Stifle Injuries and Locking Up...

Cadfael&Coffee

Cadfael&Coffee

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Well, the latest in the Rob saga is that the poor lad has now badly damaged his stifle, so much so that he's now walking like a mild form of stringhalt on one back leg, and his stifle actually locked for a second this morning, and keeps clicking and threatening to lock when he's been stood still for a while...

So, the point of this post- who's had a horse like this before? After a recovery period were they ever the same (obviously managed though) or did you have to severely restrict what work you did for the rest of their working lives?

He's damaged his stifle before, but never this badly :(

I can manage him with it, I'm just hoping theres light at the end of the tunnel!!!

If he's gonna be a happy hacker for the rest of his life so be it (he's 15) but i would prefer it if he wasn't lol :rolleyes:
 
I'm sorry i missed the first instalments of 'rob's saga ' so i'm not sure what the initial injury was , but my ID 's stifle started locking last autumn when we started bringing them in when the weather started to turn. When taking him out of the stable in the morning his stifle would lock for a few seconds and he would sort of wobble and stumble then it would release and he would be ok - until the next night , at which point i decided to turn him out over winter so that he was self exercising and not standing still for 14+ hours a night. The chiropractor has just been to do a general back check etc and , although the muscle is still slightly loose it's a vast improvement , lack of exercise is a major problem and i've heard that trotting up hill for only three sessions a week will bring a vast improvement - is your boy sound enough to be ridden? sorry for the ramble..
 
The saga began with broken knees originally, and lots and lots of bad luck ever since!!!

He's not sound enough to ride ATM, I'm gonna give him at least a week or two (he's that bad) before I put any weight on him.

I'm glad the locking doesn't necessarily mean he's gonna be crippled though!!! It just yet another thing for the poor boy- literally every time I manage to get him back into work for a week or so something else comes up :(
 
I'm sorry to hear this , sometimes it just seems that things go bad one after the other, but keep your chin up , time and gentle exercise are your best friends. I bought my boy from a lady that hacked him every day and then competed at weekends so he was mega fit , then i had him and he was lucky if he went out 3-4 times a week ,if i knew then what i know now i would have been more careful as the sudden drop in fitness made his muscles around the stifle and patella sag which is why it kept locking up , the cracking noise by the way is only air getting trapped between the ligaments , so don't worry about that ,

theres loads of advice on line if you google ' upward fixation of the patella' ( I'm sure you know all this , i don't mean to sound patronizing in any way) there is an operation if things don't get any better and actually it's not a big op they just cut the tendon ( small split) above the knee and by what i've read this is quite a successful op but has implications for unsoundness in later life and you definitely don't want that so keep on with the gentle exercises , a good one is stand facing your horses stifle/back leg and pull the tail towards you , hold for 5 seconds and release - you'll see the stifle ligaments contracting , do this a few times each side each day and it'll help to strengthen the stfle s , all the best x
 
Ooh thank you- I will try that in the morning :)

Worst case I think is he's off for a month and I get fit long reining him for miles lol :D (there's got to be something good out of this lol :P)

Thank you for your help :)
 
My old loan lad had locking stifle and I found cod liver oil in his feed really helped (don't like giving fish oil to horses but for him I did try it).
 
Oh no poor rob not another thing why must bad things come in threes :( nothing else to add (only had experience post stifle op) other then good luck hope you and rob are doing ok xxx
 
My horse has locking stifles - ane exercise really helps. In the summer when he is out lots more, his legs are lots better, but in the winter there is a definate difference.

It is definately something that they can cope with and that you can improve with exercise.

My horse is actually recovering from a fractured leg and had to stand cross tied for 10 weeks - and is now still on box rest 5 months later! One leg is now very very sticky but I am confident that when he can finally go out again it will start to improve again. x
 
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