Question:
Hip problems!?
cindy lou
2007-12-23 15:50:30 UTC
I have a baby stud colt, he is going to be 7 months old in January. When he was was 3 months old he got kicked and I it dislocated his hip. I took him to many vets and they said that nothing could be done, he seems to getting around OK, I just wonder if anybody had the same problem with a horse, and what they did or what should I do with him? (When I say it is dislocated I mean the leg bone came right out of the hip socket, and they said if it was a human they would get a hip replacement!
Nine answers:
Badger
2007-12-23 20:57:15 UTC
Please dont put your colt down. Conventional vets or kinda like conventional md's. Nothing to be done for your beautiful baby. Nothing positive here, so you need to find alternative ways to heal your baby. I would look for an equine chiropractor to begin your journey to heal your colt. I am not very knowledgable about this type of injury, but I do know you have alternatives other than putting him down. Please dont. Try and find a solution as quickly as possible, because nerve damage is bound to occur if he is left with injury intact. God Bless you and your baby, Good Luck!
Katie
2007-12-24 01:39:07 UTC
Hip dislocation is very rare in an adult horse due to the musculature around the socket, so it is only usually seen (still uncommonly) in youngstock.



The things that you need to ask are a) is he lame because of it? and b) what do you want to use him for in the future? Also, is the hip joint still dislocated or has the femoral head moved back into the socket? Was there an associated fracture with it?



If your colt is sound at the moment then you should treat him as a normal foal. It seems very unfair to put a sound foal down, so at least let him mature and monitor what happens to the leg and his gait.



If you want the colt for breeding there is a good chance he will not be able to work as hip problems will make it difficult to achieve natural service, and even AI usually requires mounting of a dummy to harvest the semen. There is of course the more 'human' technique for harvesting semen, although whether or not that would be considered unethical I don't know (I have a client who does this on her stallion because he doesn't like using a dummy, he prefers the real thing!!).



If you were my client I would probably have a look at the foal and assess his gait, and providing he is not obviously lame and you are not unwilling to keep a foal you may not be able to use then I would give him a couple of years and see what happens. If you only want to keep him if he can be used for breeding then that is another story - I would suggest referral to a specialist, but even they may not give you a definiive answer.



Sadly, if your foal is obviously lame and uncomfortable moving around then I would consider putting him down as it is unlikely to get better with time.
?
2016-03-14 02:13:10 UTC
Hone, if she has hip problems at 8 weeks (actually too young to get her from the litter but that is likely because of the hips that she was from a byber).. then they aren't going to get better, only worse. Talk with your vet because the surgery is rarely 'hip replacement' particularly in that young a pup.. usually it is a surgery where the femur heads are removed. She should NEVER be bred as she will simply produce nothing but crippled babies.. she will likely be incapable of even walking much less carrying a litter of puppies.. no responsible person would breed a b*tch even related to a dysplastic one. You should contact the 'breeder' and let them know.. add: HD can be detected at any age that it is symptomatic or that xrays are done -- the certification for them being free of HD or for a rating is only done when they are two years of age or older -- at that time the OFA will review the radiographs and make a finding but a dog/puppy at any age can be diagnosed with it. Knew a puppy Airedale that had no femur heads (not from surgery) by the time it was six months old. Often you can see the symptoms like bunny hopping rear movement, clicking of the joints and stuff like that in very young pups, particularly when the HD is so severe... this isn't a puppy out of two OFAed dogs, that is for sure -- likely both parents have severe HD as well... sad
Presto!
2007-12-23 16:46:39 UTC
Wow Haley G...how did the back problem come out of a dislocated hip? Just curious as a back problem as nothing to do with a dislocated hip...the questioner stated that the colt got kicked and the hip got dislocated.



Personally, I agree with Mulereiner, put the poor little guy down. He may be gettiing around okay now, but as he gets older and more weight gets put on, he's not going to be okay, you'll end up with a lot more problems. Sorry this happened to your little guy.
Mulereiner
2007-12-23 15:57:37 UTC
No, if it was a human, they would of been popped back in. Hip replacements are only preformed if there is degenerative disease or a fracture.



Being a horse, even with sedation, popping a hip back in would be tough. They could do surgery, although it would still probably cripple the horse.



So you have a weaner, that is a stud, anything phenomenal in his dam or sire preformance history?



Personally, hes crippled, hes in pain there is NO WAY a animal or human can live pain free with a dislocated hip. I cannot believe the vet didn't discuss euthanasia with you on this colt.



I would humanely put him down, I wouldn't allow an animal to suffer like this.



