You’re not kidding. I’m more and more convinced that what we thought were laminitis issues were actually this neck stuff.
Any general recommendations on dealing with splints? Our vet said keep things to a walk until he’s not reactive…which he doesn’t seem to be, but I don’t want to push things either.
High splints have always been a “damn, that sucks” but not a big deal kind of thing, at least in my experience. It ends up being cosmetic. Grundy has two gigantic ones and I think I have a hunch where they came from (I believe they, without training her to them, hobbled her to be able to saddle her, but I can’t directly prove that).
Low splints can be problematic.
Dang he’s cute. Something about the face of a fjord that is so endearing.
Very glad to hear that, thank you! This is my first foray with splints so I’m on the learning curve at the moment and of course thinking the worst.
I call them the Build a Bears of ponies 
It really makes you wonder! My first horse was a TB who was always coming in with some little nick or scrape. He never did himself any serious injuries though–until he broke his leg in turnout around age 18 and had to be put down. He was schooling PSG and showed 3rd Level, so he was pretty high-functioning, but I do wonder if there was anything physical going on. This was before neck x-rays or any of that stuff. He was also extremely tough about water jumps when his previous owner and I tried to event him, and difficulty with changing footing is another thing that makes me wonder about neuro issues.
A bit of good news! We had our December acupuncture appt today (3 weeks from the previous visit). We started him on Equioxx Nov 27th and he’s had no trips/stubs or buckles since.
The plan is to up his workload a bit, see if he continues to stay solid, if he does, cut back the Equioxx to half a pill/day and see how he does with that. The vet thinks we can start to extend his visits out to 8 weeks…so we’ll see how things go!
Zen Pony
As part of pushing him a little harder; I didn’t put his hoof boots on for free lunging. For whatever reason, they did seem to lessen the tripping/stumbling before the Equioxx.
@StormyDay and others…any thoughts? Trotting to the left and right. He really seems more comfortable to motor a bit, and he’s reaching down his neck more/seems more relaxed to me.
For some reason the video won’t load more than a potato quality video BUT he actually looks like he’s using his shoulders and flicking his feet out in front of him. I think he looks really good. I don’t see any tripping or protecting himself by taking tiny steps.
Also, I missed the splint on him. I would not even worry one bit. Splints look horrible but usually are a complete non-issue. If it bothers you, you can try wrapping it and sweating it to get it to go down in size… but realistically if you don’t plan on entering him into a breed class why bother.
Crap, give these a try; splicing them together in instagram is probably the problem
https://youtube.com/shorts/8uJ2WgRymCk?si=TgIO7kPHMZBJfK3A
https://youtube.com/shorts/7CvQDHr_CaA?si=SYIvoi8eoTO3EK_h
I’m glad even through crappy video the improvements are visible!
Kinda late to the party, but Equioxx + yearly protazil (similar titers to your pony) helped eliminate the tripping on my gelding.
He looks good!
Looks great to me!
He is so cute!
He’s adorable! 
Small update on the Equioxx. I cut him back to half a pill on Sunday 01/26 and we just had our first knee buckle under saddle yesterday 02/02, so one week which was in the ballpark of when I’d expect to start noticing some changes. Since starting the full pill of Equioxx, we were up to 68 days of no trips/stumble/buckles. Other than the buckle step, he was still moving freely and forward.
The protective side of me wants to put him back on the full pill, but Im going to see how he does the rest of this week just for more data points. Our temps are reasonable so I shouldn’t have to deal with working around cold days.
Couple questions!
Thanks in advance!
My older horse is also on Equioxx, and also needs Banamine with vaccines now. Last fall, he got his Equioxx in the am, vet appt in the afternoon with the first dose of Banamine, and then just Banamine the following day before restarting his regular Equioxx the day after.
Essentially you wouldn’t want to give them both at the same time, but my vet was okay with them spaced a bit on the day of - not something you would want to do regularly, but as a one off/occasional kind of thing it wasn’t particularly concerning. And then of course since he gets Banamine the following morning as well, he doesn’t get Equioxx that day.
I’ve also previously just made sure he didn’t get Equioxx the day of vaccines - that obviously also works, and there is probably a slightly lower risk since you’re not stacking meds that way. I have not tried using the Equioxx on its own to combat his vaccine reaction (not fever in him, more stiffness/soreness in his neck - like his neck becomes stiff as a board) so can’t comment on that.
Very helpful, thank you!
We always held the Equioxx 48 hours when we knew Banamine was going to be given for vaccines or dentals. Vet preferred it that way.
Great, thanks! I was going to call them an ask what they prefer, but COTH is so helpful its nice to have more info BEFORE I go to the vet and ask so I have an idea what to expect 
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