Need Picures of horses' hind legs with locking stifle.

[Katiean]

I have a mare that we believe had an injury to her left stifle before we got her. She loves driving so much that when she is in harness she never shows anything wrong. However, she gets real stiff in rear. I think it is on her right rear. She runs with the rest of the horses and never has a problem. when she is up being fed is when she will walk stiff. would that be a stifle or arthritis? I have not had any x-rays done.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

A couple of the posts in this thread seem a tad confused

. Just for the record, "Patella" isn't a condition. Patella is the correct name for your kneecap. The stifle joint is analogous to our knee. Horses' stifles are designed so that they can "lock," allowing a horse to sleep while standing up. There is a place where the patella sits to do this. This is a normal part of the way the leg functions. Unfortunately, in some horses, the patella will slip into place when it isn't meant to, or won't come out when it's supposed to. That's a locking stifle.
When we talk about straight stifles, we don't mean straight like a ruler, just not as much of an angle as we would prefer to see. As Leia said, it seems to have to do with the lengths of the bones and their relationships to each other. Muscle development plays a role, too. As does activity - I knew a QH mare that would lock up if she was stalled for more than a few hours (like overnight.) As long as she was able to move around, she was fine. As to whether it is hereditary - well, the condition itself isn't, but the conformation that can make it likely to occur certainly can be. A lot of young horses go through a stage where they do this, and outgrow it as they mature. It can appear in an otherwise sound horse as a result from an injury in the stifle area.

There are a couple of different surgeries that are done to try to correct this problem, and they meet with varied success. The more radical surgery actually severs the ligament that allows the patella to get into its notch. This is what was finally done to Leia's Kody. Kody's legs no longer lock, at any time. Kody is now apparently pain-free (Hooray!!), but the trade-off is, he can no longer sleep standing up. (Sorry, Leia, I don't mean to steal your thunder. I know of several horses that have had this surgery, but Kody's the only one whose name I know!)

EXCELLENT post, Bunnylady! You just saved me a lot of typing and I agree with everything you said from start to finish.

The no-sleeping-standing-up thing turned out to be of much less concern than I expected when I had the surgery done; Kody already laid down constantly for naps before the procedure and still does, but after a few months he learned to rest a hind leg and snooze standing up despite not being able to lock the other one. I don't notice any change in his behavior now except that he walks freely, doesn't worry about whether it's worth it to move around his stall to get food or water, has lost all resistance to backing, stands much squarer, has gained literally ten pounds of muscle in his hindquarters, and now kicks at flies and even other horses. It still bothers me deeply to cut a stabilizing ligament in a horse's leg but for one as dramatically affected as Kody was at ages 4-8, I would not hesitate again. There was no way he was getting better on his own and he was miserable.

The yearling I have who is doing this might very well grow out of it so I will wait to make a decision on him until he's three or thereabouts. Unlike Kody he does not lock with every first walk step, moves normally around his paddock and has no trouble backing up most of the time. It affects his quality of life much less. I think for him some work over walk and trot poles and general exercise is going to be the order of the day and may solve the problem all on its own.

How about a mini with a stifle (left hind) that looks like it pops/clicks? No sound, cant feel any differance when I put both hands on each side and feel while walking, nothing. Just notice when my mini walks and it looks just like it slightly pops in each step.

Definitely take this horse to the vet as there's all sorts of things it could be. If you feel nothing when you put a hand on top of the horse's hip I would say (from personal experience only) that this is likely not a locking problem as when the ligament springs free there is a definite twang or sudden release through the whole back end even if it only caught a little. That was the first thing I noticed after Kody's desmotomy- I put my hand on his back while he was grazing and nothing happened. I burst into tears on the spot, I was so overwhelmed. That popping had always been there, and suddenly he could move normally! It was an amazing moment.

The yearling has that same soundless pop or give -it's hard to describe- when he unlocks. It's exactly what it would feel like if you stretched a bungee over an object that had a shallow hook and the bungee suddenly rolled off the end- after all, that's essentially what's happening inside your horse.

The way the vets I've talked to have described it, I think it's the same feeling we get when suddenly your hip feels "caught" in a certain position and you have to force yourself to move it until it pops...it doesn't actually hurt, but it's very uncomfortable and hard to force yourself to do it so you can move again. I always thought that was something with the joint itself but my dr said it's a ligament- just like when a stifle locks.

I can't imagine having that feeling every time you started walking! That is why I am so passionately against allowing horses with this trait to breed. Sure, it's easily fixed with a quick five minute procedure. But no horse should ever have to experience that in the first place and IMO the horse is NOT breeding sound if they have to have a surgery in order to walk normally. Others feel differently, but that is my perspective after watching my horse live with this condition for years and seeing what it did to him. I never want to see another horse go through that.

Leia

 

[jegray21]

I have a horse who had very bad stifles and did a very simple procedure that the vet called blistering. It sounds terrible but the end result was a normal horse with no stifle issues. The stifles are the joint that locks when horses sleep standing up. It often gets in the way with performance horses and this procedure is done often and is successful. It is not a surgery it is an injection. My horse sleeps standing up fine and has not had any issues, we did this five years ago, it improved his movement and confidence.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

It's good to hear that blistering worked for someone!

Exercise is generally considered the first step, then the treatments range from iodine injections to surgically splitting the ligament to cause it to scar and thicken to cutting it completely. For a horse as bad as mine was the vets were not willing to even TRY blistering as they all said there wasn't a chance in the world it would help him. I know that is not the case with other horses with more minor and intermittant problems but it was for my gelding.

We did try the splitting procedure but it had a long recovery time and things were actually worse after five months, something I didn't think was possible.

Several friends I know tried it on their horses around the same time and all of us had poor results and ended up doing the desmotomy in the end. I wish I had done that first as two bilateral surgeries in six months was very hard on him.

Leia

 

[wildoak]

Leia, I have to agree about the partial splitting. I have a 2 yr old filly now who started locking as a yearling (coincidentally when we first put her to work in the round pen, on a very limited basis). She had the partial ligament splitting done, seemed better for a month or so then regressed badly. Rather than take her back in immediately I have put her out on 10 acres or so with my broodmares to see if exercise will help. She has to go up and down hills, and generally be on the move a lot. Took several weeks to see a difference and I was about to give up, but this last couple of weeks she finally appears to be moving more freely. Initially she quit locking & dragging a leg, but still visibly popped when she moved off. Now she moves off much more smoothly - she gets the winter to condition herself and see whether the change is permanent, but I am encouraged by what I see. She previously was turned out 24/7 on about an acre, but she evidently wasn't forced to move enough to effect a change.

Jan

 

[sugarboy]

I have a riding size appaloosa mare with a very bad stifle problem which the vet had suggested to have surgury on but I have limited funds so I had to do some research to find out what kind of treatments were out there. I went to www.valleyvet.com and found this supplement call recovery eq and within 2 weeks the mare was rideable. You can get this supplement at a lot of tack shops and through tack catalogs and if you have a horse with a stifle problem I really encourage you to try it, it may take 2 months but I would be willing to bet you will see a difference.

Hope this helps someone out there!

Melissa