LOL badger, a chiro??!! If your so knowledgable about it, lets here your story? I work with dislocated extremities with ppl, and to let a horse walk around with a dislocated hip and no after, 4 mths unless surgery to correct it, its not going to pop back in. How old are you?
purplewaterhorse
2007-12-23 17:44:11 UTC
wow HALEY G. you have to ease up ! and the question was about a dislocated hip---you keep going off on tangents , be it informative , but not helpful...way to off subject.



I will add to the count. I think it best to put the little guy out of a life of pain. It wont go away but probably increase with his size.
2007-12-23 16:21:04 UTC
At 7 months old to demonstrate such severe skeletal sacroiliac and femur problems and ligament and tendon subluxation I would pass on the little guy, to many sound animals to invest in. Unless you are geared to take on KNOWINGLY a subluxed horse and all the Veterinary intervention it's going to take to help him, while you stand little chance of him becoming a sound ride. So sorry to sound so cold, but I would make the decision to put him down. My sympathy sincerely.
Amy
2017-02-25 16:05:51 UTC
1
2007-12-23 16:13:14 UTC
Here is a similar story:



A 4-year-old castrated male Miniature Horse was evaluated because of severe right hind limb lameness of 5 days' duration. The diagnosis of craniodorsal luxation of the right coxofemoral joint was made by physical examination and radiographic imaging. Closed reduction was attempted but was unsuccessful. Surgical reduction was successfully performed, using toggle pin, synthetic capsular reconstruction, and trochanteric transposition techniques. No postoperative complications were observed. Follow-up 26 months after surgery revealed no recurrence of the luxation and no evidence of lameness. These surgical techniques are used successfully for repair of coxofemoral luxations in small animals. To our knowledge, there has been no report of these techniques attempted in horses. These surgical techniques may have merit for the treatment of coxofemoral luxations in small equine patients.



The end.



A few years ago, when I was a vet student, I was three or so weeks out from a three day event with a 17 hand, 9 year old Thoroughbred horse. He had been going great guns when I noticed that for about three hours a day he would try as best he could to sit on his feed bin. Now this feed bin was of the metal variety that hung on the fence, so it was about 1.1 metres off the ground.

Everything about the horse otherwise was normal, and he was being cantered twice a week and I think at that stage he was up to about four four minute canters at around 450 mpm. I talked to a few various horse people, and the general consensus was that it could be a ‘back problem’. I was given the name of a reputable ‘back person’ at a race track in Sydney so off I went.

Two hours in the pouring rain, in Sydney traffic, trying not to get lost in the back streets surrounding the racecourse. A pot bellied, unshaven man dressed appropriately in thongs, stubbies and T-shirt greeted me and introduced himself as the ‘back man’ who had been recommended to me.

He briefly asked what I did with the horse and then started poking and prodding before reefing and pulling all four legs at all bizarre angles, seemingly not satisfied until a very audible crack was achieved. When he got a crack, he grunted his approval and then moved on. After about three minutes of leg reefing, from the back pocket of his stubbies he produced a Slazenger tennis ball with which he produced about a half dozen more cracks along my pride and joy’s spine.

After a terrifying ten minutes of reefs, cracks and grunts he informed that my horse had been out in the left shoulder and right hip and that he should be right now and that would be forty bucks. Feeling utterly ripped off rather than relieved, I drove home thinking how difficult it had been to put a Kelpie’s dislocated hip back in under a general anaesthetic, apart from the fact that the dog had walked into the clinic where I was doing prac work absolutely three legged lame.

So, when I got home I wasn’t overly surprised when my horse went straight back to sitting on his feed bin.

The structure and function of a horse’s back is very intricate and complex and if I tried to describe it here in full I’m sure even the Editor would fall asleep reading. Basically there is bony vertebrae supported and surrounded by ligaments and muscles. Cervical vertebrae are in the neck, thoracic vertebrae have ribs attached, lumbar vertebrae are next, then sacral vertebrae attach to the pelvis and caudal vertebrae are the tail.

The main muscle that runs parallel to the spine is known as the longissimus dorsi and as the name suggests it is the longest muscle in the body. It is made up of small bundles which attach to each of the vertebrae combining to form a muscle body that runs either side of the spine and also attaches to the pelvis. In between each vertebrae there is several articulations (joints). O.K that’s enough anatomy for the moment.

How do we know if our horse has a sore back? Does your horse resent being saddled, buck, shake his head, is he stiff on one rein, does he resent collection, refuse at spread fences or combinations, become cross-gaited or disunited in the canter, dip his back when you hose him with cold water, not travel straight, dip his back when you first get on, does he sit on his feed bin, does he flinch when you poke him with your thumbnail, or is he just not performing well?

Well, if the answer is yes to any of these then your horse may well have a sore back, it may also have a perfectly normal back. The complexity of the structure and function of the back and the wide range of non-specific signs of back pain make a definite diagnosis difficult.

