Upward fixation of the patella (locked stifle)

H

heartofrainbow

Guest
Any experience with it?

Have been doing some research on it, but wanted to hear from people with experience of it!

Thanks
 
My friends andulusian had this. She was advised to have the mare turned out 24/7 rather than being stabled. That seemed to alleviate the problem :)
 
my mare had it. would happen as i brought her out of the stables in the morning. improved with lots of excercise and hill work. then i moved to a house with land, kept her out 24/7 (with access to stable) and it never happened again!
 
My mare has it quite badly. This is my experience with her:
- best living out but not gone completely
- worst after been sleeping/on the lorry
- best thing to help is to get moving forward and trot for a while
- lateral work is harder with this even when it seems to be under control (i.e. no actual locking for a while), and jumping is affected in terms of confidence and style. You have to control the whole thing to enable a decent jump even over 2ft.
- lots of trotting up hills helps, as does circles and lateral work. Idea is to build up quarters so that the muscle keeps the whole thing in place.
- with a mare, better in summer than winter (to do with coming into season)
- worst a few days before comes into season each time, best when in season.
- makes horse more vulnerable to bullies as sometimes cannot get away from a 'warning' kick so get more injuries.
- vets are reluctant to operate
- helps if unshod behind so can have a better breakover point. With normal shoes she fell over a couple of times when it was really bad (on box rest for illness).
- will get arthritis in stifles eventually (according to my vet)
 
Thanks, thats brilliant!

I've been reading that it is common in younger horses that are unfit and out of condition, is this common??

And that some grow out of it, fact or fiction?
 
my youngster exhibited this issue last year. my vet advised he'd grow out of it but to keep him slightly over his ideal weigh and do lots of walking up hills. touch wood, we haven't seen him lock up in well over 6 months so are hopeful he's outgrown the problem.
 
eventerbabe said:
my youngster exhibited this issue last year. my vet advised he'd grow out of it but to keep him slightly over his ideal weigh and do lots of walking up hills. touch wood, we haven't seen him lock up in well over 6 months so are hopeful he's outgrown the problem.
Click to expand...

What type of youngster do you have?
 
We've had two Dartmoors with it, they both were left to it and grew out of it (on the vet's advice)! Both were yearlings when it happened, and actually both grew out of it pretty quickly!

The first one to get it was Reggie, I turned up and he was hopping around with his hind leg dragging behind him! I thought the worst as never seen locked stifle before, vet came out and diagnosed and when he was pushed on a bit he would get it back in to place so vet said leave him and wait! A month later he was fine!
 
my little pony has this and found all that stops it is excercise and keeping him fit and not over weight
 
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