Anything on stifle lock?

Question

my mare has stifle lock in one of her back legs she gets in really bad in winter and if she is not worked for awhile. She changes the lead of he back legs in canter and drags her back leg. It's hard to pick up her leg and even the farrier is iffy about doing it.

also is she in pain when this happens? please help me!

Answer 1

i would try adequan before any opperation. It truly works wonders.

Answer 2

Yes, she is probably in some pain.  We had a pony with it years ago....we were told it was no longer safe to ride him once he started locking up more often. I'd see what the vet recommends.  There are probably new and better solutions today....mine was 30 years ago.

ADD...we learned how to pop the patella back in place and did it for a bit, but the inflammation it caused was increasingly debilitating and painful for the pony.

Answer 3

It could be some arthritis setting in.  You might want to put her on a joint supplement specifically for arthritis, and maybe on MSM also (usually really cheap...its $6 for 45 day supply in my area).  Also, when you start riding her again in the spring, make sure you give her plenty of time to stretch and walk around under saddle before doing anything harder...this way she can loosen up a little bit.

If she's swapping her hind leads, and is that stiff, she obviously has a problem.  If she's getting old, arthritis is the most common problem.  She might also need an injection, so talk to your vet next time he comes out for vaccinations, but start on a joint supplement now (cosequin, adequan maybe, msm, etc)

Answer 4

When you say stifle lock, I think you are talking about upward fixation of the patella.  If that is not the case then please disregard my answer.  I had a foal who developed this when she reached about 2 1/2 years old.  Her hind leg would lock at the stifle and would be able to free it with a popping sound when she manipulated the joint.    It started as an intermittent problem then got worse.  She was under-saddle for 3 months during the time when things seemed to have improved.  Once it deteriorated again, she was not ridden due to the danger of it locking while she had a rider on her back.  

The first thing the vet did was have her doing ground poles at the trot in the round pen for strengthening.  With little to no improvement he started her on a round of estrogen injections.  They don't know why, but this seems to help many horses.  We did this twice since we did see improvement after the first round.  We did end up doing the surgery and the rehab to follow.  She had significant improvement after surgery and several months of rehab.  In her case she will be able to do light to moderate riding.  Talk to your vet, depending on the severity there are other treatments available to try before considering surgery.  Surgery should be the last resort.

Answer 5

My friends horse was like that when they bought him.  He is an awesome horse.  There is an operation they had done on the horse.  If they did not get it done no way of showing him.  It is very painful.  They also had to have special shoeing, even after the surgery.  They were willing to put the money in the horse.  It's expensive and not always 100%.  Sometimes it still locks up and the owner has to unlock when this happens, the vet showed him how to do this.  The best thing to do is have a laminthis vet look to see if it is strifle lock.

Answer 6

do you know how to rock it back in. pull and rock, it works.

also keep up the calcium and if things get too bad you can get surgery to rectify it. but makesure you go to an equine vet.