Subtle Lameness

Subtle Lameness

Tuesdays with Tony

Ah, the subtle lameness. This is often a source of medical mystery for my Docs. For me, it’s like a good Netflix drama. Is the problem even what you think it is? One minute you’re sure it’s the left rear leg, but it turns out it’s really the neck, and sometimes it isn’t even a lameness! It’s a neurologic issue, or even a muscle disorder. I tell you, it’s high suspense around here! How do my Docs even begin to unravel the mystery? Read on while I drop some cat wisdom on you.

Start at the Beginning

Everyone always wants lameness exams to start with trotting, or riding, or something where they can show off the lame part. My Docs never start here. It’s even more important with the vague lameness. They start by talking with you about what’s going on. The story is often long, complicated, and can have some subtle plot points. 

It may be that it all started with a day where Flicka didn’t feel quite right. From there, some days have been good, maybe some bad. There could be a buck when turning left and picking up the canter. There could be a skip when coming down to a trot from the canter. All those little clues help my Docs begin to formulate an idea. That idea is just that, an idea. It’s likely to change as more information is added, but it’s the starting point of what’s really going on. Much like that Netflix show, there may be some false clues in here, but without exploring them all, my Docs often can’t know what’s real and what’s not. 

Hands On

We’re still not going to run the horse around. The next step is a full cat scan… er, human scan. I’m generally very involved from a supervisory standpoint for this part. My Docs will poke, prod, flex, extend, and turn all your horse’s parts while standing still. 

Each Doc goes through this a little differently, but the general idea is to get their hands on every part of your horse, and to move those parts through their normal range of motion while standing still. This is often very telling about where horses are stiff, sore, or generally reactive. Excellent clues are gained from this section of the exam. Those ideas from earlier are expanded upon, modified, and sometimes changed all together. 

Finally, We Move

Once there has been time spent on history, and hands laid upon the horse, then we head out to see how they move. Generally, my Docs start on grass footing. They watch the horse walk away from them, towards them, and from the side. They will often watch, and then video. Then they do the same at the trot. Depending on how that goes, next may come flexions, or heading to a hard surface to see what happens there, or some circles in both directions. 

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Different problems show up in different places. Some things don’t like hard surfaces, some don’t like soft, some don’t like to be on the inside of a circle, and some object strongly to being on the outside of the circle. Especially with a subtle lameness, my Docs are going to run through a lot of scenarios. They are also going to video a lot of those scenarios and watch them in slow motion. Slow motion can really highlight an area that isn’t moving normally. Turns out those phones are good for something more than Facebook! 

A Cautionary Tale of Flexions

Flexions are a let’s stress this area and see what happens kind of test. They are far from perfect, but they can sometimes point to an area that hurts when it’s bent, held, and then asked to move. However, flexions can lie in all sorts of ways. Occasionally, there’s a well-performing horse with no issues that trots off like it has a broken leg when flexed. More often there are lame horses that trot off exactly the same when flexed. Flexions add information to the mystery; they don’t solve it!

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Even More Moving

With a subtle lameness, my Docs will often have you ask the horse to perform their normal job. My Docs will watch the horse go through their paces. They nearly always video this part, especially if faster gaits or quick turns are involved. Even my Docs are only human, and videos help them see the subtle changes going on. For many of these not-so-obvious lamenesses, it takes until this step to really fully complete that inkling of an idea that happened way back at talking to you about history. 

Next Steps

Depending on all the previous steps, the next step can be a variety of things: blocking, radiographs, or ultrasound. Blocking involves numbing an area to see if the problem stops. There are obvious issues with this system. Sometimes you have what we call an unblockable area. Many back and pelvis issues fall under these categories. The other issue is some horses really change the way they move when some part of their body is numb. Last week we had one that held his leg up in the air because his foot was blocked. Very, very difficult to continue a lameness like that! There was nothing to do but wait for the block to wear off and try a different plan. Ah horses. 

Some areas my Docs image before they block if they are suspicious. Proximal suspensories often fall in this category. To block them, you have to put liquid where the ultrasound then looks, which makes it look like you have a really, really bad suspensory issue when it might just be your block. Some areas, like backs, don’t always respond great to blocks so x-rays or ultrasound may be the next step. 