To complicate it even more you can have two different horses with exactly the same lesion or problem and one will tell you that he is dying and the other one will go out and win. As a cynical trainer once said to me ‘if the bastards could talk they’d probably lie!’

If you are unsure if your horse has a back problem think about the onset of signs. Has he always been like it, or was it only after he flipped over backwards off the tailgate of the truck? Is it just since you got a new saddle, or since you started playing around with passage?

Sore backs that are very painful and sudden onset are much easier to say, yes it’s definitely the back that’s the problem, than those mild niggling on-and-off temperamental changes that creep up on you over six months. Ask around. Get experienced horse people (not just vets) to look at your horse while he’s doing whatever it is that makes you think that he has got a sore back. Make sure that it’s not a leg lameness that is the underlying cause of the sore back. It can be worthwhile to administer a short course of anti-inflammatories to see if that makes any difference.

Once you’ve decided that your pony has a sore back, is that a specific enough diagnosis? Unfortunately there is still a huge amount to learn about medical conditions that affect the equine back. So when medical science is inadequate it opens the door for witch doctors to move in, crack a few joints, mumble a few spells, collect a fee and drive off saying ‘that’ll fix it’. Quite often there is an immediate improvement, soon followed by a return of the signs of a sore back.

With any back problem, no matter what the underlying cause, there will be quite a lot of guarding or spasming of the muscles around the affected area of back. This restricts the mobility of the spine and is quite uncomfortable. Manipulations, massage and other forms of physiotherapy will reduce this spasming and allow the muscles to relax and return to normal function, but if the underlying cause is not resolved then the problem will more than likely return.



Have you got a good back person in your district? I do, Cathy Oates is her name. How do you decide if they are good or if they are witch doctors with the gift of the gab? Ask around. Do they diagnose the same problem and describe the same treatment for every horse they see? Do they ever say that there is nothing wrong with this horse’s back, the problem may lie else where. Have they done any formal training? Is there any science behind the yarn that they are spinning? Do they give you follow up instructions as to how your work should continue with the horse? Have they ever cut up a spine or a hip or shoulder joint before they say that they are out?!

As far as vets go, there are numerous vets around that specialise in backs (Jack Laing, my first boss is one) and they have usually done further education courses in chiropractics or acupuncture. It is a good idea to source these vets out if you have a chronic back problem to help with long term management and to get an idea of the prognosis or the likelihood of recurrence.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m no back expert, I could tell you if it’s got a sore back, if it’s bad, if you need to go to a referral hospital for scintigraphy or good radiographs, if Cathy may be able to help, or if a short course of bute and a rest with a gradual re-introduction of work via lunging with a chambon may be called for.

The known conditions that affect the back in the thoracicolumbar region include:

* Deformities of the vertebral column (scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis, synostosis, sacralisation)

* Soft tissue injuries (muscle strain and spasm, ligament damage, tying up)

* Fractures(dorsal spinous processes, vertebral bodies and neural arch)

* Other vertebral and articular lesions (spondylosis, kissing spines, osteoarthritis and fusion of articular and spinous processes, chronic sacroiliac instability and spur formation)

Conditions which are alleged to cause problems for which there is currently no definitive scientific evidence in the horse include:

* Vertebral subluxation or malalignment of dorsal spinous processes

* Intervertebral disc prolapse or herniation

* Pinching of nerves to structures around the thoracicolumbar spine.

Once you’ve decided that your horse has a sore back then your management of his back pain will vary from case to case, but your options include:

* Rest. Very useful and important in severe cases. Doesn’t always mean complete rest but rather a reduction in the workload that the back does.

* Management. Replace saddle. Use gelpad. Change work routine. Attempt re- schooling. Attention to rider’s methods.

* Medication either orally or injected into the sore area of the back.

* Muscle relaxants. Pentosan if a degenerative joint condition is suspected.

* Physiotherapy. This is very important in low grade chronic back pain. Heat therapy. Ultrasonic therapy. Muscle stimulation. Magnetic field therapy (magnetic rugs). Swimming. Graduated exercise program.

* Manipulative therapy either standing or under general anaesthesia

* Natural Medicine. Acupuncture, using either conventional or laser methods (I still remain very open minded about acupuncture).

* Radionics, homeopathy, iridology, faith healing I am very sceptical of these methods

* Surgery for compound fractures of the withers and possibly for kissing spines.

Until we know more about the biomechanical and functional anatomical aspects of the horse’s back and the conditions affecting it, then definitely diagnosing the problem and successfully managing the back in performance horses will remain a big challenge to vets, ‘back people’ and horsemen alike.



Go to http://books.google.com/books?id=R6sCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA290&lpg=PA290&dq=dislocated+horse+hip&source=web&ots=2GMqRndfRX&sig=XibKufg0qCKKT6gY9VIqxz1g43o for more info.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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