Stall rest and hock sores

[midnightsecret]

Hello all

Comments

[spirithorse21]

We have a horse in the barn that is currently on a long-term stall rest as well. She is a very hot blooded, spooky mare, and the vet recommended a supplement called Compose. There are some tricks to getting it to work right...has to be fed on an empty stomach and can't feed hay or grain for a period of time afterwords either. I can't remember how long exactly, but it's not super long. 30 minutes to an hour maybe.

Anyway, it working very well for the mare at our barn, so I definitely recommend it.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=c092cb4b-05cf-4c65-8b24-f82f423ec571

As far as her hock sores, the best thing I can recommend is more bedding. Lots more. If that's not working or you can't get more bedding for some reason, then best of luck with the boots.

[midnightsecret]

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll definitely check that one out.

She's already getting extra bedding (as of when the sores started).. but they aren't getting better. :(

[ex_signmypa]

I wish I could help (especially because my hot mare is currently being stalled, but surprisingly she's taking it very well). Another suggestion would be hydrotherapy for the sores. I love hydrotherapy for any type of wounds or swelling. If all else fails: water does wonders. Sounds crazy, but honestly, our vets at our University always recommend it. I could ask around as far as the boots if you would like. It may take me a few days, but I could ask if anyone knows.

I used to have my mare on B-12, but to be honest, I don't know if that would work for your mare. My mare was just spooky and silly on trails and I was competent enough yet (and this was years and years ago). It was cheap though, and if you're on a budget (I was too since I was in college), it might be worth asking about? I would check out something else instead.

Good luck! And your mare is so pretty! :)

[midnightsecret]

That would be great if you could ask around about the boots. I don't want to waste ~$100 for something that won't do anything, especially on a budget.

Can you explain a bit about the hydrotherapy? I have been hosing the sores daily to clean them and running the water over them for a few minutes, but that is about it.

Thanks!!

[ex_signmypa]

I suck so hardcore: I meant B6. I get all of those stupid B vitamins mixed up and one makes them hot, the other calms them down. D'oh! Either way, it really wouldn't work that well either way. So don't listen to me.

Okay! I'm judging a competitive trail ride (it's actually sort of funny) this weekend so I'll be sure to ask around because I'm pretty certain if anyone would know, the people that do this sort of thing would know.

I've done it for years and it's basically what you're doing: hose the sores and the surrounding joints and ligaments/tendons for five to ten minutes. Simple. I hose off the entire lower leg for ten minutes and it's the only thing that has taken down the swelling (my mare swelled up due to stall rest). And I do it every day.

[midnightsecret]

haha no worries. :)

That'd be great if you could ask around. Have fun judging the trail ride!

Ok, great. I'll keep on doing that and maybe do it a little longer. Surprisingly she hasn't been very swollen with the exception of directly where her injury is, but it can't hurt to hose her more.

[acoustic11]

We had a very hot thoroughbred on stall rest for 3 months - it was pretty rough in the beginning. We hand-walked him for as much time as we could every day - he would leap and rear and try to be dumb, but we just held on :/

His owner put him on Resperene after trying to go without it, and it worked wonders, of course. After a few weeks of drugs + stall rest, he settled in to a routine and sort of accepted his fate, and was very easy to handle after that without ANY drugs for the rest of his sentence.

[midnightsecret]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[littlefoot82]

I would keep the sores clean by flushing them with saline solution (I like contact lens solution, which you can just squirt straight out of the bottle), but skip the ointment. If she's in a stall all the time, the ointment is just going to get bedding and dust and other stuff stuck in it, which defeats the purpose of cleaning. Put as much bedding in the stall as you can, and bank it up in the corners. Honestly, unless they start getting infected and you need some sort of topical antibiotic, I find it preferable to just let minor skin irritations like that air out as much as possible

[midnightsecret]

I've been hosing the sores, but saline is a great idea. I'll pick up some contact lens solution tomorrow. :) She's has extra bedding, but the sores seem to be getting worse. I don't want them to get much bigger, and they are pretty sensitive for her when I'm cleaning them out.

Yes, I've cut her grain majorly.

I got her a lickit (which I'm installing tomorrow, so I don't know if it will help yet or not) and she has her salt block. I had a jolly ball for her a while ago, but she just ignored it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out. :)

[young_modern]

re: jolly ball

i dealt with a horse on several months of stall rest at my old job who had a jolly ball just floating loose around his stall. i never once saw him touch it, but i really wanted him to get some entertainment while in recovery. i took some bailing twine and tied it to the bars on his stall, so it swung around against the wall. suddenly, he LOVED playing with it.

sometimes you have to utilize the toy in a specific way for a horse to be interested in it.

[midnightsecret]

Good idea! I'll see if she will pay any attention to it if it is tied up. I also am borrowing my friends likit that is a moveable ball thing, so I'm hoping she enjoys that too. :)

[chiquita522]

Add as much bedding to her stall as you possibly can to avoid hock sores. I know some barn owners don't like a horse to have lot of bedding, so you may have to offer to buy your own to bring in. I've found that a pelleted bedding that fluffs with water is the most economical if you need to use a lot.

With the hot issue, you could try any variety of the calming products from SmartPak, but I haven't seen much improvement with the horses I know who are on it. I'm assuming that you cut her grain as much as possible; I've seen the best results with horses who are on as little grain as possible + a good calming product (Perfect Prep and Calm and Cool work well for short term, both are paste) + whatever physical activity she can handle.

Good luck and I hope your girl recovers quickly.

[midnightsecret]

Yes, her grain has been cut (a lot).

Thanks for the suggestions! I hope she recovers soon too.