Next, Next Steps

After narrowing down their ideas to a primary problem, my Docs will work on a plan to address that primary issue. This may involve injections, rehab therapy, spinal manipulation, acupuncture, a change in tack, or any of a number of things. Often there is a combo pack of things that need to be done to help these horses. Rarely is it a let me give your horse this magic injection (or pill) and all will be fixed! 

Subtle lamenesses can be frustrating. Making sure you have reasonable expectations for the process, and knowing the results often require a lot of work can help everyone arrive at the best answer for the horse. Unlike Law & Order, the perpetrator isn’t always found in 47 minutes. Sometimes it can be an 8-episode series, and there’s no binge watching allowed. We hope for a 2-3 episode max series to solve the mystery, but horses have their own ideas about what’s entertainment.

One thing I didn’t mention was the rider. An unbalanced rider can make it difficult for the horse to do all the things. That’s a whole different blog, and may require some professional help for the rider (physical therapist to figure out your body, mental therapist to help you accept that you’re not perfect, etc). My humans just released a podcast episode about that very topic called Unbalanced Riders, so make sure you’re subscribed to the show, or head over to the Podcast Page of my website to listen in!

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Be a good human and scroll down to the purple box and subscribe to my blog. Don’t rely on Facebook to let you know when a new one is out. My subscribers get it right in their email inbox, and a day earlier than everyone else! Go ahead, just scroll down a little further. Good human. You can do it!

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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More Adventures of the Horse Doctor's Husband
To Lunge or Not To Lunge

To Lunge or Not To Lunge

Tuesdays with Tony

Those crazy sticks that horses walk around on. It’s not a great design. Then you humans do crazy things like lunging. I mean, I get it. Horses worry about big cats, like me, attacking them out of nowhere, especially if they’re in a new environment like a horse show. A great way to get them to worry less about make-believe monsters is to make sure they’re a bit on the tired side. Lunging has become the preferred method for this. Let’s talk about why that’s not such a great idea for the long term soundness of your best friend. 

 

Circles. All the circles

 

Let’s begin with the obvious. Lunging involves horses going around in a circle on a long lead rope. Most of those lead ropes are in the 30 foot range. For a human, this would be like running around on about a 10 foot diameter circle. Try it for a while, and see how it feels. I’ll give you the answer: if you are going to the left, after about 5 minutes the inside of your right foot and the outside of your left foot are going to get sore. Keep going and your knees are going to get sore. Throw in a buck, and a rear while someone pulls on your head just to see how that goes. I think you probably get the idea. 

Lunging is really, really hard on the joints. It’s even harder on the joints when your horse is wild, and doing the gallop whilst leaning at a 45 degree angle to the ground, oh and adding some airs above the ground work. You can see where this could be really, really hard on those sticks they run around on. Add in a foot that’s off balance, and you have a real recipe for disaster. Shameless plug for my many foot blogs. It’s a very important topic, and that’s why I talk about it A LOT.

 

Options other than circles

 

I get it. I’ve seen what those crazy horses do when they decide the world is a scary place. I certainly wouldn’t want to ride them when they’re like that! This is a good time to evaluate options before it’s time to tame the wild beast. I hear trainers talk about the importance of transitions all the time. Asking your horse to walk, trot, walk, canter a few steps, walk, while on the lunge line is a great way to get their brain thinking. 

Teach them this before the horse show. Don’t just stand in one place while your horse runs around you. Move around. This will make the circle bigger, which will put less stress on your horse’s joints. If your horse is a real wild one at shows, you may want to consider teaching them how to lunge in a surcingle, and side reins. This will give you a whole new level of control. A surcingle and side reins also help your horse work while lunging, instead of running around in circles. 

Teaching Zen

 

My favorite option is the ‘not lunging’ option. There are lots of ways to do this. Finding the way that works best for you is key. My favorite is groundwork. There are approximately 8,432 natural horsemanship videos on YouTube. It’s a good place to start getting an understanding of what good groundwork can do for you, and your horse. I myself didn’t understand this whole groundwork thing for a very long time, but I now know it’s all about teaching your horse to stay calm when you say it’s ok. Yes, there can be lots of circles involved in that process, but these can be done at home, and in a controlled fashion. Once your horse understands the principles, there are very few circles, and you can “catch” the brain pretty quickly in even the craziest of horse show worlds. Hand walking for long periods of time around showgrounds is also great. It is low impact on your horse, but let’s them see all the sights and sounds. 

