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Discussion on SI/GCT?
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New Member:
odonohue
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Posted on Sunday, Jan 4, 2015 - 11:53 am:
Hi,
I have had a mare with abnormal mechanical hind end lameness for 4 years now. No vet has yet to determine what exactly it is. Hocks and stifles were cleared in 2010. This mare was an incredible event horse with her previous owner at the age of 4 and 5. She is an Oldenburg. The mare started showing lameness with the owner at the age of 4. The owner had stifles and hocks x-rayed with no findings, they then said it must be further up. The owner chose not to do any more testings and gave her away, this is how I obtained her. She had a year off before any further riding. She was never in pain when I had her but would tow drag. I had vets look at her and they could not tell me anything. I chose to trail ride her for 2 years which she enjoyed. This past summer I chose to start rehabilitating her back into work to see what she would do. I did lots of walking, balanced trotting, cavaleties, and I let her tell me when she was tired in order to adjust what she was doing. She had gotten to the point of no toe dragging and was building a good topline. I then started easing into the canter on straight lines. This is when her lameness came back. I then took her to a vet that specialized in ultra sound for that is what a previous vet said she needed for further diagnosing. She had small tears in her left right insertion and origin areas in her SI region. I was told he had to be on stall rest with 20 minute walking for 6 months. I told the vet this was impossible due to her severe herd bound issues. I then rigged up a small paddock with her 2 horse herd and had managed her for 2 months her staying calm. (I also tried reserpine and it made her worse) Pain in her SI had started diminishing and she was getting better. I did some acupuncture, chiro, and cytokine injections as well in this time frame. Vet complained about horse being too tense and her not being able to adjust all the way nor get needles to stay in her due to muscles being so tense. I could not find enough research on the cytokine injections so I stopped all treatment all together. She was doing well in her paddock until the owner of the other 2 horses decided to take them on a trail ride. She ran for at least an hour and all recovery was lost. I realize I have 2 issues here, behavioral and lameness, possibly? After much thought it occurred to me maybe this whole issue could be GCT related? She has always been very aggressive, cycles almost all the time especially when a new horse male/female comes into the scene and I have seen her act much like a stallion. My question is, if there is an actual lameness going on I can not rehabilitate her if she is going to constantly run rampant when away from herd, so, being she has such severe herd issues could all this be, even the funny gate, be due to some hormonal issue? My hands are tied, I have put thousands of dollars and time into her and wind up at the same spot, with an angry, distressed horse and no control over my environment with no vet able to tell me what is really going on. Any suggestions? Am I wrong for thinking this could all be a hormonal problem and not lameness at all?
Distressed and no where to go,
Kerry
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Jan 5, 2015 - 7:30 am:
Welcome DKO,
From your description I cannot say whether your issues are do to hormonal issues or not but the question can be answered by diagnosing the hormonal condition then correcting it if you find one. If your issues go away...great! For more see HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Reproductive Diseases » Trouble Settling Mares & Stallion Infertility » Granulosa Cell Tumors in Mares.
DrO
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Member:
frances
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Posted on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2015 - 8:29 am:
Hi dko,
I have a mare with hormonal issues (see my post: "persistent estrus, abnormal hormones, nymphomania"), and have had surprising success with Vitex Agnus Castus (common name chasteberry, from the chasteberry tree). Apparently chasteberries were used by monks and nuns in the past to subdue their natural urges  .
You can buy it either in the form of the small dried berries themselves, in which case you may need to crush them altho' some horses apparently crunch them up happily as they are, or else in the powdered, more bio-available form, which is what I do.
I'm generally quite cynical when it comes to horse supplements, and but in this case there was such a positive transformation in 3 - 4 days that I, along with everyone else at the barn, was convinced. Any time I've stopped giving it, either to test yet again whether it's really having an effect, or because I've run out of it, she has reverted to hormonal behaviour.
I can't say of course whether it would help your mare, but it IS something you could easily try.
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New Member:
odonohue
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2015 - 6:40 pm:
Thanks everyone. I will look into the castus it is definitely worth a try. I have used raspberry leaves for mares but has not worked on mine, at least not for hormonal problems. Thank you.
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