so she does light hacking and schooling, so no stress (and always has company). She works happily in an outline (and is pretty fabulous at it). No biting. No obvious signs of ulcer discomfort and eats like a 'horse'. The only other difference is I've noticed her zen face looks a bit more quizzicle these days, a kind of a mini frown from time to time.
- I took her off Danilon (in case it was her tummy), no change.
- She's already moved stables as she went through one wall. She initially quietened down as she didn't have neighbours looking through the grill, but then it just cranked up again.
- She's fine in the field.
- She can be a little dominant in the field but always has been as she's second in the pecking order.
- I was crouching next to her in her stable giving her a carrot at the weekend and she was being completely snuffly and sweet, then marched backwards, kicked backwards twice and squealed, then came back to me. She's never done that before.