 

Better Living Through Chemistry

 

Now, I know there are two definite camps here. One is, you don’t need drugs, you can get it done with training. I agree with that camp, but I also agree with the other camp. That camp says I’m old, and it’s really going to hurt if I fall off. Both are the right answer. If you have all the time in the world, and you aren’t worried about falling off, go with the first one. Time will get you there. If you are scared, don’t make a bad situation worse. Talk to my Docs about options for a little sedation. The key is A LITTLE sedation, AND spending time helping your horse understand how calm they can be. To be clear, I’m not saying that you show your sedated horse, and I’m not saying sedate the snot out of them, then get on. I’m saying a little sedation and a training opportunity can go a very long way to teaching horses they can be calm. This should also only be tried under the supervision of my Docs, and a good trainer. 

 

Lunging is a great way to cause, and exacerbate, lameness. Make it your goal to do less of it, and work on horsemanship more. That’s really good advice from a very wise cat. You should follow it. Know what else you should do? Scroll down a little bit, and click on the subscribe button. All the cool humans subscribe to my blog. 

Until next week,

Tony

P.S. Have you listened to any of the podcast episodes my docs produce? It’s called Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth, and it’s absolutely loaded with good information, much like my blogs. Oh, and it’s free! Check it out here: Podcast

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Talk To The Foot

Talk To The Foot

Tuesdays with Tony

With the amount I talk about horse feet, you all must think I’m obsessed with them. Well, you kind of have to be when you run an equine vet clinic like I do. Horse feet are kinda important. It’s not like a dog, where they can get along just fine on 3 legs. Horses need all 4 of their feet to be in good working order just to survive. So today I’m going to teach you a few things you can look for to make sure your horse’s feet are going in the right direction instead of the wrong one.

 

Lameness

   Did you know that over 85% of lameness in horses originates in the foot? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen humans bring their horse in for “soreness in the stifles”, “hock injections”, or even a “broken shoulder” and the problem ends up being in the foot. The silver lining in this is the fact that foot problems can often be easily corrected by trimming and shoeing, which is an easy and inexpensive fix, relatively speaking. Believe me, you WANT your horse’s lameness to be in the foot. That’s a much better scenario than a bone cyst, severe arthritis, or a torn suspensory ligament.

    This should go without saying, but recurring foot lameness is usually an indicator that your horse isn’t happy with how he’s being trimmed or shod. Now, I’m not telling you to pick up the phone and call a new farrier. A great place to start is with X-rays of your horse’s feet. There is only so much a farrier can tell from the outside of the foot. Many times, the bony column within the foot doesn’t match what the hoof would lead you to believe.

    There is so much we can learn from just a single side-view of the foot. My docs can tell you if your horse has any signs of laminitis, such as rotation or sinking of the coffin bone (the bone inside the hoof). They can even tell you if these changes are acute (new) or chronic (old). They can determine your horse’s palmar angle, or the angle between the ground and the bottom of the coffin bone.

white line disease horse hoof

They can tell you if your horse has signs of coffin joint arthritis, or navicular disease (note: to get a full evaluation of the navicular bone, a few more views would be necessary). They can tell you how good the bony alignment is from the fetlock joint down to the tip of the toe. This hoof-pastern-axis should be a straight line, neither “broken-forward” nor “broken back.”  Your farrier may be surprised to see how much excess toe or how little sole your horse has. Additionally, he can get an idea of the side-to-side symmetry and balance of the foot from one more front-to-back view.

 

A Good Trim

 

Everything about horse feet starts with a good trim. You can see my Everything You Need To Know About Horse Feet blogs for tons of information and pictures. Here’s the basics: the heels should be brought down to the widest point of the frog. Yes, brought down. Do not leave bad-quality heel on. You can’t “grow better heels” on a horse. They’ve got what the good Lord gave ‘em and you can’t fix it, you just have to manage it.

Alignment side equine hoof demo at equine hoof care semina

From there, your farrier should trim the foot as they normally would. When finished, the widest part of the hoof should be halfway between the toe and the heel. If it isn’t, the trim is adjusted until it fits this ideal. If it can’t be….well, that takes me to the next section of this blog

 

Shoes or no shoes

 

I hear it all the time: “My farrier just wants to charge me more so they said my horse needs shoes.” Nope, not true. Farrier myth busted. Every farrier I met doesn’t want to put shoes on a horse until they absolutely need it. However, when the hoof has been trimmed to the best of your farrier’s ability, and the mechanics are still all messed up, a shoe is needed to fix what’s messed up.

