Post by jaybird on Feb 19, 2007 15:44:19 GMT -5
(....Card, I looked it up this morning, the joint is called the stifle, the patella is part of the stifle joint. So they're not the same thing, but one is a component of the other.)
Hi everyone,
I'm back to a lameness issue with Jay that has been troubling us since I first got him 3 years ago. He has lost a lot of fitness and topline muscle over the summer, and now that I am riding again, this problem has resurfaced. What happens is that at the walk, he will suddenly stop on three legs with his left hind lifted way up and out to the side. He'll usually hold it there for a second or two, and then sort of lurch it back down and then continue on normally. On Friday, I saw it happen three times when he was at liberty and twice when I was hand walking him up the hill. I've never seen it at the trop or canter.
Cardi & I were talking about it over the weekend, and she told me that there's a horse in her barn that has Upward Fixation of the Patella and all the symptoms match. And the lack of fitness is soemthing that definitely makes this worse which fits with Jay's circumstances...he did it a lot when I first got him, and it eventually went away as I rode him more and more, and now that he's been off work and has lost topline muscling, it is back.
But what I am confused about is that I read up on UFP last night, and in every case, they described it as the leg getting stuck in an extended position, making the toe drag along the ground, until it unsticks. And that is not what Jay is doing. His hind leg is raised like a male dog having a tinkle. And you can feel a lurch in his back. He'll take his weight onto his front legs and stretch his neck down for balance. And then he waits a second or two, looking perplexed, and then he'll put the leg back down and move on. He doesn't appear lame at that point, just a little short in his hinds.
Other problems Jay has that may or may not contribute:
1) He has a hunters bump, which I believe indicates a sacroilliac sublxation, or a displaced pelvis.
2) He moves close behind, and is constantly kicking himself above the left hind coronet band with his right hind. Recently he started kicking the right with the left as well.
Any thought, oh experienced horsepeople out there? I am taking him to the vet as soon as possible, and I have him on a program of hill walking already.
Hi everyone,
I'm back to a lameness issue with Jay that has been troubling us since I first got him 3 years ago. He has lost a lot of fitness and topline muscle over the summer, and now that I am riding again, this problem has resurfaced. What happens is that at the walk, he will suddenly stop on three legs with his left hind lifted way up and out to the side. He'll usually hold it there for a second or two, and then sort of lurch it back down and then continue on normally. On Friday, I saw it happen three times when he was at liberty and twice when I was hand walking him up the hill. I've never seen it at the trop or canter.
Cardi & I were talking about it over the weekend, and she told me that there's a horse in her barn that has Upward Fixation of the Patella and all the symptoms match. And the lack of fitness is soemthing that definitely makes this worse which fits with Jay's circumstances...he did it a lot when I first got him, and it eventually went away as I rode him more and more, and now that he's been off work and has lost topline muscling, it is back.
But what I am confused about is that I read up on UFP last night, and in every case, they described it as the leg getting stuck in an extended position, making the toe drag along the ground, until it unsticks. And that is not what Jay is doing. His hind leg is raised like a male dog having a tinkle. And you can feel a lurch in his back. He'll take his weight onto his front legs and stretch his neck down for balance. And then he waits a second or two, looking perplexed, and then he'll put the leg back down and move on. He doesn't appear lame at that point, just a little short in his hinds.
Other problems Jay has that may or may not contribute:
1) He has a hunters bump, which I believe indicates a sacroilliac sublxation, or a displaced pelvis.
2) He moves close behind, and is constantly kicking himself above the left hind coronet band with his right hind. Recently he started kicking the right with the left as well.
Any thought, oh experienced horsepeople out there? I am taking him to the vet as soon as possible, and I have him on a program of hill walking already.
) but he was clearly short in the hinds and when walking up and down hill, he was almost walking on his tiptoes behind and was not fully loading the left hind.