For all of you that have experience with this–what made you suspect there was a problem? Did the lameness come first? Or was it the dropped fetlocks? My mare’s fetlocks just dropped while she was pregnant with her 09 filly. They looked pretty normal before that. She hasn’t been bred since that filly was born.
Oh STOP IT. That is NOT what I said, nor implied and you know it.
If your mare has dropped fetlocks and 2 suspensory injuries, I’d be getting 2nd and 3rd opinions before just believing one vet who says the ultrasounds are clear. Ultrasounds are tricky to read and not all vets pick up on everything. And DSLD is one of those things that some vets aren’t that experienced with. If you don’t believe me - just spend a day reading the stories of the people on the DSLD list. Many many years going undiagnosed for many of them. Lots of vet visits and passing the symptoms off as something else.
What I attempted to point out is that if you have a horse that has the obvious symptoms of DSLD, invest the time and $$$ to get more than one opinion because not every vet is experienced with the disease.
Good point, Auventera. I’m going to make some phone calls to the vet clinics to see if there is someone experienced with it.
My mare had been doing awesome - very sound given the fact she was a chronic founder with bone demineralization. But she came in from the pasture one night hopping on 3 legs back in the winter.
She would barely touch the toe down to the floor but would not weight the heel at all. That’s typical of an abscess so I soaked, wrapped, poulticed, all that jazz with no improvement.
The vet came out and diagnosed it as a low suspensory injury - probably a tear, given the severity of her lameness. It was at that point she talked to me about DSLD, based on the physical exam she did on the horse. She told me to do Previcox, support bandaging, stall rest, hand walking, etc.
We got through that and then the mare was lame again, lameness had progressed to both front limbs, then all 4. She developed swelling and pain to palpation and flexion on all 4 limbs. Vet was out again and suggested euthanasia, said that soft tissue was basically trashed.
Had a second vet out for a second opinion. He concurred with the first vet on the diagnosis of DSLD, but didn’t think she should be euthanized yet. He said he could easily palpate large lesions, mushiness, and laxity in the superficials, deep flexors, and suspensory branches on both front limbs, and to a lessor degree on the hinds. He said that she appears to be contracting upwards - in other words, the pasterns are becoming more steep, which apparently happens in many cases. Only about 50% of DSLD horses have sunken fetlocks, according to the info. on the DSLD yahoo group.
Some days the AAKG/J treatment has the horse motoring around the field so well you wouldn’t know anything is wrong with her. Then some days she can’t even get out of her little paddock. It is so frustrating.
[QUOTE=Callaway;4830862]
For all of you that have experience with this–what made you suspect there was a problem? Did the lameness come first? Or was it the dropped fetlocks? My mare’s fetlocks just dropped while she was pregnant with her 09 filly. They looked pretty normal before that. She hasn’t been bred since that filly was born.[/QUOTE]
I have a TB gelding with confirmed DSLD. He started with a suspensory tear/rehab. He went sound after an almost yr long rehab. Then reoccurance. I retired him, but later decided to investigate further. 2 vets came to the same conclusion. he is now very dropped and I know we are on borrowed time.
For a mare, remember pregnancy causes the mares’ ligaments and such to go lax so the foal can be born. IF she is older and her occurance came very late term pregnancy, I would be sure to share this with the vets as it could be being older she just never rebounded to normal from the natural relaxation.
A2
[edit]
to the OP, this is not magic. the diagnosis can be based solely on the U/S without any exterior issues with dropped fetlocks.
Uhhhh that would be Peruvians that are the most affected.
[edit]
[edit]
Marta [edit] You said your mare has dropped fetlocks and 2 suspensory injuries, and I’ve followed your years of lameness issues with her. I remember when you first posted issues about her being “off” and “not quite right” on the various barefoot yahoo boards. What you describe with your horse seems a lot like what other DSLD owners describe. Years of lameness you just can’t put your finger on, then suspensory injuries show up, then fetlocks drop. All I’m saying is that if a horse is highly suspect of DSLD, getting a 2nd or 3rd opinion does not hurt. Good grief.
Ack… wrong post. Never mind.