If your horse has really weird feet, your farrier is definitely going to want an appointment with our Docs and the x-ray at the same time. This will get your horse the best possible shoeing job. Heck, your farrier and my Docs get so much information from foot x-rays that we recommend them for every performance horse, every year.

No hoof, no horse, is the truest thing ever said about a horse. Be sure to use my Docs as the great resource they are to help your horse have the very best feet they possibly can!

 

Now be a good human. Scroll down a teenie, tiny bit further and subscribe to my blog. All the cool humans do it. And if you listen to the podcast my Docs do, which is another cool human trait, you can listen to more about horse feet. The more you know, the better care you can provide for your horse.

 

Until next week,

 

~Tony

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Navicular Disease

Navicular Disease

Tuesdays with Tony

It’s definitely busy season here at the clinic! All the breeding work and new foal checks on top of my usual bread & butter makes for one exhausted office cat. But I’d hate to disappoint my adoring fans, so I will postpone my cat nap long enough to shower you all with some new information on an old problem called Navicular disease.

 

What is a “navicular”?

     Kinda sounds like one of the pieces you make sure you take out of your Thanksgiving turkey before eating it, right? Well, in fact, the navicular is a small bone in your horse’s foot at the back of the coffin joint. It is technically a sesamoid bone, meaning it is not one of the main weight-bearing bones in a joint. Despite this, navicular bones play a huge role in the physiology of how a horse’s foot bears weight.
      Navicular disease syndrome describes a problem with the navicular bone plus or minus any of the structures it connects to. You see, the location of the navicular bone smack in the middle of the hoof makes this tiny bone extremely significant. The navicular bone is in contact with the coffin joint, the navicular bursa, the coffin bone, the short pastern bone, the navicular impar ligament, the deep digital flexor tendon, and the digital cushion. This is why navicular disease can go south so quickly!

How is Navicular disease diagnosed?

      Navicular disease usually manifests itself as forelimb lameness. The lameness may be mild or intermittent at first, and it may be difficult to tell which front foot is lame. The classic feature of navicular disease is that it is almost always bilateral (affecting both front feet). If your horse’s lame foot is blocked (numbed with local anesthesia), and the lameness switches to the other foot, a diagnosis of navicular disease is high on the list.
     X-rays of the front feet are needed to confirm this diagnosis and to get an idea of the severity of your horse’s condition. This is when I get to sit back and watch the docs and techs try to make your horse do circus tricks in order to get some fancy X-ray views. First, they need the horse to put both front feet up on these little wooden blocks. Next, they get the horse to stand on a tunnel with the X-ray plate in it. Then they ask the horse to stand with one leg forward and one leg back while they crouch under the horse’s belly and point the machine at the horse’s heel. Let me tell you, it looks absolutely ridiculous, and is hilarious to watch.
    While X-rays can give the docs a lot of information about the navicular bone itself, MRI is required to fully evaluate the soft tissue structures involved. If it’s in the budget, we would strongly recommend an MRI if your horse is diagnosed with Navicular disease.

Can Navicular disease be treated? 

     Yes! While navicular disease is a degenerative condition, this diagnosis is certainly not a death sentence for your horse when it is identified in its early stages. Certain breeds, such as Quarter horses and Paints, are more likely to develop the condition than others. If you own one of these horses and notice any forelimb lameness, or if your farrier tells you that your horse is painful across his heels, have him evaluated by a vet ASAP!
     Corrective shoeing is the cornerstone of treatment for navicular disease. Wedge pads will take some pressure off the heels, where the navicular structures are, and redistribute the weight to his toe. Any decent farrier should be able to handle applying wedge pads, but make sure he or she gets a chance to look at your horse’s X-rays to determine what degree of wedge your horse needs. If you have a stellar farrier who is adept at corrective shoeing projects, he may try a therapeutic shoe with a built-in wedge (bars that are thicker at the heel than at the toe), and/or other modifications to suit your horse’s individual needs.
     The corrective farriery is essential to managing a horse with navicular disease, but it’s not always enough by itself. Your vet may prescribe anti-inflammatory medications to give your horse long-term in order to maintain his comfort. Equioxx is commonly employed in these cases because it boasts far fewer negative GI side effects compared to Bute or Banamine. Joint injections are another way to decrease the inflammation associated with navicular disease. Going back to our anatomy lesson from earlier, injections into either the coffin joint or the navicular bursa may help your horse, as the navicular bone borders both of these structures.

