Hind leg stickiness in a donkey

[moonlitoaksranch]

Our jenny is a little over 3 years old. We bought her, untrained, from a lady when she was 6 months old and we did all her training. I am familiar with the original farm she came from. They sell tons of donkeys. I was always worried about inbreeding with their donkeys, but they swear they control which jacks are with which jennies.

Lately, I have been noticing that our jenny’s hind legs ‘stick’ in both hocks at times. Sometimes so badly that she doesn’t want to move her hind end. Picking up her hind feet can sometimes cause a jerk reaction, but you can tell it’s entirely involuntary. She ran and played normally during turnout in the afternoon, but her strange lameness seems more noticeable in the mornings. It is too soon to tell if she works out of it, or if she has good and bad days.

Has anyone seen something this in horses? I knew a pony that had a locking stifle in one hind leg, but I’m not sure it’s the same thing.

We are calling the vet this week to do a lameness exam. I think she’s back from vacation.

I know most people keep donkeys as pets or companion animals, but we use our donkeys. This sweet jenny was going to start ground driving this year and learning to carry a pack saddle. She is 10 hands 3 inches, so she’s a standard; not a mini.

I hope since this just started, and she is still young, it’s something she can grow out of, or there is something that can be done make her poor legs work right. If anything is wrong with her hocks or stifles, she can’t be expected to pull a cart. Unfortunately, if she can’t do a job, we can’t keep her. Our farm is small and pasture is limited. I might have a find a safe companion home for her if she has a bad prognosis. At least she is well-trained and easy to handle.

[bathsheba8542]

One of our donkeys has a locking stifle. She is much better when she has more turnout on varied terrain.

[Texarkana]

I’ve had my jennet since she was a weanling and around two years of age she went through something similar. It would especially happen when she would be in the stall or standing around, then go to move.

I saw it happen maybe a handful of times over a month or two. I hemmed and hawed about calling the vet out, but never did. I did do a little hand walking on a hill to attempt to strengthen it.

She outgrew it. I never saw it again after those handful of times. Today she is almost 8 years old and as sound as can be. She ground drives, she lunges, she thinks XC in hand is the most fun thing ever. One day I’ll get brave and hitch her up.

In my reading when it was happening, I did come across quite a number of anecdotes of young equines outgrowing this issue. I say that not to downplay the issue, but rather to provide some optimism that maybe your donk will outgrow it, too!

[moonlitoaksranch]

Thank you, bathsheba! We don’t have varied terrain, but we keep them in paddocks this time of year, because the winter grass seed is still coming up. Maybe I’m seeing it more now because they are in.

Thank you, Texarkana! You give me hope. I really want to keep her. These guys can live into their 40s, so we knew we were making a long term commitment when we brought her home.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Vet is coming out Thursday or Friday to look at her.

[freshman]

Take a deep breath. It sounds like intermittent upward fixation of the patella. This is extremely common and almost always a very manageable condition. The merck manual has a nice description or just google it if this doesn’t work. There is a ton of info out there. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/musculoskeletal-system/lameness-in-horses/intermittent-upward-fixation-of-the-patella-and-delayed-patella-release-in-horses

I suspect the reason this condition is manifesting in your donk right now is a combination of genetic/conformational predisposition, stage in growth, and also situational lack of fitness and mobility. It sounds like she is in training, but not in any real physical work, and also happens to be standing around in a small winter dry lot situation versus out to larger pasture where she might walk around a lot more on a daily basis and also up/down hills, etc. The usual recommended “therapy” is an exercise regimen that gets them moving, specifically walking up and down hills.

Occasionally, this isn’t enough for some horses and donks and there are several (fairly) low cost standing surgical procedures that can help cases that don’t respond to exercise. I wouldn’t worry about that for now. Just consult your vet and have her examined, and then if it is UFP, then get her moving. You can do a lot of good training with those forced fitness marches, so it is a win-win. Let us know what happens. I think she will be just fine!

[moonlitoaksranch]

Thanks, freshman! Forced fitness marches, lol! She is a donkey, after all. :lol:

[Texarkana]

For “forced fitness marches,” I walk my donkey like a dog-- she loves it! We hit the trails around the property. We walk down some of the light traffic roads. We do little jog sets.

She thinks it’s the bee’s knees to go exploring. :yes:

Of course, it took me a lot of work to get her to that point. At three, she was wary of leaving the pasture. One of the hardest things to teach her was walking through gates-- she would go into full donkey statue mode at the sight of an open gate in her younger years. :lol:

I have another donkey who I acquired later in his life; he is nothing like my jenny and would have no part of forced fitness marches. He’d pop my shoulder out of the socket before agreeing to something like that.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I have been taking the donkey for walks since we got her as a weanling. We’ve been quite busy, or had the flu, lately, so it slowed down. She knows how to walk nicely down the road with me.

[moonlitoaksranch]

The vet was out yesterday and there is good reason to hope this is temporary and age related. The vet could feel stiffness in her stifles, but we didn’t get her to slip at all. She seems better already since I moved her out of the goat pen and into the pony stall (she shares a big stall with our Shetland now). We have a goat feeder that the goats reach their heads through to get to the goodies, but I think she had found a way to pilfer a little. Now, we know she won’t get any extra feed. She misses her goats, but she and the pony buddied up very quickly.

She is so sweet and cuddly. I couldn’t imagine not having her around. She loves to snuggle up to people, but is very polite about it, in fact, she will move towards you one, slow, step at a time. When I’m cleaning their stall and paddock, it’s almost like playing chess trying to keep her from blocking me from the poops. She sidles up, one careful, thoughtful, step at a time, and then she plans the exact position that is most inconvenient for me, Somehow, she’s always in between me and the pile I’m working on. This donkey just loves being touched. She prefers rubbing to brushing. The vet and I talked about her while the vet was rubbing her back end and I was rubbing her neck and shoulders. She was so content. The vet joked about our jenny being the only one she dared to stand behind.

If the carriage thing doesn’t work out, I wonder if she would be a good therapy animal? We had a horse I used to take to the VA hospital because he loved having his face touched. He would put his head, very gently, in people’s laps and close his eyes while they petted him. It would be nice to have another animal to take to them for visits.