What Is Curbing A Horse?

Curb in horses is defined as injury to the soft tissue behind the hock. It is a collection of injuries rather than one specific injury and this collection of injuries usually involves the hock.

Why do horses get curbs?

Excessive work or an active lifestyle (e.g., hunting, jumping, pulling heavy loads) may all lead to curb due to the strain on the plantar tarsal ligament. Other possible causes include poor conformation of the hock such as: Sickle hock – irregularly angled hock.

How do you treat a horse curb?

In most cases, treatment involves local anti-inflammatory therapy and NSAIDs in the acute phase and then rest and a controlled exercise program thereafter.

What is a Thoroughpin in horses?

Thoroughpin is a visible sign of swelling of the tarsal sheath, which is the fluid-filled sac that encloses and lubricates the deep digital flexor tendon as it passes through the hock. The space that the tendons travel through is also known as the tarsal canal.

What causes capped hocks in horses?

Capped hock is due to distention of the subcutaneous bursa or development of an acquired bursa over the tuber calcanei. This usually results from repetitive trauma (eg, kicking or leaning on stable walls) and is not usually associated with lameness.

What is a curbed hock?

A curb, or curby hocks, is a condition resulting from enlargement of the plantar ligament that runs along the back of the hock. This may be seen in horses with malformed hocks in which the small bones in the joint are not aligned properly with the cannon bone in the lower leg.

What are Windgalls in horses?

‘Windgall’ is a term commonly used by vets and owners to describe fluid swellings behind the fetlock in horses and ponies. While in many cases they are considered non-painful blemishes, it is important to understand why they occur and when they should be investigated, as they could affect your horse’s future soundness.

What does the Ceacum do in horses?

The equine cecum serves as a storage site for water and electrolytes. Fiber consumption can increase water consumption, and the extra water is held in the cecum until absorption. The additional water adds some weight to your horse, but it helps replace crucial electrolytes lost from heavy sweating.

What is a horse bleeder?

For over 300 years, horse riders have seen blood at the nostrils during or soon after performance work in a percentage of athletically trained horses. The condition has been named Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage or EIPH and affected horses are commonly known as “bleeders”.

What are Ethmoids in horses?

The ethmoid turbinates are a structure in the horse’s upper airway that is partially in the sinus and an partially in the nasal passages. Clinical signs include blood tinged nasal discharge from one or both nostrils. This can be seen when the horse is at rest or when the horse is exercising.

Can you ride a horse with capped hocks?

An uncomplicated capped hock is considered to be only a cosmetic problem for the horse, and will not affect athletic performance. However, if there are underlying complications, such as infection or damage to nearby bony or soft tissue structures, there may be a detrimental effect on performance.

Can you fix a capped hock?

Usually, no treatment is required for capped hock, particularly if your horse is not lame and if there is no wound. In cases where treatment is advised for cosmetic reasons, there is no uniformly successful treatment and many cases are not responsive to any form of treatment.

What causes fluid in hocks?

One or both hocks may be affected. It is more commonly seen in younger horses, although it can occur at any age. The increase in fluid can be the result of injury (trauma), degeneration of bone or cartilage in the joint (OCD), or joint infection (septic arthritis).

How do I know if my horse has hock problems?

Common signs of hock problems can include:

• Shortened hind end gait.
• Reluctance to engage from the hind end.
• Reduced spring over jumps.
• Shifting weight when standing still.
• Resistance to going downhill.
• Stiffness that resolves during warm-up.
• Heat and swelling in the hock area.

Can a horse recover from a hock injury?

Typically, this takes between six and nine months, although a mild mechanical lameness should be expected long term. In those horses unable to return to work, most will become pasture sound.

How do you get rid of a swollen hock?

Cold-hosing and anti-inflammatory treatments, such as phenylbutazone (commonly termed bute) or meloxicam, will help in the early stages, in consultation with your vet. Bandaging can bring swelling down, but the hock is a difficult area to bandage properly and skin sores are a risk.

When should I worry about Windgalls?

If heat and lameness are present, the enlarged windgall is most likely ‘inflammatory’ – a more worrying development indicating underlying injury. An inflammatory tendinous windgall usually affects one leg more than the others and is likely to be accompanied by a degree of lameness, although this may be subtle at first.

Should I worry about Windgalls?

Windgalls without lameness are common and usually only a concern for cosmetic reasons – they’re likely to be the result of wear and tear. Injury to the digital flexor tendon within the sheath will cause a more problematic windgall, and lameness, and this is known as inflammatory tenosynovitis.

Can Windpuffs make a horse lame?

Most windpuffs don’t cause pain. They are simply extra fluid, creating a soft enlargement. “If there is any heat, pain or lameness associated with the swelling, there is something pathologic that needs to be addressed,” McClure says.

Can cecum cause pain?

An uncommon condition, a cecal volvulus occurs when your cecum and ascending colon twist, causing an obstruction that blocks the passage of stool through your bowels. This torsion can lead to abdominal pain, swelling, cramps, nausea, and vomiting.

Why can’t horses throw up?

Horses also have a weak gag reflex. And finally, their anatomy, with the stomach and esophagus joined at a lower angle than in many animals, would make it difficult for vomit to travel up and out of a horse.