A word about OsPhos

    The new kid on the block as far as treating navicular disease goes is a drug called OsPhos. This medication is definitely in vogue right now, especially in the Quarter Horse world, but does it really work? Well, lucky for you, I like to be a well-educated cat, so I did some research on the subject.
     OsPhos has been shown in vitro (that means in a Petri dish in the lab) to reduce osteoclast activity. Osteoclasts are cells that break down bone. One of the primary features of navicular disease is that the navicular bone essentially disintegrates over time (a severely diseased navicular bone will look like a slice of Swiss cheese). Ok, so this sounds like a no-brainer, right? The navicular bone is breaking down, so let’s give a drug that inhibits bone breakdown to stop progression of the disease.
    Well, there are 2 little problems with OsPhos. Remember that whole Petri dish thing? Well, just because we know a drug works in a lab means nada when it comes to how that drug will work when injected into a horse’s body. The medication has been approved by the FDA so we know it is relatively safe for horses, but how well it works at actually treating navicular disease is anybody’s guess.
    The second problem is a recently-recognized side-effect, which we all should have expected when you think about it. It has been suggested (by some very smart veterinarians) that OsPhos inhibits bone healing. This makes sense, because in addition to eating away at diseased navicular bones, osteoclasts actually have an important role in bone healing in a healthy horse. If your horse were to fracture a bone, osteoclasts would get to work right away cleaning up the shattered fragments and making way for osteoblasts (bone-making cells) to lay down new bone. Well, if your horse is in work, and his bones are under stress, they are essentially sustaining millions of micro-fractures all the time. In a normal horse, this would be no big deal. Osteoclasts would swoop in, clean up the damaged bone, and it would be replaced by new bone, which would be even stronger than before. But, in a horse that has been treated with OsPhos, those osteoclasts are inhibited, the damaged bone doesn’t get cleaned up, the new bone can’t be laid down, and the bone is left weaker than before.
     If you’ve followed my cat-splaining this long, good for you! If not, don’t worry, just trust my vets. Here’s their two cents: OsPhos is worth a try in horses with a definitive diagnosis of navicular disease. However, if one treatment doesn’t do the trick, it’s probably not a good idea to give this medication repeatedly. OsPhos is definitely not a lameness cure-all, and it doesn’t make sense to use it in horses to treat anything other than navicular disease.
   Well, I sure hope I still have time to get my nap in! Tomorrow’s another day full of foals, mares, and stallions. I need to be alert to manage my minions as they run around like chickens with their heads cut off.
    See you next week!
           -Tony

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Office Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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New Years Resolutions and Horses

New Years Resolutions and Horses

Tuesdays with Tony

 Ahh a new year, another chance to make your dreams come true! 2018 offers us each the opportunity to start fresh, to turn over a new leaf. I know you horse-crazy cats pretty well by now, and I bet I can guess some of your New Years resolutions. For some of you, it might be to make it to Pony Finals. For others, it might be to get in the money in the 2D. Some of you might even have the goal of riding your horse for the first time in several years. Whatever your competition goals this year, Springhill Equine can help you achieve them. My docs are well versed in getting your horse to where he needs to be to make your wildest dreams a reality. I need to find someone to help me with that… cats have dreams too, you know!

Resolution #1: Get my horse on a Wellness Plan

   First, let’s start with the basics. In order for your horse to get back in the game and stay there, you will need to make sure his healthcare needs are taken care of. The easiest way to do that is with one of my all-inclusive Wellness Plans. Not only do they cover all of your horse’s routine medical care like vaccines, dentals, and Coggins, but they also offer peace of mind in the form of No Emergency Fees should your horse meet with an unexpected illness or injury this year.

    Whether your goal is trail riding or racing, or somewhere in between, your horse can’t be expected to do his best if he isn’t feeling well. Each Wellness Plan comes with 2 complete physical exams each year to catch the little problems before they become a big deal. These visits are also a great opportunity to check in with one of our vets, and discuss any concerns you may have with your horse’s performance. If there is an underlying medical problem, you will certainly need to get that taken care of before you can move up to the next level in your sport. I realize that this advice would have more clout coming from someone who actually participated in sports, which I decidedly do not.

