Hind leg propping...soreness

[RhythmNCruise]

I know my dude has some hock arthritis and Adequan is due and on the way, but I’m wondering if propping the hind leg is normal for a sore hock or if it indicates another area (stifle? SI?) that could be bothering him? Just curious. He was diagnosed with the hock arthritis years ago, but this latest bout of creakiness in his right hind is accompanied by a lot of resting of that leg. He’s never been one to prop his leg, even if he was showing signs of soreness in other ways.

Again, just wondering. I lunged him a little today out in a huge field (me walking so he didn’t have to make small circles) and he even stumbled on the leg a couple of times, like it hitched and knuckled over. He improved as he worked, which was good to see. It made me wonder about stifle issues though.

[Calvincrowe]

My mare shifts and rests her hinds when she’s telling us she needs hock injections, for what it’s worth. It sounds like he’s sore somewhere.

[Kyrabee]

My mare (22 yo) presented similarly this summer and it was her hocks. I noticed initially that she did not want me to hold her left hind leg up then noticed her starting to rest it a lot. Something she normally doesn’t do when I am grooming or saddling. She was riding OK except she did get stiffer feeling. Not much spring to her gaits but able to do what I was asking. The day I decided I needed to see what was going on, I took her out to lunge and watch her. She tripped 3 times on the first circle with the left hind. OK…I’ve seen enough. The arena at my barn got hard this summer and I am sure that didn’t help. She also has kicked the fence 3 inch welded steel pipe) repeatedly with that left hind and I was concerned that she might have some occult splint bone thing going on and wanted that x-rayed. That was clear and on exam, she was pretty bilaterally off.

I had her hocks injected in August and followed it with a course of Adequan in October and she is doing pretty good. I am on the shelf due to an hip procedure (rode up to mid-October) and she tried putting her left hind foot somewhere where it got stuck and bunged it up pretty good last week but her hocks still look OK. Horses .

[greywithchrome]

My horse does this when she’s sore and it’s not her hocks, it’s stifles + possibly SI.

[cayuse]

My minis do the resting when their stifles are bothering them. Also the hitching.

[TWH_Girl]

@cayuse

My minis do the resting when their stifles are bothering them. Also the hitching

Same. Except mine are full size but for me, it’s been stifles 🫤

[AMackechnie]

Years ago I had a gelding that rested a leg frequently after work and the resulting veterinary diagnosis was gonitis, or inflammation of the stifle joint. This big-moving horse also had trouble with hips and hocks.

[RhythmNCruise]

This is all very interesting. Thanks for the replies so far.
Something about this is different and making me think it’s not just his normal crunchy hocks. He didn’t have enough space left to inject by the time his arthritis was discovered in the hocks. He was partially fused in one (can’t remember which). This was during a time when he felt like he had two flat tires in the hind end (felt like a gaited horse when trotting…so odd) and he literally could not lay down (he’d try and get stuck trying to bend his hocks and just get back up). Equioxx and Adequan got him straight and he’s been good since. I cut back the Equioxx when he was having ulcer issues, but I think he’s good there, so I’m going to give him his full pill again. He seemed less stiff this morning, but I did see him resting while eating breakfast. He’s out 24/7 at least, so that’s good for him.

And at least Adequan works everywhere, so if it is stifle or SI, it should help. I use Absorbine Flex Max joint supplement too, which I’ve found to actually help as well. It’ll probably take a little longer for that to start making a difference again since he was off of it for a few weeks.

I did notice that the right hind is also one that he’d gotten a “rope burn” (electric rope fence) on back in the summer. He and his neighbor tend to spar over the fence, often tearing down a strand. They SEEM to have stopped that foolishness now, which is good. Maybe getting his leg over the electric line taught him to cease the shenanigans. He never showed any lameness from the incident, but it’s just something I noticed when drenching him from stifle to hock in Sore-No-More and rubbing him down yesterday.

Anyway, he’s laying down and getting up still, which is a good sign. If he’s in serious pain, he stops even trying. And I think he’s sleeping in a wallowed-out sand hole in the pasture. I can imagine him getting his fat butt stuck in that and having to work a little harder to hoist himself up out of it.

Bless him. He’s got the easiest life a horse could have and he still has to be “special pony” and get all the things.