Go Cowgirl RN Blog

How can backing out of a trailer result in a horse tendon injury?

I still don’t have the answer to that question, but I have the injured horse to attest to it.

A friend and I went trail riding at the Hill Country Natural Area in Bandera, Texas last weekend for a couple of days.   South Central Texas is in full bloom right now, and the scenery was awesome.   I wanted to give the horses something to do besides arena work, but I didn’t plan on a strained tendon.

The trails at Bandera range from easy to most difficult, and I kept the horses off the most difficult, didn’t want to take a chance on hurting one of them.   Little did I know that just backing him out of the trailer would result in a strain tendon.

I saw him stumble when he backed out of the trailer at home, but I dismissed it and turned him loose.  I didn’t notice anything amiss until the next morning, when he came limping up to the barn.  His right tendon was slightly swollen and painful.  I was concerned that he had suffered a bowed tendon, but I think he just has a strained tendon.

I painted both legs, from above the knees to the coronary band, and put him on stall rest for 24 hours.  I also called my holistic vet and she had me administer Arnica 1 M daily for 3 doses, then  Rhus Tox 30 C twice daily for 5-6 days.   What surprised me was that the left leg swelled as much the right leg did.  Two Bits is 14, so maybe some of it is arthritis or long term stress, but I am wondering now if the trail ride inflamed his knees, ankles and tendon ligaments  which led to the tendon injury.  The paint I used doesn’t cause swelling if there isn’t inflammation.

It’s been 6 days since the initial injury and the swelling is going down.  I began ponying  him at a walk  24 hours after applying the paint, and he is sore but not limping.  I am using my young horse to pony him, which is providing great fodder for my next blog.   I’ll take him in a couple of weeks and get an ultrasound on both legs before I began more strenuous exercise.  I’ll never know for sure what happened, but I’ll keep him off the rocky trails, and stick to barrel racing!

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It is so gratifying when the best laid plans really work.

The farrier was out today, and Dice’s feet are doing great.  He has a few spots where the lamina and the hoof wall are still separated, but the stretching is gone.  The farrier was able to do a full barefoot trim on him today.  She had only been able to do a modified trim before this, as his hoof wall was too crumbly to accommodate a full trim.  His hoof wall has grown out and the top wall flakiness is almost gone.

I have to give all the credit to good nutrition and good trimming.  This is only the 3rd trimming since January, and the difference in his feet is amazing.  He is supplemented with Simplexity Essentials and Xango’s Eleviv , along with 2 tsp. of Magnesium every day.  I really feel the Eleviv has made the difference.  It reverses the stressors that the mesquite beans put on his system.   The grass is really greening up right now, and it’s still very wet here in south central Texas, but his feet are continuing to show improvement.

What really surprised me today was how the other horses feet looked compared to Dice’s.  My main barrel horse showed the worst progress of all today, which didn’t make me too happy.  As I said in an earlier blog, I had been trimming their feet for a couple of months prior to January.   Suffice to say I didn’t do real well at this!  I had the angles off and the feet cut way too short.   Lisa stepped in and has gotten them in much better shape.

All the horses are on the Essentials, but they will put on the Eleviv tomorrow morning.  With the new growth of grasses and weeds, plus the stress of the cold and wet weather, I want their feet in better shape also.  I will wait on the magnesium until next month, and if the feet aren’t improving like I want they’ll be started on the magnesium too.

I would love your comments and questions.  For more info on the supplements please contact me.  For more info on Cushings disease and Laminitis please go to www.holistichorsekeeping.com.

Have you ever wished you could start all over with a horse you no longer own?

What did we do before equine body work, horse chiropractic and massage equine?   We turned them out for several months to see if they could heal themselves and if they didn’t they were sold.

Today we have vets and lay people practicing equine chiropractic, acupuncture, massage equine and osteopathy on horses.  In fact, I spend more money on massage equine than I do on myself!   I can remember one extremely talented horse that took a nasty fall with me at a barrel race.   I broke my leg and he was never the same.  I sold him a couple of years after the fall, because he never regained his competitive nature.  With the great work that is done today on the equine body he and I could have gone on to greater things.

My current barrel horse Two Bits started trying to bite me when I cinched him up a couple of weeks ago, but I continued riding him until he started trying to bite me as I stepped into the saddle.  At that point I unsaddled him and called my vet to schedule an appointment for equine body work.  Instead of riding I played with him on the ground to keep him in shape until we could get to the vets.

