Akal Ranch

I was going to wait to post an update until our next vet visit, but questions are coming in from friends about Lily, so here’s the latest.

I went back and forth about putting shoes on Lily. I used boots for a couple of rides after the last vet visit. She didn’t move much in her paddock and when I ran Vinnie around to take his movement video, I could really see the contrast when she moved. She was in pain. It was subtle, but I could really see it in comparison to him. So I went ahead and ordered Ground Control plastic shoes and had my trimmer put them on her front feet. The do not have the concussion that metal shoes do and they leave room for her heels to flex. She was slightly better with them, but still not 100%. I wanted to see if they made her move any better. It was only very slightly better.

Since then, she turned up very lame in her left hind while out on a trail ride. I had to hand walk her back the last 3 miles or so, stopping to rest frequently and massaging her rump to help the spasms relax. Two massage therapists looked at her and we all thought that the most pain was in the muscles around her hip joint. When I went to load her to go home, she winced every time she tried to lift that left hind. I gave her some Banamine and that made it easier for her to load.

The following Tuesday, my vet had a clinic at the barn down the road, so I took her for another lameness exam. He did flexions and palpation. She resisted the flexions on her hind legs, but trotted off relatively even. She was very short strided though and stands with her hips tucked more than she used to. All these things are subtle and would likely be missed on a pasture horse or broodmare. I can tell when I ride her, as her gaits (all of them) are choppy with a hitch, not her usual smooth, reaching strides. It actually hurts my back.

Dr. Camp found that her hind tendons were both sore. DSLD/ESPA usually shows up bilaterally, so that could be a reason that she trots off evenly. Both legs hurt equally. She was still slightly off in the right front as well. We are going back to the clinic on the 17th for ultrasound of her right front foot and hind suspensories. He will also x-ray her hocks. He felt that she should have shown more improvement with shoes than she did. He thought that she may have a soft tissue injury low in her right front, possibly the insertion of the deep digital flexor tendon, or possibly hock problems, and he also admitted that she could be showing early signs of DSLD/ESPA.

So she is on stall/paddock rest, no riding…

She’s currently getting Thyro-L, MSM, Mag Ox, flax, whole psyllium and Equerry Plus supplements in a bit of Triple Crown Low Starch and I’ll be adding the herbs that are being used experimentally with D/E horses as soon as they come in the mail. I’ve been learning about D/E for the last year or so, as I had the suspicion in the back of my mind about it. This yahoogroup is a wealth of information. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSLD-equine/

I certainly hope that it is something other than D/E. Something that is treatable would be really nice. If it is D/E, then I will be on a search to find out the source in her pedigree. I hope that research will soon produce a genetic test to see if a horse is a carrier or not. If our breed does have D/E in it, it should be discussed.