Oh geeze. Not sure why RAD thinks a gaited horse can’t also trot, canter and gallop like other breeds??? Most gaited horses can perform the standard gaits. This horse trots and gaits, sometimes she walks square and diagonal, sometimes lateral and pacey. Sometimes she does a convoluted mixup of the two. When she is excited to leave her stall and get outside in the mornings, sometimes her hoof beats sound like a whole bunch of clattering with no distinct rhythm, sometimes it’s a distinct 4-beat. Just depends on the day. The better she feels, and the more sound she is, the more likely she is to gait.
Two years ago when she was amazingly sound and feeling awesome, her and I did some trail rides together, and wow her gait is incredible. Totally smooth like riding a surf wave 
I don’t like the side to side motion of the Walking horse but hers I could ride all day. She has trotted a couple of times under saddle but not much.
Maybe RAD can find and post some credible references that says Pasos can’t trot. Maybe I can pass those on to the owner of a Paso I trim who prefers to trot, and does dressage. LOL!
[QUOTE=Auventera Two;4834110]
Oh geeze. Not sure why RAD thinks a gaited horse can’t also trot, canter and gallop like other breeds??? Most gaited horses can perform the standard gaits. This horse trots and gaits, sometimes she walks square and diagonal, sometimes lateral and pacey. Sometimes she does a convoluted mixup of the two. When she is excited to leave her stall and get outside in the mornings, sometimes her hoof beats sound like a whole bunch of clattering with no distinct rhythm, sometimes it’s a distinct 4-beat. Just depends on the day. The better she feels, and the more sound she is, the more likely she is to gait.
Two years ago when she was amazingly sound and feeling awesome, her and I did some trail rides together, and wow her gait is incredible. Totally smooth like riding a surf wave I don’t like the side to side motion of the Walking horse but hers I could ride all day. She has trotted a couple of times under saddle but not much.
Maybe RAD can find and post some credible references that says Pasos can’t trot. Maybe I can pass those on to the owner of a Paso I trim who prefers to trot, and does dressage. LOL![/QUOTE]
That’s really funny…my friend owns a bunch of pasos and she gets so mad at them when they trot instead of corto or largo. She does canter them.
LOL I’ve read articles giving instruction on getting your Paso to gait instead of trot and how encouraging the trot and supressing the gaits can lead to loss of muscle and natural cadence. I wonder why these articles are necessary if Pasos can’t trot? What was it RAD said about “internet experts?” 
I cantered Libbey once on a trail - well, it was more of a 4-beat hand-gallop type deal. My friend was laughing herself silly. She said Libbey’s legs were going 100 miles an hour. But it felt so smooth and like her feet weren’t even touching the ground.
I forgot about this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLLPqcDeiGg At about 20 seconds there’s a short little clip of her doing “something.” ??? I wish I had more of that old video left because the longer she flew around the pasture, the more pure the gait got and it really was something to see. This little segment is sort of a half-trot, half-something??? But I lost a bunch of videos and photos when my old computer died. When she does gaits like this on the harder ground around the barn, there are lots of hoof beats, and what looks like sort of a trot sounds like 4 beats.
Oftentimes an uneducated eye can easily confuse a bilateral lameness with “gaiting”.
Just sayin…
[QUOTE=hitchinmygetalong;4836485]
Oftentimes an uneducated eye can easily confuse a bilateral lameness with “gaiting”.
Just sayin…[/QUOTE]
Exactly right Hitch. And a “professional” trimmer who can’t tell a lame horse from a sound horse, priceless!
What she is doing 20 seconds in isn’t gaiting - It’s OUCHY trotting.
Ugh.
What were you thinking letting a foundered horse snark down all that grass? Hopefully you don’t have this same mentality now.
Hindsight being 20/20 and all.
Just Sayin…
That’s not remotely gaiting. That’s hitchy ouchy ouch. ouch.
When____ bought a mare and asked me to evaluate her, I admired the mare’s tiny pitty pat jog as safe as houses for their little girl. Then I realized in just a few strides that was all she could offer, click her up into a lope and she was in agony, squatting on the back, real quick up front, then squat again.
Farrier eval’ed and found nothing in the feet per se, something arthritic and owy further up. There was no $$ to find out what. His comment, Well, hell, in a way they done good. Ain’t no way she can hurt (their daughter).
Some internet experts think horses have one long bone in their tail. Just sayin’
Yep, been there, done that on what A2 said, “If you don’t believe me - just spend a day reading the stories of the people on the DSLD list. Many many years going undiagnosed for many of them. Lots of vet visits and passing the symptoms off as something else.”