In hindsight I remember him coming up to feed with mud all over his hind legs and entire right side, like he had lain down in the mud.  My vet and I both feel that with all the rain and mud we are having in south central Texas this winter he must have slipped and fallen.  Who knows if he was fighting with another horse or just playing, either way his equine body was very sore and out of balance.  No wonder he tried to bite me!   Being the Metal/Earth horse he is he kept working until he just couldn’t anymore.

I slowly cinched him up today and watched him brace his equine body to see if it would hurt, and then take a deep breath when it didn’t.   We rode off and had a great ride.  Learning to listen to my horse and having access to massage equine and horse chiropractic has been invaluable, and has kept a great horse going.

I also give a lot of credit to the feed program Madalyn has him on.  All the horses are fed a low starch grain.  Two Bits and Scooby are fed the all natural supplements of Simplexity Essentials, Xango juice and Eleviv daily.  The essentials are full of probiotics and blue-green algae, which keeps their gut functioning, even in times of stress.  The Xango juice has great anti-inflammatory properties, as well as antioxidants, and the Eleviv keeps the nervous system in balance to reduce stress levels.  The Eleviv won’t keep a horse from getting stressed, but it will help him deal with the stress better and return to a calm state of mind quicker.

I would love to hear your comments or questions.  You can contact me for more information on the supplements and please go look at Madalyn’s website, www.holistichorsekeeping.com for information on body work and nutrition.

Cushings disease in horses sounds ominous enough, but when you hear insulin resistance you really begin to wonder what dreaded disease your horse has come down with now.

Visions of daily insulin shots came to my mind; I’m a registered nurse and have given my share of insulin injections.  I was lucky this time, it was caught early enough that laminitis had not developed.  As I found out, insulin injections aren’t necessary for Cushings disease in horses anyway, changing the diet and the drug pergolide usually works well.

It turns out the horse in question actually has insulin resistance rather than Cushings.   In south central Texas we have Mesquite trees, and I have an over abundance of them on my place.  They drop a bean that is high in sugar and protein, and the horses eat them like candy.  Last summer we were in a severe drought, and my horses stayed fat and shiny on mesquite beans.   I take care of my brother’s horse Dice, he’s 16 hands and an “easy keeper”, or so I thought.   All my horses are barefoot, and I was learning how to trim my own horses last fall when I first noticed the early warning signs of laminitis.

Dice had feet that my old farrier always bragged on, but I began to see a brittle flaking on the outer wall of his hooves.  I meant to ask my vet about it, just didn’t for a couple of months.  I finally found a new farrier in January, and her comments on Dice’s feet sent me to the phone to ask Madalyn Ward about laminitis, insulin resistance and Cushings disease in horses.

Cushings disease in horses, laminitis and insulin resistance in horses are closely related.  Talking with Madalyn and my new farrier, we decided that the mesquite beans had triggered insulin resistance, and that dietary changes were in order to avoid laminitis.  There are horses that are more prone to this and Dice fit that bill.  He is an easy keeper, has a cresty neck, a large, broad hip with fat pones over the top of his hip, and gets ridden only once or twice a year.   There also was a lot of heat in his feet in January.

Madalyn had me start him on Simplexity Essentials, Magnesium and Eleviv.  I also changed him to a low starch, extruded grain that is 95% digestible.  The Essentials have blue-green algae and probiotics in them, and the Eleviv balances the metabolic system.  The Magnesium was added as these horses tend to be deficient in this mineral.

I am happy to report that in Feburary all signs of impending laminitis was gone and the brittleness in the hoof wall is better.  I feel blessed to have caught it early, and to have access to a vet that understands how a horses nutritional needs affect his overall well being.  Left untreated insulin resistance can progress to Cushings disease in horses and further lead to severe complications and even death.  Dice is still fat and happy, but when the mesquite trees start dropping their beans Dice will not be allowed any access to them.

For more information on Cushings Disease, Laminitis or Insulin resistance in horses take a look at Madalyn’s website www.holistichorsekeeping.com.  She has articles there and even an E-book on Insulin resistance.  I would love to have feedback and your comments or stories.  If you want info on any of the products mentioned above, please contact me.