I actually already have him on Mag 5000 for his headshakers (it’s the only thing that works for it) but if not this would have been a great suggestion!
Oh good. Poor bubba…I hope he stays as comfortable as possible.
I wanted to update mine, who had his hind feet radiographed yesterday when I took him in for his dental. He is neutral palmer angle on both, and vet wants him in a 2-3 degree wedge behind.
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Interesting-please update on us on how he feels after the wedge pads are put on!
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You might value listening to Emily Rose talk about PT for horses. She states that 70% of her cases are back pain and that core strength is what she sees most lacking in most horses. She talks about doing 4 exercises after her horses are worked - always after so muscles are warm.
Stretch down between the legs, carrot stretches off to each side, teaching them to step onto a pedestal with all 4 feet and another that is escaping me right now. Point being to strengthen the multifidus muscles (the spinal stabilizers).
She first worked as a human PT, then went through the Univ of TN equine PT course and now teaches down there.
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I’ll take a look at this, thank you!
On a somewhat related note, I saw someone post one day about a series someone had about improving your horse’s movement through PT type stuff, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. I think it had the word “movement” in the name but I’m not positive. It’s been driving me nuts!
If it was Balance Through Movement Method, don’t touch that with a 10 foot pole. There’s a whole thread here on it (the traveling horse witch). Basically, she’s a charlatan and the “PT” is just basic groundwork you can get for free or through some proven, inexpensive books.
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Ya, this gal is quite educated. Check out this bio:
https://www.reachingstridesrehab.com/about
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That’s exactly what it was and I had no idea it was her program! I’ve lightly perused that thread before.
Did you ever inject the neck?
If KS is ruled out I always go to feet, then neck.
I have injected the neck twice. The first time it was because he had begun more of a “bridle lameness” and we xrayed and found the OA in his neck. This was probably 4 years ago now, maybe 5.
The second time was when he came down with headshakers-we tried injecting the neck first since the head tossing seemed to be worse when he was asked to go in a frame, thought maybe it was the OA acting up. It was probably 2.5 years ago at this point.
It’s hard to say for certain how helpful it was-the first time I think it did help a bit, but we were just beginning to teach him how to really travel on the bit so we didn’t have a steady baseline. The second time I didn’t see a difference at all, however because what he really had was headshakers and not the OA flaring up like we thought, his symptoms wouldn’t have changed much anyways.
Headshaking is also associated with EPM.
Until recently, I understood EPM to be an acute illness that is obviously EPM - fever, ataxia, etc. Now I understand it can be much more insidious and go on for years with all these minor “weird things” that we look at and treat individually.
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It’s time to take this horse to a clinic/hospital if you’re wanting to unravel this. He sounds like a battery of physical complaints and you’ve thrown a lot at him so far without seeing anything stick in an appreciable way.
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You’re not wrong-it’s just that he’s 18 now and not really doing very much and I’ve spent a ton on another horse recently, so I can’t currently justify doing a full workup. I still ride him because otherwise he gets stiff, but I take it day-by-day and have spent the whole winter just letting him move out under me and standing off his back.
This plus stretches, Sure Foot Pads, and Back on Track products has been keeping him feeling pretty good currently, so I think I’m going to have to keep chipping away one thing at a time as I can afford it.
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He honestly sounds like he has too much physical ailment to unpack in a single farm call. Biting the bullet and going straight to a clinical setting/hospital will save you money in the long run as you are not trying random modalities to see what sticks. Hospitals see a lot more soundness cases than an independent vet practice - with collective industrial experience most small vet practices can’t compare to. Think of how much $$ you’ve spent trying things all these years.
Maybe reframing things as you’ve written would help? You have an 18 y/o horse who you’ve owned for several years who has neck arthritis, a bone spur, hock arthritis, headshaking, behavioral issues under saddle (bucking, tripping, etc), chronic back pain, navicular, topline changes, etc. That stuff isn’t going to go away by itself. He’d probably benefit from routine injections in the neck and back (as in every 6 months), an aggressive trim cycle, 24/7 turnout (with a herd), and gently – more realistic riding expectations.
Do what works best for you, but don’t do nothing. You’ve been posting about your issues with this gelding enough that even a random internet stranger such as myself recognized the horse/situation. Horses with chronic pain need chronic maintenance to be comfortable - with or without riding. They also tend to need a “Triage” approach - multiple therapies at once - to improve enough to see long term benefits. My 2 cents worth what you paid for it.
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This is beside the point because he does have a myriad of issues as you stated anyways, but I do have two different geldings. This one I have hardly posted about.
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Do you have two 18 y/o geldings with bone spurs in the neck, chronic back pain, and hock arthritis? Are these two different geldings below? I remembered reading these threads when you first posted them. From the outside looking in, there’s a lot going on with this horse and he’d probably benefit from a clinical workup. I’m not saying this to rag on you. I own this horse to a lesser degree and the throwing things at the wall approach did not work, and wasted a ton of money.
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No, those are the only two other posts about him I think. And I guess if we want to nitpick and dig up every old post to prove me wrong or whatever, which it feels like we are suddenly doing, then you can consider the Sure Foot pads about him too although that was more generic for both of my horses. Everything else has been about the other gelding.
Just because I am not doing one big workup in one go (which for the record, I have done before for this horse multiple times) does not mean I am standing by doing nothing. He is going on Adequan this spring (I never saw a difference with Legend so we are trying this to help maintain his hock arthritis instead), I have begun a whole stretching routine and am in the process of looking into other “rehab” type things for him such as mentioned above, I have pretty much fully reworked our rides to be more comfortable and enjoyable for him, and I am taking hind rads of his feet at his next appointment to check in on that in case any NPA could be putting additional strain on him.
I am totally not disagreeing with you that the horse is a mess, and if I had all the money in the world I would absolutely do a full workup and would probably just get a whole bone scan of him to really know. But I don’t have thousands handy to just throw at this all in one go. Everything I have done treatments for have been with real findings first - treated for ulcers based on a scope, injected hocks based off radiographs, injected neck based off radiographs, etc with the exception of the headshakers since that doesn’t have a tried and true answer that’s the same for every horse.
He is being seen by his vet frequently, with his next appointment being in a couple weeks. I just unfortunately don’t have the means to trailer in for one big appointment for him right now-if there comes a day when I can do so, I totally will. But in the meantime I will keep digging, one thing at a time as I can manage it.
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So I think I’ve decided, with his next appointment coming up, I am definitely going to get rads of his hind feet and will consider an EPM test at the same time. He’s going to be starting Adequan soon to see if that helps with his arthritis since I didn’t ever notice a difference with the Legend. We will just wait and see what comes from that, and @PaddockWood I will be looking into Emily Rose as well. Thank you for the suggestion!
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OP, we’re all on your side in this stuff. Beowulf has alot of experience and perspective. If she is offering suggestions, they are worth hearing. You have every right to disagree with anyone’s perspective, but I am a big fan of being open to what is being offered, before making the adult choice to agree or disagree. Again, we’re all with you and trying to help as best as we can. I’m sorry if it felt like nitpicking.
I would agree that you might be spending more money by not doing a full work-up, than you are by taking things in pieces. If your horse is seeing the same vet frequently and you’re not getting anywhere, the horse might benefit from fresh eyes.
Good luck and we’ll all be interested to hear how things go.
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