That’s a lame ouchy mare in the trot section of the video. Possibly her hoof health issues cropped up earlier than expected and weren’t noticed until they became more serious?
And another thing
Just sayin…
Awhile back A2, you posted this about Libbey, the gaited, can eat all the grass she wants, non cushings sound horse
What makes you think she looks like a Cushings horse? She’s part Shetland pony if that matters, and they are shaggy little things anyway. I’ll just be curious to see how she sheds out.
It was posted here http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88692&page=3 #58
Now she is a Paso and prone to DSLD and you are now an expert on DSLD. Wow.
A reminder - a few WISE folk have said here on this list as well as others BOOTS add weight to the foot and are toe extension. You poo poo’d that for a while but your video is proving it nicely, I think. Guess what happens when you put weights on a horses feet… bada bum… You change their gaits.
You should stop passing yourself off as an expert and get some more schooling. You call yourself a hoofcare professional and you are giving out advice as an expert on all of these hoof topics. Yet you seem unable to spot a lame horse even if it tolts a booted dance across your forehead.
To quote you “Good Grief”
Gotta have kleenex on hand. 
It’s really sad that so many horses have to be completely crippled before they get diagnosed. It seems like for many of them, by the time they are diagnosed, they are at the end of their life. It definitely made me more aware of all the clues. I’ll be letting my girl go as soon as I can get the vet out here. I can’t stand to see the ups and downs. She has started the rope walking and “elephant on a stool” stance again. The AAKG/J has quit working, bute has quit working, previcox doesn’t work. This morning she couldn’t take the 2 steps to get to her feed bucket and she looked so tired.
To the OP - I wish you and your horse all the best in your journey. Many of these horses live for years this way and even stay in work. My greatest hope is that your horse is one of them. For Libbey, since diagnosis, it’s been about 4 months. I’m just glad for all the time she had when she was sound. There were so many days she just felt so good she would gait smooth as glass and she was such a treat to watch. She’d crank her tail up and lead the herd around and around. They’d all stop, and then she would be the one to take off again and get them started all over again. She had an awesome 3 years here and I’m just glad the last 3 years of her life she felt SO good. Those are the days I want to remember. So just enjoy every good day and make the fullest of them
1 Like
Can’t believe I’m even responding to this but whatever. I have told you how many times now, that the people I got the horse from were idiots. They wouldn’t know the horse’s breed if it were tatooed on their foreheads. I have a lot of reasons to believe that most of what they told me were lies because they were ashamed that they had foundered the horse so badly. 2 Paso people told me the horse was Paso. Both vets thought the horse looked Paso. The video I posted clearly said the horse was doing a half trot, half something??? That video was after I’d owned her, what, a week??? If even that??? When I got the mare she was extremely LAME. That video was only a very short time later. She was NOT sound. Not anywhere near it. I never stated anywhere that she was. I have clearly posted that the horse’s gaits got BETTER the sounder she became over the next few years. And furthermore, the horse would get better the more she moved in a given day, period. I have also clearly stated that the horse was more prone to TROT when she was LAME and GAIT when she was SOUND. Not sure how much clearer I can make that. Since you stalk every post I write, you should know that.
In looking back, it’s clear to see that the reason the horse moved BETTER the MORE she moved in a given day is that is generally how DSLD horses react to movement. Regular light exercise seems to be much better for most of them than being in a stall. As I posted earlier on this thread, the more the horse moved on the day that video was made, the better she moved.
[edit]. This horse was a rescue with a lot of unknown history. Things have changed over the last few years as her condition has changed.
And what the hell do boots have to do with anything? In the 3 years I’ve had the horse, she’s worn boots only when absolutely needed. She’s been shod in Eponas a lot since last summer. And most of the time she’s been barefoot. I’ve ridden her barefoot, and in boots. She’s done several cycles in Equicasts. I’ve ridden her in shoes. What is your point?
And I don’t pass myself off as an expert on ANYTHING. I never claimed to be a DSLD expert. Where you get that from is beyond me. I gave my suggestions based on the experience I’ve had with my horse over the last 4 or so months. Is that not allowed on this board? 
I’ve learned alot over the last few months and I wanted to pass on what I’ve learned from the folks on the DSLD board. They are a TREMENDOUS asset.
