RE: scuffing his toes, dragging his feet behind and slipping

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

Cheryl,
I know you already got at least one post about the possibility of EPM. A
friends horse has just come down with EPM. She was diagnosed at the Marion
Dupont Equine clinic in Leesburg, VA. First by a blood test which was
positive (around 50% of horses in this area will test positive). Then the
spinal tap was a positive. This was linked with the symptoms that the mare
displayed, loss of balance and coordination, falling, stumbling, etc. We got
a chance to learn a lot about diagnosing EPM and while there talked to
several other horse owners with EPM horses.

Your horse may simply have a soft tissue injury. I've had two different
horses with stifle injuries so I learned the hard way about stifles. One
mare did a belly flop on concrete with both hind legs hyper-extended behind
her. She injured both stifles (one more than the other) and strained who
knows how many ligaments thru the topline of her hindquarters. The other
gelding had a single injured stifle. Both didn't want to extend the hurting
leg to the rear. You could really judge their discomfort level when you
picked up the hind legs to pick their feet. The would jerk the leg away from
me. When riding the horse would take a funny crumbling/collapsing/slipping
step every once in a while. The canter is the gait that is  most painful  to
a stifle injury, and you may find the horse avoids one particular lead. Yes,
they did some toe draging with the injured leg. They both had soft tissue
injuries, requiring stall rest and bute initially. Then controlled exercise,
not turn out, then slowly the exercise was built up. It was a long slow
process. With the mare I opted to ignore the vet's advise and turned her out
to pasture for 5 months. It was a wasted 5 months. She didn't heal and
strengthen on her own and I just wasted that time. If your horse has soft
tissue damage you need to have this positively diagnosed (often hard with
the $((@#^%* stifles) and treat it conservatively. Everyone hates to lock up
their horse in a stall and we all seem inclined to convince ourselves that
turnout and slower riding is a good alternative because it's what we want to
hear and do. NOT! Hope it's only a minor pull. It took around a year for
both horses to strengthen back up and the gelding is still inclined to be
weak in the one stifle due I think to conformation.

Bonnie Snodgrass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Cheryl Newbanks [SMTP:horsetrails@inficad.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, September 09, 1998 4:53 AM
> To:	ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject:	scuffing his toes, dragging his feet behind and slipping
> 
> Hi Group! 
> 
> I've got one for you:}  My horse Blue who currently has close to 2000
> miles
> base and about 200 miles competition is starting to drag his toes when he
> walks behind.  Just hanging in the paddock he really drags his rear feet
> at
> the toe while he is walking around.  I palpitated his stifle and he
> rea-acts slightly, same with the long muscle in the back of his butt that
> starts down just below the dock of the tale, and the hip ligament too.
> Then I saw him do a really strange thing I never saw before, when he
> stretched to pee after our ride, he only fully stretched one leg.  The
> right rear leg I've been suspicious of was very slightly stretched and
> bent
> at the stifle.  Like he didn't want to stretch that leg at all.  It is
> also
> the side he slips behind on and scuffs up the front of his pasterns big
> time.  I am actually thinking on riding him with standardbred race horse
> scalpers on behind. Also he dosen't like to pick up his left lead which
> coincides with him reaching with his right hind leg again.  
> 
> So what do you think gang, stifles, hip?  I started massage it and I am
> using a linament on his stifles and hind end.    
> 
> 
>    
>                                   Cheryl Newbanks 
> ~~~           ~~ ^ ^        SW Region
> ~~~\      _ ~~/ /\ /        Buckeye, AZ
>        (   ) __    ) ' '        horsetrails@inficad.com
>        //          \\ 
>       //            \\
>     **             **
> 
>