Thursday, August 14, 2014

Stifle woes

Fawkes had a farrier appointment today and it wasn't fun for anyone.  It appears that his stifle issue is getting worse? Or he had a bad day today?  Because that stifle was totally stuck.  Which makes shoeing your already irritable horse a big challenge.  The less said about that two hours of hell, the better.



Vet is scheduled for next week, not sure if I should ride him in the interim or rest him.  It is very concerning to me that this problem seems to be getting worse.  His workload hasn't changed, nor has his fitness decreased, I don't think.  The farrier commented it is possible his last shoe cycle might have somehow caused it and after the vet takes a look, we can explore different foot care options.

This kind of sucks because from what he said, the best and easiest farrier test is to pull the back shoes.  Apparently barefoot in back horses have fewer stifle issues.  Which would be fine except we only have back shoes because he was wearing his hoof down too quickly.  So would I have to ride him less?  Of course there is no point in borrowing trouble but over thinking and analyzing these things is what horse people do best, right?

6 comments:

  1. So frustrating! I hope the vet has the perfect solution!

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  2. I actually found back shoes to help Houston with his stifle issues but his weren't locking so maybe a different issue. Hope you get some answers!

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  3. :( No fun. Sending good thoughts and fingers crossed the vet has the solution!

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  4. Thats interesting, I've never heard that before. :( Hopefully Fawkes issue isn't that bad and he can bounce back quickly.

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  5. I hope that you get good news from the vet. We've actually had good luck pulling the hind shoes (for a certain amount of time) on horses with hind end issues. I'm not saying that will work with every horse or Fawkes, just that it does help sometimes. Fingers crossed that he gets better soon.

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  6. Thanks everyone. Went to see him yesterday and he seemed to feel fine. Will be keeping an eye on it until the vet comes. Pulling the back shoes and estrogen shots seem to be the early treatment options

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