Resolution #2: Have that nagging, super-minor, only-sometimes, usually-works-out-of-it lameness checked out

  Just because a judge wouldn’t necessarily notice it in the show ring doesn’t mean it’s not there. If you feel your horse is off, even if it’s only a little hitch when he comes around that 3rd barrel and it only happens when he’s tired, you should really have one of my amazing vets look into it.
    There are a few reasons you should have a mild lameness worked up sooner rather than later. First, even a minor lameness could be a sign of a serious injury, and continuing to work your horse could make the injury worse. Second, the lameness could be an early sign of a disease that can be prevented. For example, if your horse is diagnosed with early arthritis, there are medications you could start him on now that are proven to protect his joints from further damage. Third, and most importantly, that nagging, barely-there lameness could be affecting your horse’s performance, and getting it properly treated could make the difference between first and last place at your next competition. Wouldn’t you love to know if something as simple as a shoeing change could make him feel—and thus perform—10 times better?

Resolution #3: Achieve my competition goals

   Once you have your horse’s health in order, this third step will be easy! With the help of my splendid team of vets, techs, and staff, your horse will be looking and feeling his best. I like to offer our clients the total package – from nutrition to dentistry, from farriers to trainers, rest assured someone at Springhill can point you in the right direction. Remember, a healthy horse is a happy horse, and happy horses win prizes!
    I’m afraid the only competition I have to look forward to this year is the occasional cat fight between myself and Teanie over someone’s tuna sandwich. So, I must live vicariously through all of you and your horses. Your New Years resolutions are truly important to me, and I want to see you stick to all of them!
     WishIng you and your horse the best of luck and a Happy New Year!!!!
      -Tony

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Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Office Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

Lameness: Video Diagnosing and Rehab

Lameness: Video Diagnosing and Rehab

Tuesdays with Tony

This ‘riding of horses’ thing amazes me. First, that they let you humans do it. Second, how much devotion you humans have to it. I wish my minions had that level of devotion to scratching my chin just right all day long. That would make me a happy cat. Where am I going with this ‘level of devotion’ thing? I helped analyze videos this week. You may have an idea about what this means. I thought popcorn and soda, but in reality it’s the analysis of every footfall, every wiggle, every head movement, and even what the human is doing while a horse is doing what it does. In the end, the rider had very concrete exercises to deal with the issues this horse was having.

Lameness

It started with a “left shift when jumping” problem. The rider came to my Docs because her horse was shifting hard to the left. She wanted to eliminate a pain or physical problem. Always a wise idea. Unlike cats, most of the time horses want to do what you humans are asking. If they aren’t doing it, eliminating a painful cause is a good idea! A very thorough lameness exam ensued. Despite flexions, circles, backing, head up, head down, over the hill, and going through the wood, no lameness could be created. Now, there are lots of lamenesses that can’t be recreated on the ground, so the Docs had the rider get on and ride. You won’t believe what they noticed under saddle!  Ah, I crack myself up. I was on Facebook reading clickbait articles until the wee hours of the morning with Teanie last night.

Anyway, under saddle the Docs saw this horse pushed his right hind to the inside. They called it “tripoding.” I’m pretty sure they made that term up, but you get the idea. Next they had the horse jump over small jumps coming towards them, going away from them, and finally from the side. They recorded all of these angles on video. Then they spent a whole lot of time watching these videos over, and over, and over. I finally went to sleep. A cat can only watch a horse repeatedly take off and land over the same exact jump so many times. The result was a list of things this horse was doing that caused him to shift left. For instance, he always pushed off with his left leg, and he would do just about anything to make that happen. At the same time he pushed off with his left leg, he dove right with his shoulders, and his right stifle bowed out.

FES Tuesdays with TonyRehab

Now we have something to work on! What does that work look like? Incredibly detailed and somewhat tedious. Work a cat would not be good at. For this horse, it started with an FES session. That’s Functional Electrical Stimulation. This therapy is like pilates for horses. It stretches muscles and gets things moving. This guy was very tight in his neck and hip area! He’ll get a session a week for 5 to 6 weeks to help the rehab work go farther, faster. That rehab work is going to be in hand and under saddle work to help him strengthen the stifle so it can stay strong on that right side, and work to help him “lock in” to a straight line. Right now he rides like a wet noodle!

Not getting the performance you want? Talk to my Docs. They’ll have you clocking 1D times, jumping higher, or collecting better in no time! Until next week….

Tony

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Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Office Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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